The Short Game Review: Golf Film Falls Short

The Short Game has the heart of a small sports movie, but it falls back on too many contrivances to hit nearly as hard as it swings.

Fortunately, Ethan proves adept enough at judging golf shots to serve as Jeremy’s caddy, and Jeremy also has the support of his best friends Tommy (Tyler Lofton) and aspiring documentarian Carly (Emma Parks). But he faces opposition in the form of his rival Bruce (Adyn Alexander) and his own deficient short game.

I wanted to watch The Short Game for one main reason: the presence of an autistic child. As someone who grew up on the spectrum myself, I’m always curious about how someone in that demographic is represented in fiction. And while I’m not an expert, The Short Game’s portrayal seems authentic enough. Writer/director Frank Sanza has an autistic son, so that definitely helped, and Ethan is written in a way that’s grounded while still addressing the distinct and often difficult mannerisms you’d see in a kid like him. This is a very gentle portrayal atof someone on the spectrum, and I appreciate that.

I’m focusing on this aspect so heavily because the rest of the movie evoked no strong reaction from me whatsoever. The Short Game is a well-meaning movie with an unabashedly positive outlook on the world, but it doesn’t translate that into a fresh viewing experience or even one that feels organic. The dialogue consists of either the most generically stock lines you’d expect in any underdog sports movie or family drama, or it’s so in-your-face about the messaging and themes that the meaning doesn’t hit like it should. 

Tommy is saddled with the worst examples. Nearly every line from him is some overly whimsical piece of advice you’d find in a fortune cookie. Or he’s got plain weird things to say like, “I think Heaven’s gonna have a statistics library, and obviously it’s gonna be killer accurate.” There’s a character who shows up for exactly one scene simply to say how the most important things in life can’t be found in a trophy case… and that’s it. It doesn’t help that the direction can’t elevate any of the writing, with every performance being the baseline definition of alright. The score from Brandon Maahs, though fine on its own, is overbearingly used to try and make every moment feel super important.

The Short Game delves into clichéd territory it really doesn’t need to tackle, like the inclusion of Adyn Alexander’s rival character. His only function is to be a jerk, the bad guy of the story who hates Jeremy because he does. He’s even got the overly competitive, domineering father that seems to come packaged with a lot of these bully archetypes. There’s also a massive tragedy in the middle of the story that sends The Short Game through a chain of every possible scene you’d imagine following a turn like this. It adds emotional stakes to the endgame, sure, but we’ve seen these stakes done so much better. Plus, they only detract from what this movie could have been.

Ethan may be handled fine as a character, but his connection with Jeremy is underbaked. They don’t spend much quality time together that doesn’t involve the bigger picture, meaning you don’t get a strong feel for why they love each other beyond just being brothers. There are moments, but they’re unable to thrive beneath the glossy coating and plethora of pointless sports tropes. Had The Short Game embraced its status as a small film about a kid who just wants to succeed, taken out the movie-like contrivances, and further developed the small interactions as well as harsh realities, the film may have come across as much more genuine. As a result, the moments that are supposed to feel big – at least in the main family’s lives – would have been made all the more engrossing.

The Short Game is also kind of a Christian movie, with biblical references and talks of God sprinkled throughout. But unless the mere mention of religion is enough to make your head explode, the movie is perfectly fine in this regard. Like the portrayal of autism, it feels like something Sanza connects with, holds dear, but knows how to handle with grace. Which makes it even sadder when he can’t bring that same authenticity to the film as a whole.

The Short Game has nothing outright awful in it, but it excels at nothing and has so many middling components that it falls short of its ambitions. It looks nice enough, is decently edited, and even has a couple of memorable shots, especially the opening one. But as has happened to many golfers, the most earnest attempts still result in a bogey.

The Short Game will be released in US theaters on August 29, 2025.