How to Play Golf

How to Play Golf is a 1944 Goofy cartoon directed by Jack Kinney.

Plot

An analysis of the game of golf, the Goofy way.

Censorship

A scene where Goofy mimes shooting himself with his finger and somehow ends up actually shooting a bullet out of it is often edited out in TV showings.

Notes

When this short was released, The Film Daily called it "highly hilarious", and gave the following review:

"This, another of Walt Disney's Technicolor cartoons featuring the Goof, is a howl. While the narrator explains how properly to play golf, the Goof attempts to demonstrate. Naturally he does everything wrong, with superb results from a comedy point of view. The technique and animation are noteworthy indeed. Mark this down as a topflight booking of its kind."

Voice Cast

Pinto Colvig - Goofy
Fred Shields - Narrator

Releases

Television

Disneyland, episode #3.6: "Goofy's Cavalcade of Sports"
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, episode #10.23: "In Shape with Von Drake"
The Mouse Factory, episode #1.17: "Sports"
Good Morning, Mickey, episode #60
Mickey's Mouse Tracks, episode #53
Donald's Quack Attack, episode #38
The Ink and Paint Club, episode #1.35: "More Sports Goofy"
Have a Laugh!, episode #60

Home video

Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Volume 4 - Sport Goofy (VHS/laserdisc)
Walt Disney Treasures: The Complete Goofy (DVD)

Have a Laugh! changes

The following scenes were cut from the short version due to time constraints:

The entire first third of the cartoon, with Goofy choosing a club, teeing up the ball, and learning to swing; it opens with Goofy hitting the golf ball to the hole in preparation for the putt.
Part of Goofy sizing up the elements in preparation for the putt with a bomb sight, while the narrator mentions "drift indication, lay of the land, [and] trajectory angle".
Goofy licking the tip of his pencil as part of his "mental calculation".
Goofy pretending to shoot himself with his finger over missing the putt.
Goofy incorrectly hitting the ball so that it lands in the rough, where he learns to "always play the ball where it lies".
Goofy's encounter with a lawn sprinkler as he tries to hit the golf ball from off of it.
The chase with the bull is shortened considerably; it cuts from the run-in with the number 7 flag to Goofy, the stick figure and the bull all arriving at "the 19th hole".