From golf greens to silver screens: Cape Fear coach “discovered”

PENDER COUNTY (WWAY) — Golfing with friends, you don’t expect to run into a movie crew. And you certainly don’t expect to get discovered. And yet, that’s exactly what happened at Ironclad Golfing to one basketball coach from the Cape Fear.

Sunday, Ray Beatty and a friend arrived at Ironclad to play golf. Little did the Cape Fear Academy basketball coach know, they’d run into a camera crew.

“And so they’re standing around,” Beatty remembered. “I hit a great shot into the green. And when I get up there I say, ‘What are you guys doing?’ They say, ‘We’re filming a movie.'”

The comedy is about a rag-tag group of guys who try to save their run down golf course. Beatty said producers asked him and his son to come back the next day to be extras.

Monday morning came, Beatty arrived early, and one of the lead actors never showed up.

“And they’re like, ‘Ray, Ray! How would you like to be in the movie?’ And I’m like, ‘yeah, an extra?’ And he said, ‘no no no, a guy didn’t show up. One of the cast members, and we need someone.'”

And just like that, Beatty was in a movie. He plays a gifted golfer not allowed to join a golf club because of the color of his skin, becoming the motley team’s ace in the hole.

“I’ve worn different hats,” Beatty said. “I’ve been in the military. Teaching high school. Coaching high school basketball. And now, I’m acting! Imagine that.”

Filming for Beatty started Monday, and will go until the end of next week. Audiences should get to see his character and the rest of the cast take on the rival team to save their course in about six months.

“Only in Wilmywood would this happen. Maybe I’ll be a big star, like Donna Gregory or somebody like that.”