‘Saturday Night Live’ Did a Golf Sketch and It Was Surprisingly Funny

The comedy show spoofed golf in its latest episode, and the result was ... good?

Jeff Ritter | 3 Hours Ago

Things quickly go wrong for the golfer in SNL's latest golf sketch. / YouTube

Golf has had a big news year, and Saturday Night Live has noticed.

The revered comedy show did a golf sketch on Saturday night, but rather than delve into any of pro golf’s real-life off-course dramas, the writers came up with a clever new way to address some of the follies that golfers could face these days: accidentally killing animals.

Comedian Nate Bargatze, who hosted the episode, stars in the sketch as fictitious golfer Brady Knoll, who is competing in the “Oakmont Classic” and despite honest attempts to try his best, continues to maim and kill a series of animals, including a bird, turtle and nest of bald eagles.

“Obviously I did not do that on purpose,” Bargatze’s Knoll says after one fatal wayward shot. “I don’t think I could do that on purpose.”

As the sketch plays out, the gallery turns on Knoll and a Nike representative appears out of nowhere to cover the company’s swoosh logo on Knoll’s hat and polo.

It’s not easy to do comedy and golf—if it was, there’d probably a be a decent comedy since Caddyshack—but this sketch cracked us up, and so we share it here for your amusement. And please be kind to the animals out there.

Published 3 Hours Ago

JEFF RITTER

Jeff Ritter is the managing director of golf content for Sports Illustrated. He has more than 20 years experience in sports media and has covered more than 30 major championships. In 2020 he joined Morning Read to help spark its growth and eventual acquisition by SI in 2022. He helped launch Golf Magazine’s first original, weekly e-magazine and served as its top editor. He also launched Golf's “Films” division, the magazine’s first long-form video storytelling franchise, and his debut documentary received an Edward R. Murrow Award for sports reporting. Ritter has earned first-place awards for his work from the Society of American Travel Writers, the MIN Magazine Awards and the Golf Writers Association of America. He received a bachelor’s from the University of Michigan and a master’s from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. A native Michigander, he remains a die-hard Wolverines fan and will defend Jim Harbaugh until the bitter end.