Lights, camera, action: it’s Hollywood golf
The movie industry figured long ago what golf has always recognized: there’s more to being famous than just being talented, although that certainly is an advantage. You need some flash, or a background that puts you in the neighborhood at least.
When club pros from the chill and snow of the East Coast came to California as their courses closed down for the winter, they began playing in the West.
This week’s Tour event, the Genesis, began in 1926 as the Los Angeles Open, and with victories by Ben Hogan — whose statue is alongside the practice putting green — and Sam Snead, it was both an anchor and a prime draw for competitive golf.
In what will be the best field of any tournament this winter are Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods and the hottest guy the last 15 months and world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, who as you know won again last Sunday in Phoenix.
There was a movie about Hogan, “Follow the Sun,” but the main role was portrayed by Glenn Ford. To the contrary, the Netflix series “Full Swing” uses the actual players and their families.
Yes, reality TV with a 3-putt. You might say the pros, sometimes wary of what the media will say, are fascinated and fearless. Tony Finau’s tale is a bit of a fairy tale. Son of a baggage handler at San Francisco International, Finau, a prep basketball star after the family resettled in Salt Lake City, quickly became great at golf.
Asked if he were excited fans would learn his beginnings, Finau said, “Yeah, just going back to the storytelling, my upbringing I think is quite different than most, and I take you back to Salt Lake City a little bit, to where it started. I think with the humble beginnings that I have, that was really a cool part of the story.
“I wanted to be a part of it. I think early, I was one of the first guys to commit to doing this, and I was really just honored that Netflix wanted to do a show on golf. I thought that that was an avenue that needed to be shown and I thought that there were going to be a lot of great stories and I was just happy that they looked at me and said that I could be a part of it.
“Honestly, early on I was just honored that I could be one of the guys, so I committed early. Again, I didn't really know what to expect, but I was more than happy to kind of open my doors to Netflix to just allow them some access to off-course stuff. the storytelling. I think they've done a great job. Time will tell if everyone agrees.”
Everyone does agree that in individual sports, golf and tennis, it’s the names that keep us involved. Max Homa, who grew up in L.A., graduated from Cal and has won six tournaments including the Fortinet at Silverado, pointed out that the names on top change weekly.
He then was asked, “Are you more of a (Rory) McIlroy or more of a (Jon) Rahm guy?”
“You can't pick on me for that,” said Homa. “There's too many good players. I don't know, I just played with Rahm last week and he's pretty fun to watch.”
Which we may find out on Netflix, if not in the galleries. Around here, everyone’s ready for lights, camera and action.