The Short Game

Documentary Feature Competition, World Premiere
D: Josh Greenbaum

The Tigress wants to be the female Tiger Woods. Retired tennis star Anna Kournikova’s much younger brother, Allan, brims with goofy confidence. Add a Frenchman, a shy Filipino, a chubby South African, and a Texas girl dressed in pink, and you’ve got a sprawling cast of up-and-coming 7- and 8-year-olds who make The Short Game a surprisingly fun documentary. It follows this motley crew as they take aim at the Kids Golf World Championship in Pinehurst, N.C. What’s – mostly – missing from this picture? Nagging stage parents and children who have grown up too fast. Instead, the film is full of kids who still play like kids off the course and demonstrate a calm beyond their years when the round begins. While a cast of characters this large could easily hinder a doc’s focus, it works perfectly in The Short Game to give both a global view and to show how sports can be a Zen-like calling at any age.

Friday, March 15, 6:30pm, Stateside

This article appears in March 15 • 2013.

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