High school student Danny Noonan is anxious about his future. He hopes to go to college to avoid being stuck in a menial job with no prospects, but he is struggling to financially cover tuition.

Danny works as a caddie at the exclusive Bushwood country club catering to affluent clientele. Though he usually caddies for Ty Webb, a talented golfer and the free-spirited playboy son of the club's co-founder, Danny volunteers to caddie for the arrogant Judge Elihu Smails, the club's other co-founder and director of the caddie college scholarship program.

Meanwhile, mentally unstable greenskeeper Carl Spackler is tasked with exterminating a destructive gopher driven onto the course by work on the adjacent property development owned by Al Czervik. The fiery and eccentric nouveau riche developer attends the club as a guest, but his antics quickly annoy Smails.

After one encounter, Smails angrily throws his putter, injuring an elderly guest. Danny takes the blame for the incident to earn points with Smails. At Bushwood's annual Fourth of July banquet, Danny and his girlfriend Maggie work as wait staff. He becomes attracted to Smails's promiscuous niece Lacey Underall, who is visiting for the summer; she and Webb have a brief encounter.

Later, Danny wins the Caddie Day golf tournament, earning him an invitation from Smails to attend the christening ceremony for his boat at the nearby Rolling Lakes Yacht Club. There, Czervik disrupts the ceremony and accidentally destroys the boat, while Lacey seduces Danny and they have sex in Smails' house.

Smails returns home and catches them, enraging him as he chases Danny out of the house. Expecting to be fired and have the scholarship revoked, he is surprised when Smails only demands that he keeps the misadventure a secret in exchange for receiving the scholarship.

Unable to tolerate the uncouth Czervik's presence any longer, Smails announces that Czervik will never be granted membership. Czervik counters that he would never consider being a member and is only interested in buying the club. After an exchange of insults, Czervik proposes a team golf match with Smails and his regular golfing partner Dr. Beeper against Czervik and Webb.

Although Webb is reluctant to play for money, he agrees to join, and antagonizes Smails by saying that Webb's father never liked Smails. Against club rules, they agree to a $20,000 wager on the match, which quickly doubles to $40,000.

During the match the following day, Danny caddies for Smails but becomes frustrated with his constant cheating. Word of the wager spreads, drawing a crowd of club members and employees to observe the game. Smails and Beeper take the lead while both Czervik and Webb struggle.

Czervik reacts to Smails' heckling by impulsively doubling the wager to $80,000 per team. When his own ricocheting ball strikes his arm, Czervik feigns an injury in hopes of having the contest declared a draw but learns his team will forfeit unless they find a substitute. Webb selects Danny, which prompts Smails to revoke the scholarship, but after Czervik promises to compensate him if they win, he readily agrees to take Czervik's place.

At the final hole, the score is tied. Judge Smails scores a birdie, requiring Danny to complete a difficult putt to draw even. Czervik raises the bet, offering double or nothing on Danny making the putt, which Smails accepts. Danny's putt leaves the ball teetering over the edge of the hole, seemingly costing him the game.

At that moment, in his latest attempt to kill the gopher, Carl detonates plastic explosives that he has rigged around the golf course, shaking the ground and causing the ball to drop into the hole, handing Danny, Webb, and Czervik victory. Meanwhile, Carl coyly leaves the area after seeing the destruction his explosives have caused.

Czervik demands the money from Smails, who refuses to honor the bet. Figuring this would happen, Czervik sends enforcers after him to ensure he pays up. Afterwards, he tells the crowd gathered at the main house that they are all going to get laid. The crowd celebrates.

Elsewhere on the course, the gopher emerges from underground unharmed and dances to the song "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins.

