Sir Thomas Sean Connery may no longer be with us but the legendary Scottish actor lives on as the quintessential James Bond for many fans of the super-spy film franchise.
As well as being a deadly assassin and suave ladies’ man, Bond was quite the golfer as well in his depiction by Ian Fleming, the author of the Bond novels upon which the movies are based. Indeed, one of the best golf movie scenes ever filmed was the high-stakes match in the 1964 Bond flick Goldfinger, where Bond (played by Connery in his third of seven Bond movies) outwits cheating villain Aurick Goldfinger (played by Gert Frobe).
The scene was shot near England’s iconic Pinewood Studios at Stoke Park Golf Club in Buckinghamshire, a 27-hole parkland layout crafted by Harry Colt in 1908. The fictional setting was called St Mark’s Golf Club, based on Royal St George’s where Fleming – an ardent and accomplished golfer – was a member.
While Edinburgh-born Connery hailed from the birthplace of golf, it was only after filming the Goldfinger golf scene and training for it that he became hooked to the Royal & Ancient Game. A long-standing member of The R&A, the big Scot was a staple in pro-am events for many years and was said to have played every morning as his career wound down, mainly at the exclusive course of the Lyford Cay enclave in The Bahamas where he and wife Micheline have lived since the 1990s.
In his 2008 autobiography, Being A Scot, Connery describes his passion for the game: “I never had a hankering to play golf, despite growing up in Scotland just down the road from Bruntsfield Links, which is one of the oldest golf courses in the world. It wasn’t until I was taught enough golf to look as though I could outwit the accomplished golfer Gert Frobe in Goldfinger that I got the bug. I began to take lessons on a course near Pinewood film studios and was immediately hooked on the game. Soon it would nearly take over my life.
“I began to see golf as a metaphor for living, for in golf you are basically on your own, competing against yourself and always trying to do better. If you cheat, you will be the loser because you are cheating yourself.
He added: “Over the years golf has taught me much and its implicit codes of conduct have provided me with the nearest I have ever come to religion.”
Connery passed away at age 90 on Saturday, October 31.
