When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. When it gives you the short end of the stick, you turn it into a putter. So goes the philosophy of the kids featured in The Short Game, a new Netflix documentary about pint-sized golfers vying to be the best in the world.
The numbers are impressive: 1,500 golfers, all age eight or under, trek from 54 countries to Pinehurst, N.C., for the World Championships of Junior Golf.
The film, which won the 2013 Audience Award at South by Southwest, hails from genetic lottery winners (and executive producers) Jessica Biel and Justin Timberlake. But the real stars are the eight golfers at the film’s core.
“I want to be the first woman to play a tournament at Augusta because girls are just as good as boys,” says pink-shirted Florida native Alexa Pano, who has won more than 130 golf events.
Allan Kournikova — the floppy-haired brother of tennis player Anna Kournikova — has more concrete plans for any PGA winnings.
“I’m going to buy a golf club,” the No. 1-ranked seven-year-old says. “I’m going to have a big hotel. I’m going to have a really good restaurant with tons of Italian food and all kinds of food. It’s going to be a huge, huge facility. There’s going to be marble …”
You get the idea. Green on the fairway means green in the wallet — it’s a pretty simple colour scheme.
The other competitors are a mixed lot. South African Zamokuhle Nxasana can do a mean ostrich impression, France’s Augustin Valery is the grandson of writer Paul Valéry, and Californian Amari Avery shares the same birthday, county and cultural background as Tiger Woods.
The competitors may ooze discipline and ambition when it comes to golf — daily practice, mindful eating and the like — but off course, they’re just kids. They joke and roughhouse during breaks and have collections of stuffed rabbits. Jed Dy of the Philippines, in particular, loves to curl up with his favourite book, Farts: A Spotter’s Guide.
Admirably, The Short Game runs short on grown-up talking-head types and focuses on the sport’s impact on parents and siblings instead — for better or worse.
“It’s stressful for someone who’s in an average family, doing average things and you’re trying to build a great golfer,” says Avery’s dad.
“How does a C person make an A person? We’re C people. How did Earl [Woods] do it? You always want better for your kid.” Available 12:01 a.m., Netflix
Three to see
• It’s April’s (Sarah Drew) wedding day on Grey’s Anatomy, but the doctors are typically preoccupied with their own drama. The winter finale finds Meredith and Cristina arguing, and Derek getting a life-changing phone call. 9 p.m., CTV, ABC
• Jerry Van Dyke and June Squibb guest-star as Carol’s overbearing parents on The Millers’ Christmas episode. Let the browbeating begin. 8:30 p.m., Global, CBS
• The Big Bang Theory makes like It’s a Wonderful Life, as everyone imagines what their lives would be like if they had never met Sheldon. 8 p.m., CTV, CBS
