Apple’s Golf Comedy Series Is Starting To Painfully Lack Authenticity & Effect In Sports & Humor

WARNING: SPOILERS ahead for Stick season 1, episode 4.

I never expected Apple TV+’s golf comedy series Stick to dive deep into the various mechanisms and strategies of golf, but its surface-level portrayal of the sport in episode 4 greatly works against what the show is trying to achieve. Described as an idealized Ted Lasso replacement with a similar wave of forced optimism as Shrinking, Stick is almost too familiar with its predictable story and style, which becomes incredibly apparent with its fourth episode.

Between its overly cheery soundtrack that feels like it was taken from House Hunters or Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, Stick tries too hard to be a comfortable watch, making it anything but. Even after just four episodes of Stick, it becomes such a derivative and safe “insert sport here” filler series as fans wait for Ted Lasso season 4. Golf is nearly an irrelevant afterthought in Stick episode 4 and provides only a backdrop to the often melodramatic challenges that arise between characters.

The exact same plot elements and character developments that happened in episode 4 could have happened in a bowling-themed series called Strike or a basketball-focused series titled Score. Stick is the television equivalent of a fast food chain’s marketing campaign to revamp its signature French fries. Despite rebranding, they still taste the same: classic, reliable, and dull.

Stick Episode 4 Trades Golf Lessons For Self-Imposed Life Lessons

Episode 4 Proves That This Is Not A Show For True Golf Fans

No one who watches Stick is expecting Owen Wilson to be a golf pro, but it would add to the authenticity and immersion of the series to see him at least swing a club. It would also make his various PGA trophies and front-page headlines showcasing him winning major championships, as seen in Stick episode 1, just a bit more convincing. Even Adam Sandler had a signature swing in Happy Gilmore.

Apart from what we are told about Wilson’s Pryce Cahill, there’s virtually nothing that distinguishes him from some of his more famous roles, such as Josh Beckwith in Wedding Crashers. In Stick, he’s just older and masks Pryce’s desperation with passion.

Episode 4 of Stick becomes overly explanatory through dialogue and veers into being a bit preachy, especially during the corrective conversations between Gen Z and Boomer characters.

Besides the lack of golf elements, the actual drama in Stick episode 4 is slow and underwhelming. We learn the tragic details of how Pryce’s son Jett died from cancer when he was just four years old and how that led to Pryce’s explosive fallout from professional golf. Timothy Olyphant’s villainous Clark Ross is introduced, and more backstory is explained about his feud with Pryce by Marc Maron’s cantankerous character. Episode 4 becomes overly explanatory through dialogue and veers into being a bit preachy, especially during the corrective conversations between Gen Z and Boomer characters.

I’m Beginning To Worry That Stick Is A Swing & A Miss

Episode 4 Missed The Cut With Its Melodramatic Plot & Flat Character Developments

Stick started off with a lot of promise, but is already feeling like it’s going off course. Things get personal and messy, which is on-brand for the type of show it’s trying to be, but there’s not much humor or interesting developments to actually sink your teeth into. Stick wants to get away with presenting the aesthetic formula of a feel-good show, but I’m mostly frustrated by how bland Stick episode 4 ended up being. This is largely due to its flat characters and the lack of actual stakes between them at this stage.

There’s certainly an audience for Stick, but I’m starting to believe it’s not the one that its trailer, featuring PGA pros Colin Morikawa and Max Homa, aimed to appeal to.

Zero, played by Lilli Kay, seems to exist only to make the older characters’ heads spin and relentlessly rewrite their outdated comprehension of the world. Pete Sager’s Santi, a supposed golf phenom who hilariously doesn’t want to play golf, loses credibility when he suddenly bends his entire will to match all of Zero’s beliefs after just meeting her days prior. Zero passes judgment and makes exhausting points about everything. She criticizes grilling steaks because of how livestock production causes greenhouse gas emissions, and claims that Pryce crosses an apparent boundary into Santi’s safe space by trying to apologize to him.

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The three-episode premiere of Owen Wilson’s Stick introduced plenty of characters and possibilities for the Apple TV+ golf comedy’s next episodes.

Zero tirelessly sounds alarms from her moral high ground, and her abrupt, nearly motherly, sense of protection over Santi doesn’t quite add up. Like the ventriloquist to Santi’s puppet, she carries an arrogant sense of superiority over Santi’s best interests and skews Pryce’s attempts to motivate him with misplaced anti-capitalist jargon. This really takes away from the solid cast chemistry that was established in the first three episodes of Stick. Zero would be much better utilized offering more advice about how Santi can swing a golf club, which she apparently will be doing as his caddie in episode 5.

There’s certainly an audience for Stick, but I’m starting to believe it’s not the one that its trailer, featuring PGA pros Colin Morikawa and Max Homa, aimed to appeal to. I’m sure Stick will get back on the golf course in no time, but episode 4 was a rough outing that may have ultimately missed the cut for some viewers.

Stick Season 1, Episode 4

5/10

Release Date

June 4, 2025

Network

Apple TV+

Pros & Cons

• Stick season 1 still has 6 episodes to go and could improve

• Stick deters too far from its promising golf-centric premise
• Stick’s characters fall flat as its story veers into melodrama
• For a comedy, Stick episode 4 has few, if any, laughs