The film was inspired by writer and co-star Brian Doyle-Murray's memories of working as a caddie at Indian Hill Club in Winnetka, Illinois. His brothers Bill and John Murray (production assistant and a caddy extra) and director Harold Ramis also had worked as caddies when they were teenagers. Many of the characters in the film were based on characters they had encountered through their various experiences at the club, including a young woman upon whom the character of Maggie is based and the Haverkamps, a doddering old couple, John and Ilma, longtime members of the club, who can barely hit the ball out of their shadows. The scene in which Al Czervik hits Judge Smails in the genitals with a struck golf ball happened to Ramis on what he said was the second of his two rounds of golf, on a nine-hole public course.^[7]

The film was shot over eleven weeks during the autumn of 1979; Hurricane David in early September delayed production. Golf scenes were filmed at the Rolling Hills Golf Club (now the Grande Oaks Golf Club) in Davie, Florida.^[8] According to Ramis, Rolling Hills was chosen because the course did not have any palm trees. He wanted the film to feel that it was in the Midwest, not Florida. The explosions that take place during the climax of the film were reported at the nearby Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport by an incoming pilot, who suspected that a plane had crashed.^[9] The Fourth of July dinner-and-dancing scene was filmed at the Boca Raton Hotel and Club in Boca Raton, Florida.

The scene that begins when Ty Webb's golf ball crashes into Carl Spackler's shack was not in the original script. It was added by director Harold Ramis after realizing that two of his biggest stars, Chevy Chase and Bill Murray, did not appear in a scene together. The three met for lunch and wrote the scene. While there were some worries about how Chase and Murray would act around one another, due to their rivalry while working together on Saturday Night Live, the two remained friendly and professional with one another throughout the whole writing and filming of the scene. This is the only film in which Chase and Murray have appeared together.^[10]

Murray improvised much of the "Cinderella story" scene based on two lines of stage direction. Ramis gave him direction to act as a child. Murray hit flowers with a grass whip while fantasizing aloud about winning the Masters Tournament, a major golf tournament.^[10] Murray was with the production only six days, and his lines were largely unscripted.^[7] Murray was working on Saturday Night Live at the time, and was not intended to have a large role but his part "mushroomed" and he was repeatedly recalled from New York to film additional scenes as production continued.^[11]

Cindy Morgan said that a massage scene with Chevy Chase was improvised, and her reaction to Chase dousing her back with the massage oil, where she exclaimed "You're crazy!" was genuine.^[12] A scene in which her character dove into the pool was acted by a professional diver. Before the diver took over, she was led to the diving board by the crew and carefully directed up the ladder since she could not wear her contact lenses near the pool and was legally blind without them.^[13]

A deal was made with John Dykstra's^[10] effects company for visual effects, including lightning, stormy sky effects, flying golf balls and disappearing greens' flags. The gopher was part of the effects package. Dykstra's technicians added hydraulic animation to the puppet, including ear movement, and built the tunnels through which it moved.

The production became infamous for the amount of drug usage which occurred on set, with supporting actor Peter Berkrot describing cocaine as "the fuel that kept the film running."^[14]

• Noonan house – 232 North Avenue 54, Los Angeles
• Bushwood gates – West Gate, Bel Air
• Bushwood Country Club – Rolling Hills Golf Club, Davie, Florida (now Grande Oaks Golf Club)
• Bushwood pool – Plantation Preserve Golf Course, Plantation, Florida
• Czervik Condominiums – Century Hill Condominiums, Los Angeles (from Galaxy Way)
• Rolling Lake Yacht Club – Rusty Pelican restaurant, Miami
• Smails house – 4531 NE 25th Street, Fort Lauderdale^[15][16]

Caddyshack was released on July 25, 1980,^[17] in 656 theaters, and grossed $3.1 million during its opening weekend; it went on to make $39,846,344 in North America,^[18] and $60 million worldwide.^[1]

The film was met with underwhelming reviews in its original release,^[19] with criticism towards the disorganized plot, though Dangerfield's, Chase's, and Murray's comic performances were well received. Roger Ebert gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote, "Caddyshack feels more like a movie that was written rather loosely, so that when shooting began there was freedom—too much freedom—for it to wander off in all directions in search of comic inspiration."^[20] Gene Siskel gave the film three out of four stars, saying it was "funny about half of the time it tries to be, which is a pretty good average for a comedy."^[21] Dave Kehr, in his review for the Chicago Reader, wrote, "The first-time director, Harold Ramis, can't hold it together: the picture lurches from style to style (including some ill-placed whimsy with a gopher puppet) and collapses somewhere between sitcom and sketch farce."^[22] Vincent Canby gave it a mixed review in The New York Times, describing it as "A pleasantly loose-limbed sort of movie with some comic moments, most of them belonging to Mr. Dangerfield."^[23]

