"That's the stuff. One shot at a time."

Rating: 8/10 (23 July 2019)

As with many films I didn't care about seeing when it originally came out, I took a look at this one the other night and turns out I liked it well enough. I'm not a golfer, so it was the human interest element that intrigued me, and the perseverance shown by amateur golfer Francis Ouimet (Shia LaBeouf) to compete against the royalty of British golf at the U.S. Open Championship of 1913. I thought at some point that Francis would have approached Harry Vardon (Stephen Dillane) to let him know that it was Vardon's inspiration that led him take up the sport when he was just a young lad. I kept waiting for it and have to wonder why the film makers didn't include it in the story. Perhaps it never happened for real, but it would have been a nice touch in the story.
The performance I really got a kick out of was that of Josh Flitter portraying the young Eddie Lowery, who became Francis's caddie by default when older brother Jack got sidelined. He was more self assured and seemed to know more about golf than a ten year old should have, and by his confidence and composure managed to keep Francis's head in the game. The other notable character was Francis's mother (Marnie McPhail), who seemed to have some eerie telepathic link to her son by responding to every chorus of cheers emanating from the U.S. Open matches.
The film's best moment for me was when Francis demonstrated his loyalty to Eddie by keeping him on as caddie for the playoff round against Vardon and fellow Brit Ted Ray (Stephen Marcus). That's the stuff that's more valuable than winning championships or making a lot of money, and as the closing credits mentioned, the pair in real life remained friends long after the U.S. Open of 1913 came to an end. It was also commendable the way British champ Vardon congratulated Francis on his big win, showing a lot more class than most of his fellow countrymen.