| “ | Shooter: You're in big trouble though, pal. I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast! Happy: You eat pieces of shit for breakfast? Shooter: ...NO! |
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| ~ Shooter McGavin's most famous and ridiculous quote. |
Shooter McGavin is the main antagonist of the 1996 sports comedy film, Happy Gilmore, and the tritagonist of its 2025 Netflix sequel, Happy Gilmore 2.
He is a talented but incredibly arrogant sportsman who delights in winning lots of money and praise while firing his caddies at will. He is also the former arch-nemesis of the titular character.
He was portrayed by Christopher McDonald, who also played Wilson Croft in Flubber, Kerr in Terminal Velocity, Travis Cole in Dirty Work, Kent Mansley in The Iron Giant, Harold Coyle in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, and Hourglass in Superhero Movie.
Quick Answers
What makes Shooter McGavin the main antagonist in Happy Gilmore?
How does Shooter McGavin's arrogance impact his golf career?
What is Shooter McGavin's relationship with Happy Gilmore?
What role does Christopher McDonald play in portraying Shooter McGavin?
Biography
Shooter's villainy is mainly in his total inability to play nice when it comes to someone that may be better than himself: his tactics went way beyond the usual cheating of arrogant rivals as well since he hired a stalker to harass his opponent and committed all manner of crazy stunts to try and ruin Gilmore's chance at success. He allowed his jealousy and egotism to completely erode what few traces of honesty, good sportsmanship, and even just basic ethics he may have once possessed.
Furthermore, he has no problem with using people as his pawns to further his aims. For instance, Shooter professes some form of friendship with his henchman Donald, but it is clear that this is a lie: He really does not seem to like him very much at all, and only even talks to him when he's trying to persuade Donald to help him wreck Happy's chance at winning the championship.
He was also prone to trying to act like a schoolyard bully but his attempts at intimidation often backfired (as seen above). Also noted at the end his villainy became his downfall when he tried to take Gilmore's grandmother's house. Gilmore beats him in the championship, causing Shooter to lose the game.
Shooter, in a fit of hysterical, envious rage, steals Gilmore's Golden Jacket and attempts to run off with it. However, Shooter doesn't make it very far before he is caught and quite severely beaten up (off screen) by Gilmore's old boss, Mr. Larson, and a mob of angry spectators.
In the sequel, it was revealed that Shooter was committed and when he was up for parole, he tried to play it cool, saying that if he would encounter Happy again, he wouldn't do anything but when one of the parole board members brought up the golden jacket, he became enraged and vowed to get revenge, resulting in him losing his chance to be released.
Later while reading The Shining, one of the orderlies informed him that he has been let go and was free, where he encountered Frank Manatee, who offered him a chance to compete in a new golf league called Maxi Golf, where upon learning the truth, involve having the golfers' iliolumbar ligament severed, he rejected the offer and ran off (but not before splashing Frank with hot coffee).
Shooter then encountered Happy in a graveyard, who came to visit Virginia's grave where both briefly fight before calling a truce.
Shooter joins Happy and a few fellow old- school golfing veterans in facing off against the Maxi Golf league, and helps them to ultimately prevail.
In the very end of the film, we learn that Happy and Shooter have both returned to professional golfing, where they will likely face off against each other as quasi- friendly competitors rather than as the bitter enemies they were in the first film.