Nevertheless, the film has gained a cult following in the years after its release and has been positively reappraised by many film critics.^[24] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 73% based on 62 reviews, with an average score of 6.60/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though unabashedly crude and juvenile, Caddyshack nevertheless scores with its classic slapstick, unforgettable characters, and endlessly quotable dialogue."^[25] On Metacritic, the film received a score of 48 based on 12 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.^[26]

Christopher Null gave the film four stars out of five in his 2005 review, and wrote, "They don't make 'em like this anymore … The plot wanders around the golf course and involves a half-dozen elements, but if you simply dig the gopher, the caddy, and the Dangerfield, you're not going to be doing half bad."^[27]

Ramis noted in the DVD documentary that TV Guide had originally given the film two stars (out of four) when it began showing on cable television in the early 1980s, but over time the rating had gone up to three stars. In 2009, he said, "I can barely watch it. All I see are a bunch of compromises and things that could have been better," such as the poor golf swings of everyone, except for O'Keefe.^[28]

Denmark was the only place outside the United States where Caddyshack was initially a hit. The distributor had cut 20 minutes to emphasize Bill Murray's role.^[29]

This film is also second on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies."^[30]

The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:

• 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #71^[31]
• 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
  • Carl Spackler: "Cinderella story. Outta nowhere. A former greenskeeper, now, about to become the Masters champion. It looks like a mirac... It's in the hole! It's in the hole! It's in the hole!" – #92^[32]
• 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
  • #7 Sports Film^[33]

In anticipation of the movie, the Kenny Loggins single "I'm Alright" was released nearly three weeks before the movie opened and became a top ten hit the last week of September 1980.^[34] CBS Records also issued a soundtrack to Caddyshack later that year. It included ten songs, four of which were performed by Kenny Loggins, including "I'm Alright."

There was a sequel called Caddyshack II (1988) which performed poorly at the box office and is considered one of the worst sequels of all time.^[35] Only Chevy Chase reprised his role.

In 2007, Taylor Trade Publishing released The Book of Caddyshack, an illustrated paperback retrospective of the movie, with cast and crew Q&A interviews. The book was written by Scott Martin.^{[36][better source needed]}

In April 2018, Flatiron Books published Caddyshack: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story by Chris Nashawaty, detailing the making of the film.^[37]

On June 7, 2001, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray and their brothers opened a themed restaurant inspired by the film at the World Golf Village, near St. Augustine, Florida. The restaurant is meant to resemble the fictional Bushwood Country Club, and serves primarily American cuisine. The brothers are all active partners and make occasional appearances at the restaurant. Three more Caddyshack restaurants were opened, in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Orlando; and Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. These are now closed, leaving the original in St. Augustine their flagship location, open to fans and diners.^[38]

Bill Murray and two of his brothers, Andy and Joel, were in attendance when another venue opened in Rosemont, Illinois, in April 2018.^[39]

Many of the film's quotes are part of popular culture, with many fans able to recite the movie line for line^[40] and merchandise is still licensed and sold by several companies as of 2024.^[41][42] FunkoPop produced several figures in 2019, as well as a set exclusive to Target.^[43]

Tiger Woods said^[44] that he liked the film, and played Spackler in an American Express commercial based on the film.^[45]

The University of Minnesota uses part of the film as a dance sport ritual for athletics, encouraging fans at collegiate sports games to "Do the Gopher" and imitate the dancing gopher,^[46] referenced because of mascot Goldy Gopher.

In 2016, Bret Baier in a Fox News interview asked the Dalai Lama whether he had seen the movie, referencing a scene where the Dalai Lama is mentioned in comical story told by assistant groundkeeper Carl Spackler. The Dalai Lama responded he had not seen the movie, and while he had played badminton, he had never played golf.^[47]

A 2023 Super Bowl commercial for alcohol brand Michelob featured modern athletes recreating scenes from the film.^[48]