The Short Game

Thank you Abramorama for providing us with a screener link to watch!

The Short Game is coming to theaters in August 2025. This is not the only film with that name as there's a similarly titled documentary about 7- to 8-year old golfers which was released in 2013. This film tells the story about a high school senior named Jeremy Avery. His passion is golf, and he's one of the best golfers on his school's team but has been struggling with his short game shots lately. He has no problems getting balls close to the green, but getting them into the hole under par has been a challenge.

The past couple of years have been rough for Jeremy as he was busy caring for his younger autistic brother while his mother was getting her cancer treated. Sadly, his family is now behind paying bills due to their medical debt and his mother needs to get a job to stay financially afloat. This now leaves Jeremy responsible for watching his brother Ethan again instead of focusing on his golf game and potential scholarships riding on his performance.

Ethan looks up to his older brother and is fascinated by plants, golf, and has a wealth of knowledge that impresses people who are willing to listen to him. Ethan also finds himself in trouble as he isn't phased by social norms and does things differently to achieve his goals. Watching Ethan is a full time job and Jeremy gets frustrated with his antics and is too hard on his younger brother at times. Even though Jeremy has a lot riding on him this year, he has a wonderful support group consisting of his family, coach, and friends. Jeremy's potential comeback is being filmed as a documentary by one of the student journalists, Carly.

While watching Ethan is a considered a burden at first, Jeremy realizes that his brother's golf knowledge is extremely handy and boosts his golf performance. Ethan's adversary takes notice of Ethan's abilities and tries to put a wedge between them. Faith and perseverance are constant themes along with maintaining your integrity even when the odds are stacked against you. Jeremiah 29:11 is referenced on multiple occasions and is applicable to the story being told in this film. While The Short Game is mostly family-friendly there are a couple instances of the word *ss being used.

Even though I'm not a fan of golf, I still found The Short Game entertaining and fun to watch. It's an hour and thirty-three minutes long and is well done. The visuals are great as well as the cinematography. I didn't recognize any of the actors, but they did a fine job. This is definitely one of the better Christian-themed films I've seen.