“The Phantom of The Open” (M) *** and a half

THIS British comedy comes with an assurance that It’s based on a true story.

But even if it were the biggest porky in cinema history (and there is no reason to to aver that it’s not), that would not matter. It’s genuinely funny. As the annals of golf would very likely agree.

Maurice Flitcroft died in 2007 aged 77. In the early 1970s when the events of this film began, he was in his mid 40s, making him about 15 years younger than Mark Rylance, the actor who portrays him.

So who, do I hear somebody ask, is Maurice Flitcroft? He played golf. Was he any good at golf ? Well, he holds records for the highest scores that any player achieved in the British Open. 

In 1976, supported by his family and friends, Maurice, a crane operator at the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard, qualified to gain entry to the 1976 British Open, despite never having played a round of golf before. 

Golf purists with long memories and a fondness for the history of the game, may well turn their noses up at Simon Farnaby’s film adapting Scott Murray’s book into a screenplay. But it’s undeniable that the film that director Craig Roberts has made from it is great fun. Doco footage at the end of the closing credits showing the real life Maurice is testament to the validity of its veracity – more or less. 

And it’s certainly not necessary for filmgoers to be golfers to enjoy it. Indeed, sequences scattered through its fabric mock the bureaucrats who view the game from on high as a kind of religion – as many players on the course will attest as they spend the Sabbath playing a round or two.

At all cinemas