success. The film failed at the box-office, and many other sports-related films had failed since because sports fans do not necessarily go to the movies when filmmakers want them to go. Tin Cup thus needed something more as a selling point to hedge against the golfers who might prefer to be on the links to being at the local theater.
In the selling of the film, the golf element was not hidden, but neither was it featured. What was played up in the ads was the romantic element and the triangle among the principles, Kevin Costner, Rene Russo, and Don Johnson. The film was very much star-driven in this sense, and certainly one of the reasons the film was made was because Kevin Costner wanted to play the part. He and Shelton had worked together before on Bull Durham, and there are plot points common to the two films. In each, Costner is a professional who has seen better days and who would like to return to the big time
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