Stick is a sports comedy that understands a crucial truth most golf movies miss. The game itself is boring television unless you’re using it as a delivery system for bruised egos, quiet desperation, and the slow rot of masculinity. Stick gets that. It’s not really about golf. It’s about what happens to men when their one good thing expires and they’re left carrying the receipt.
Owen Wilson plays Pryce “Stick” Cahill, a former golf pro whose career flamed out years ago and who now survives on a cocktail of nostalgia, resentment, and bad decisions. Wilson, working in a register closer to Loki than Wedding Crashers, gives Pryce a soft melancholy that fits the show’s tone.
The engine of the series is Pryce’s relationship with Santi Wheeler, played by Peter Dager, a teenage golf prodigy with talent to burn and patience to spare. Their dynamic follows familiar mentor-protégé grooves, but Stick keeps it from feeling stale by refusing to make Pryce particularly wise. He’s not passing down hard-earned enlightenment so much as unloading unresolved baggage. Judy Greer, reliably excellent, plays Pryce’s ex-wife Amber-Linn, grounding the series with a clarity the men conspicuously lack.
Visually, the show leans into clean compositions and sunlit courses that contrast nicely with its emotional clutter. Director Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, veterans of character-driven oddities, understand that the real tension happens in silences between swings. The score stays mostly out of the way, which is wise. Golf already has enough quiet.
The shortcomings are real. The pacing can sag, and some episodes feel like they’re circling emotional beats rather than advancing them. A few supporting characters drift in and out without leaving much of an impression.
Still, Stick works because it knows its limits. It’s not trying to reinvent sports television. It’s content to be a thoughtful hangout show about failure, mentorship, and the lie we tell ourselves that the next round will fix everything. Spoiler: it won’t. But watching Pryce Cahill try anyway is oddly compelling.
RHFC Rating: 7.5/10 🍿
