Owen Wilson talks new Apple TV+ golf comedy ‘Stick’
While promoting his new golf comedy series, Owen Wilson reveals the funniest golf meltdown he’s ever seen while playing the game with brother Luke.
LOS ANGELES – Owen Wilson readily admits that his golf game was already washed up when he agreed to play over-the-hill pro Pryce Cahill in the comedy “Stick.”
“The Wedding Crashers” star, 56, who says he’s more skilled on tennis or pickleball courts, couldn’t quite relate to the PGA meltdown on national TV that ended Cahill’s promising career in the Apple TV+ series (three episodes now streaming, then weekly on Wednesdays).
“I’ve definitely tossed a tennis racket, but I haven’t gotten good enough at golf to toss a club yet,” Wilson tells USA TODAY. “If I hit a good shot, it’s like, ‘Whoa! Where did that come from?’ Once you get a level of competence where there’s an expectation and then you don’t meet that – that’s when you have a meltdown. But there is something about golf that can drive you crazy.”
Wilson is still working to get to ‘Stick’ golf status
Wilson has his reasons for his subpar game, which never flourished while he was growing up in Dallas, with golf-loving father Robert Wilson and actor brothers, Andrew and Luke Wilson. Owen was left-handed in a right-handed house.
“My dad didn’t see enough in my game to invest in lefty clubs, so I was left to hack away with righty clubs,” he says. “That was my excuse to myself.”
When “Stick” creator Jason Keller rolled up with the series’ boyishly optimistic golf-guru role, Wilson seized the part and pushed himself to improve his game drastically. He hit the links as if it were his full-time job. Working with golf consultant Nathan Leonhardt, however, was more financial strain than golf gain.
“Nathan didn’t give me much. He took my money more,” says Wilson. “We’d bet on shots and putting matches, and he wouldn’t give me much of a handicap.”
Pryce Cahill’s ‘Stick’ meltdown sinks marriage to wife Amber-Linn (Judy Greer)
The actor already possesses the good-natured gravitas of a down-on-his-luck former golf star who still hangs with his loyal caddy Mitts (Marc Maron). Pryce, known as “Stick” for his former prowess, has personal reasons for the TV meltdown 20 years earlier. The nightmare haunts him on YouTube and contributed to the end of his marriage to wife Amber-Linn (Judy Greer).
But he takes a shot at golf redemption, hitting the road to mentor free-swinging phenom Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager) while keeping the peace with Santi’s mother Elena (Mariana Treviño), love interest Zero (Lilli Kay) and Mitts.
When mentor Pryce steps up to hit on camera, Wilson had a blonde-wigged “swing double” professional step in or focused solely on the smooth motion for the camera. “In golf shows, they have you swing a lot without the ball,” he says.
Owen Wilson plays pickleball in Apple TV+ golf series ‘Stick’
“Stick” is about teen golf prodigy Santi Wheeler (Peter Dager) learning from coach Pryce Cahill (Owen Wilson). But there is pickleball.
Wilson has seen Woody Harrelson get burned in pickleball
Wilson feels he’s earned the right to act heated during a “Stick” episode featuring a pickleball match. He’s got skills from being a regular pickleballer at his Maui, Hawaii, home with a group that includes actor Woody Harrelson.
“Woody has played longer than any of us. But still, when someone came to watch us play recently, they asked Woody, ‘Was this your first time today?’ That did not go over well,” Wilson says. “That’d be like someone asking me that same question after seeing me tee off. I’ve been spending 40 hours a week on this game for more than two years.”
Wilson beat pro golfers in a glorious putting contest
After all that practice, Wilson savored tooling around with PGA stars Max Homa, Wyndham Clark and Collin Morikawa, among a slew of “Stick” pro-golfer cameos. While competitively putting with the group, Wilson insists he sank a clutch 10-foot putt that the pros missed. “I made the putt, they didn’t. So that was satisfying,” Wilson says. “That’s one of golf’s alluring things, making a shot that even a pro would be happy with.”
The upstart was brought back to Earth when Morikawa, winner of six PGA tour events, dropped a putt in front of scores of spectators while cameras rolled. “When the pressure was on, in front of a grandstand of extras, Morikawa sank this incredible putt,” Wilson says. “I did not.”
Still, Keller has hopes for Wilson’s golf game that could be unleashed in a potential Season 2. “I just played 18 holes with him. He’s still finding his game, but the golfer I saw Tuesday was a completely different golfer than the one we started with,” he says. “That swing was super smooth.”
An earned golf meltdown is surely within Wilson’s grasp. During a recent outing with brother Andrew, 60, things got so heated that the duo stopped talking to each other for 13 holes. “Even though we’d driven to the course together, he took an Uber back because we weren’t speaking,” says Wilson. “We even won that day, but he just made me so mad, and apparently I made him so mad that it became this argument.”
In a page out of Pryce’s playbook, Wilson apologized to make peace. “I took the high road, even though I didn’t owe an apology,” Wilson says. “I just said, ‘Why aren’t we celebrating this win that we had today?’ He was like, ‘Yeah, you’re right!'”
Watch Stick on Apple TV+
