THE CUT
Set YOUR COURSE words: dan michel
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hen stand-up comedian and longtime golf enthusiast David Wood got the idea to play the world’s most remote golf courses, he risked everything to make it happen.
“I sold my only asset—my condo—put 10 golf clubs in a bag and played 80 rounds over a year,” says Wood. “I wanted to see the world. I had some notion of writing a book [at the time], but really I just wanted to play the courses.” Around the World in 80 Rounds Publisher: CreateSpace
Wood started out at the world’s southernmost course in Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina. From there he played the world’s driest course in the Atacama Desert, an area with no rain in recorded history that uses blue rocks as water hazards. After that things only got hairier. “I then played in La Paz, Bolivia, which was the highest
course, during a civil war,” he says. “I also got arrested at the Ukraine border going from Budapest to Moscow because I didn’t have a visa, so I was held in jail overnight.” Despite run-ins with the law and bouts of sickness along the way, Wood got to play some of the best golf in the world. “I’m a public golfer, so I tried to play where idiots like me play,” he says. “New Zealand is golf heaven. I had the time of my life there. I could live in New Zealand.” Wood says that he wouldn’t have done anything differently about his trip: “Even when I got sick, I wouldn’t want to go through that again, but it gave me great stories.” His next book is a crime novel that intertwines golf and the witness protection program. Let’s just hope he doesn’t immerse himself too much in that project. A
S pring comedies on the silver screen
TAKE ME HOME TONIGHt
YOUR HIGHNESS
PAUL
Perpetually retrofied That ’70s Show star Topher Grace moves his act up to the ’80s to play Matt Franklin, a dweebish, smart-ass MIT graduate trying to figure out his life while working part-time at a video rental store. In a cheeky, comingof-age fashion, Franklin has to go to extraordinary lengths to impress the out-of-his-league girl of his dreams. Set in the summer of 1988, this movie’s saving grace might be the comic relief of up-andcomer Dan Fogler (Balls of Fire), allowing it to escape the fate of most romantic comedies. And let’s face it, they had us at Eddie Money.
Put James Franco, Zooey Deschanel and Natalie Portman in the same movie, and you’ve got one good-looking flick. Add in some Danny McBride, and you’ve got a good-looking film that’s actually worth seeing. In a modern, young-Hollywood twist on the medieval damsel-in-distress tale, Your Highness is a light hearted, sometimes raunchy comedy directed by David Gordon Green, who directed the instant cult-classic Pineapple Express. Green and McBride’s series Eastbound and Down and their previous work together are more than enough to get us into theaters.
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) bring their buddy-comedy charisma back for a third installment, and this time they’ve got a rock-star cast that includes Jane Lynch, Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Jeffrey Tambor and the voices of Seth Rogen and Sigourney Weaver. Rogen voices Paul, a fugitive, extraterrestrial mischief-maker who hitches a ride aboard an RV helmed by UFO enthusiasts Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Golling (Frost). With government agents in hot pursuit, Graeme and Clive must help Paul escape Earth—while breaking for munchies along the way.
Director: Michael Dowse Fubar, It’s All Gone Pete Tong Release Date: March 4
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Director: David Gordon Green Eastbound and Down, Pineapple Express Release Date: April 8
Director: Greg Mottola Superbad, Adventureland Release Date: March 18
Photos: Courtesy of CreateSpace, Relativity and Universal
How one golf nut’s pipe dream turned into a book deal