It’s not every day that golfers are treated to a movie about their sport, so they rejoice at every crumb from Hollywood’s table — or recoil from it. The latest such crumb is Tin Cup, a Kevin Costner vehicle about a no- account practice-range operator who gets it together and shines at the U.S. Open. So golfers at last have their Rocky (sort of). But unlike the original, this one won’t win any prizes, and shouldn’t.

Tin Cup was anxiously awaited in the golf world for over a year, and the golf press reported on every stage of its development: the hiring of the Bull Durham team of director Ron Shelton and leading man Costner; the tutoring of Costner by journeyman pro and TV announcer Gary McCord; the actor’s progress; the effort to achieve an air of authenticity by giving cameos to a host of PGA Tour players. The Internet’s most prominent golf site created a special sub-site just for the movie. Golf magazine put it this way in its August issue: “All right, this is the last you’ll hear from us about the movie, due out this month.”