Adapted from a 2009 post
One of the keys to 1964's Goldfinger was adapting an 18-hole golf match between James Bond and Auric Goldfinger.
The golf match was one of the reasons why Goldfinger was Ian Fleming's longest Bond novel. Paring it down would help make the film version the shortest 007 movie until 2008's Quantum of Solace.
The most significant change: we're only shown the 17th and 18th holes of the match, plus what happens on the putting green of the 16th. Going into the last two holes everything is "all square," so there's plenty of tension for what's to follow.
Other changes: in the novel, Goldfinger's caddy is "an obsequious, talkative man called Foulks whom Bond had never liked." In the film, it's Goldfinger's lead henchman Oddjob and the golf match is the audience's first full look at him; earlier, we had only seen Oddjob's hand as he struck Bond down from behind as well as the villain's shadow.
Also, in the novel, Bond's caddie Hawker discovered how Goldfinger was cheating. Bond asks Hawker how he could possibly know. "Because his ball was lying under my bag of clubs, sir," Hawker tells Bond. "Sorry sir. Had to do it after what he's been doing to you. Wouldn't have mentioned it, but I had to let you know he's fixed you again."
For the film, screenwriters Richard Maibuam and Paul Dehn have Bond discovering the cheating and making Hawker the Greek chorus telling us how smart 007 is.
Finally, in one line in the film, Goldfinger says that golf "is not yet the national game of Korea." In recent decades, Korean golfers such as K.J. Choi, Bae Sang-moon, and Kim Si-woo have joined the PGA tour.
Anyway, see for yourself:
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