Owen Wilson has been a constant on the movie screen. The 56-year-old is funny, versatile and seems to be going from movie set to movie set. His latest is something for the small screen. Titled Stick, the new Apple TV+ golf comedy series finds him slipping into the role of Pryce Cahill, an ex-pro golfer whose career slipped prematurely some 20 years ago. However, obsessed with all things green, Hollywood rarely makes a high-profile TV show with golf as the backdrop.

No, there are no green jackets involved, but Pryce ensures the golf course turns into an island of bliss while the rest of his life seems to be drowning, from his marriage to his job.

“It seems like everything that is a metaphor for life is always something hard, frustrating and challenging. It’s a game that you can’t seem to master. Someone like Tiger Woods, as great as he is, can still feel that he needs to redo his swing. It’s like chess; you can’t ever totally figure it out,” said Wilson over a video call to a small group of journalists from around the world.

Judy Greer stars alongside Owen Wilson in Stick

‘A generational argument’

Created by Jason Keller (Ford v Ferrari and Mirror Mirror), the show can be enjoyed by golfers and non-golfers alike since it is largely about second chances. Wilson’s character was once ranked 18th in the world, but then his life went off the rails as he had a meltdown at a PGA tournament, threw all his clubs in a lake, and it was televised. The clip, of course, lives on the Internet.

His marriage to Amber-Linn (played by Judy Greer) is experiencing double-triple bogeys. It is then that he comes across Santi (Peter Dager), who can hit a golf ball like Pryce has never seen anyone do before. He wants to take the kid on the road and qualify him. However, what he doesn’t realise is that he’s only 17 and still living with his mother, Elena (Mariana Trevino). Ultimately, they agree. And Pryce turns to his best friend and former caddy, Mitts (Marc Maron), who reluctantly agrees to let the group set off in his beloved RV, which hasn’t been used for years. Along the way, they meet Zero (Lilli Kay), another teenager. She makes a connection with Santi.

“Working with Peter and Lilli, or Santi and Zero… I think it’s kind of familiar, sort of a generational argument: One generation thinks the other generation doesn’t get it. That sort of plays out. I am struggling to connect with the two of them. Hopefully, it’s funny… the inability to connect. And then I think there’s some moving stuff when any human being tries to connect,” Wilson told t2.

‘Too far gone’

The show is coming at a time when a tariff-loving golfing aficionado is in the White House. When asked who he would like to caddy for, two names came up — Rory McIlroy (“he’s very rootable; he’s Irish, I’m of Irish descent”) and former US President Barack Obama. Judy Greer quickly added: “If golfing is a metaphor for life, I want to see Obama golfing.”

The show involved a fair amount of golf training because it featured some long drives and required navigating bunkers.

“The thing for me was learning about this sport… I was kind of intimidated by… that I actually can do it. It’s two steps forward, one step back, or one step forward, two steps back, because there are some days when I just couldn’t do it. It’s definitely something that I will be playing the rest of my life,” said the actor whose film credits include Midnight In Paris, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers and You, Me and Dupree.

The show’s creator and the entire creative team needed to portray golf as authentically as possible. In addition to the actors throwing themselves into golf lessons, the production engaged multiple golf pros who watched everything on set to ensure it always appeared authentic. The production enlisted the services of Nathan Leonhardt, a golf coach and former pro golfer, who served as a consultant on all things golf and was on set every day.

Greer (What Women Want, 13 Going on 30 and 27 Dresses) quickly found out that “golf is an obsession”. For Wilson, his father was a great golfer, and both of his brothers played the game, but he never picked it up.

“Growing up, there were only right-handed clubs, and I don’t do anything right-handed, but the little that I would, like go out and kind of mess around, I did sort of swing it. So when I started learning for this show, the pro who was helping me looked at my swing, and I said: ‘Should I start over left-handed?’ He went: ‘No, you might as well stick with right-handed.’ I played with right-handed clubs. I’m too far gone. It’s like (climbing) Mount Everest. I’m a third of the way up.”

For Greer, she can connect golf with her father. She said: “Watching my father come home after playing golf in the worst mood I’ve ever seen a man to be in his life… and think to myself as a child, why would anyone do this to themselves? Why?!”

Positive energy

Wilson and Greer connected effortlessly on the sets of the Apple TV+ show. “Judy and I had no problem connecting, we were sort of on the same wavelength with our sense of humour and that also puts us on the same wavelength sensitivity-wise. It was easy for us to do some of the emotional stuff, because I’m clearly still in love with her character, she’s kind of moved on, and it was easy for me to feel those things and to kind of see that in her,” said Wilson.

Speaking exactly how we know Wilson from films like Midnight In Paris, the actor said he liked the idea of “second chances”. “And the idea of needing people to believe in you. Santi needs that, Pryce certainly needs it. And I find that moving, sort of dynamic, and something that I really believe in real life, that people benefit so much when somebody has some confidence in them. When I was learning to drive, my dad was uptight, and I was more likely to make a mistake with my dad driving, because I could feel his energy. And then sometimes you have somebody like my grandmother, who just loved me, and I could do no wrong!”

Jennifer Aniston in The Morning Show

Wilson took his role seriously, and the show’s creator said: “Owen threw himself into golf in such a way that he was taking lessons and playing golf at a very high level every single day for over a year. He has become a tremendously good golfer.”

Stick premieres on June 4 on Apple TV+. The 10-episode series will debut with three episodes, followed by one new episode every Wednesday, through July 23.