A Gentleman's Game. It is the summer of 1985, and Timmy Price
(Mason Gamble) is a golf caddy at his father's exclusive country
club. Timmy has quite a swing himself, his mastery of the game
inspires awe among the membership and envy among his peers, including
fellow caddy and friend Jamie Byrne. But under pressure from his well-
meaning, self-made father, as well as the privileged club members,
Timmy soon realizes that it isn't easy being both a rising star and
just another looper in the caddy hole. Under the tutelage of
enigmatic guru Foster Pearse, Timmy hopes to develop a game that will
make him the state junior Champion. But his time with Pearse, and
Jamie's mysterious disappearance, help Timmy realize that life's real
importance lies not in wealth, status symbols, or the ability to fire
low golf scores. He comes to play the game for purity, not prizes,
and in doing so discovers the integrity and humility that bespeak a
real gentleman.

A Gentleman's Game is an unforgettable story of fathers and sons,
class and the pressure to succeed, sportsmanship, friendship, and the
beguiling and bedeviling game of golf.

In an interview with The Daily Times, author Tom Coyne commented
about Mason Gamble. "To see an actor like Mason Gamble speaking my
words is the most amazing feeling in the world." Mason took two
months of intensive golf lessons to prepare for this part. "His swing
looks pretty good," Coyne said. "The key is for him not to react
negatively when he hits a shot two feet. Everything is told by the
expression in his face, not by where the ball ends up."

Filming Notes:
Production began on 16th August 2000 and was completed by late
October 2000. The various locations included – Philadelphia,
Manayunk, Media, Paoli, and Springfield.

A GENTLEMAN'S GAME was written by Tom Coyne. Tom explains to Notre
Dame Magazine how he was approached by Hollywood. Here's what Tom
said:

"On September 23, my 25th birthday, the phone rang as I was on my way
out the door to my birthday dinner. It was the agent, Dan Mandel, and
he told me that a producer in Hollywood had gotten my manuscript
through film scouts and that he couldn't stop raving about it. As my
family went off to dinner without me, I waited for the producer from
Warner Brothers to call. All I knew was that he had an interesting
name -- Mills Goodloe -- and that he had made movies like Lethal
Weapon 3 and 4, Conspiracy Theory, Maverick and Assassins. I could
not fathom what he wanted with my little book.

My conversation with Mills was brief and direct. He asked me what I
was doing tomorrow. "Nothing," I said, "Why, what are you doing?" He
told me he was flying to Philadelphia that night and that tomorrow he
was taking me out to dinner to tell me how he was going to make my
novel into a movie. Needless to say, there was a pretty cheerful
birthday party that evening.

Mills came to town and promised me a lot of things -- that he would
make the movie over the upcoming summer, that he would leave his
job at Warner Brothers to direct it, that I would write the
screenplay, that I would produce the movie along with him, that I
would be involved in every step of the process. And to his credit, he
delivered on every single promise.

In just a few months, there I was in New York and L.A. at casting
sessions, meeting some of my favorite actors, who were sitting in
front of me, reading my lines. I was a novice who had never even been
to L.A. before and I was working with Academy Award-caliber actors
like Philip Baker Hall, Dylan Baker, Mason Gamble and Gary Sinise.

The circumstances became even more surreal when we decided to shoot
the movie in Philadelphia at my golf club and in my house (yes, I
still live at home; I'm the only writer whose mother answers the
phone when Gary Sinise calls). For two months our lives were
transformed as a crew of 80 overtook the Philadelphia suburbs. I
slept in the basement as my own room was turned into the
protagonist's bedroom.

Art was crashing into life as we filmed the movie in the actual
locations that had inspired scenes in the novel. There are more
stories from the production than I could possibly tell here, but
suffice to say that producing a screenplay I wrote based upon my own
novel was not part of the five-year plan. I still have a very hard
time wrapping my mind around all the developments of the past
year." Tom Coyne '97, '99, MFA.