By Mallory Mattingly
Owen Wilson opened up about how his newest role as “washed up” golf pro brought him closer to his dad.
In the new Apple TV+ series STICK, Wilson plays Pryce “Stick” Cahill who “finds a second shot with the sport after betting his future on coaching a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom.”
Surprisingly, the actor was never interested in golf growing up, but his dad Robert, who died in 2017 after a battle with Alzheimer’s, was an enthusiast.
As he learned how to play for the series, Wilson began to think about his late father more, telling PEOPLE that he talked with his brothers, Luke and Andrew, and a friend who played golf with his dad to learn more about how Robert played.
“What was the best part of my dad’s game?” Wilson asked them all.
His friend said that Robert was “really good at scrambling,” which means “when you’re not getting on the green in regulation, but you’re having to be sort of creative and get up and down.”
“And that was my dad’s personality, I think in life too,” Wilson added. “And I dare say that might be the mark of my game also because my friend gave me some golf balls that say ‘scrambling man’ on them because I’m pretty good at, sometimes, getting up and down.”
While on set, the actor got to work with several Tour stars.
“What I thought was interesting — and it didn’t surprise me — is how, obviously they aren’t actors, but I thought that they’d be able to do it because I find that these professional athletes are performers, [and can] sort of steady themselves and deliver under pressure,” Wilson told Golf.com.
Related: Christian Golfer Scottie Scheffler Remains No. 1 After Record-Tying Score on PGA Tour
One of the pros, who was also a U.S. Open champ, impressed Wilson.
“Wyndham Clark had, to me, what’s kind of a tricky scene as an actor: acting surprised to see someone,” the actor explained. “That’s a hard thing to kind of act, and he had to do that and I watched him just kind of get ready and fine tune it as we went along and he just nailed it.”
Wilson still isn’t super fond of golf but has learned to like it a bit more now because of how it helped him get to know his dad better.
“I’ve definitely tossed a tennis racket, but I haven’t gotten good enough at golf to toss a club yet,” Wilson told 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.”
The first three episodes of STICK are available on Apple TV+ and new episodes will debut on Wednesdays.
Read Next: Scottie Scheffler Wins Second Masters: ‘My Victory is Secure on the Cross’
Questions or comments? Please write to us here.
- Content: +3Share:
- Content: +2