Meet the real life Happy Gilmore who was named after Adam Sandler’s iconic character and has sealed top golf move
HAPPY Gilmore is heading to college – and no, it's not a prequel to the iconic Adam Sandler golf comedy.
Indiana high school star Landon Gilmore, who goes by the name Happy, has officially signed a national letter of intent to play Division I golf at Ball State University in Muncie.
"I was speechless and didn’t really know what to do with myself for a minute.”
Gilmore started going by the name Happy aged nine after he won a long-drive contest at the Pepsi Little People’s Tournament in Illinois.
A year later, he officially entered tournaments as Happy, dropping Landon.
Gilmore has become a highly-prized recruit having been named the 2020 Hurricane Junior Tour player of the year, and runner-up at the Indiana State Junior in 2022.
He has also led Bloomington South High School to a pair of fourth-place finishes, including this year when he finished seventh individually.
Gilmore says he gets weird looks when people find out his name is the same as the iconic character from the Sandler movie.
“But if my golf bag is there and has my name on it, that will kind of help a little bit. But it never fails.
"At some point they will ask me, ‘Is that your real name?’ or ‘How did you get that name?’
"Something along those lines.”
Gilmore says he can recite the movie line by line and reveals his nickname has not held him back.
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“Not at all,” Gilmore says.
"It’d be hard for me to sit here and say it hasn’t [inspired me]. It’s definitely helped me publicity-wise.”