Ever wondered about the world of kids’ golf? “The Short Game,” a documentary by director Josh Greenbaum, follows eight children as they prepare for and compete in a three day tournament to crown the seven and eight-year-old World Kids’ Golf Champions in Pinehurst, NC.
The children come from many different countries including the United States, France, China, the Philippines, South Africa and more. Each of the children invited to participate in this tournament has been competing practically since they could walk and have the skills to prove it.
Apart from being world-class golfers, each of the children is also otherwise unique. One child is the younger brother of international tennis superstar Anna Kournikova. Another has a grandfather who is an internationally renowned author. Yet another is a boy with autism.
But even the kids who don’t have athleticism bred into them, a best-selling grandparent or a disability to overcome are still special kids.
What was most endearing about the film was watching the contrast between the intensity with which each child played on the golf course, and the intensity with which each child played with each other.
On the golf course, they were all business. For hours they practiced at driving ranges and putting greens, and they even had work regimens to increase their strength. But when the clubs were put away, they ran around playing tag, threw sand onto each other and giggled a lot — a whole lot.
What was most interesting about the movie was the focus on the relationships between each kid and their parents. Most of the children behaved exactly as their parents trained them.
This was especially true of the girls’ 8-year-old champion. Her daddy/caddy was a “stage parent” of the worst kind. He preached positivity, but his predominant emotion was anger. Her emotional reaction to her faltering performance was directly proportional to her father’s bad attitude.
Nevertheless, there were more positive life lessons being taught than negative. One example was the child with autism, a boys’ 8-year-old champion. He was late for a tee time and received a 10 point penalty, which cost him the win. His mother used this as an opportunity to teach him about playing by the rules. But at the next tournament he competed in, he arrived an hour early and ended up winning the whole thing.
Whether you’re a die-hard golf fan, extreme putt putter, or just interested in the world of kids’ golf, “The Short Game” is a hole-in-one
