Par for the Course

This movie had some odd things about it although it certainly broke no new ground, staying firmly within the Hallmark standard formula, romance-wise. Except it was about golf, which surely must be a first? And was set in Hungary, the latest stop on producer Lief Bristow’s world tour. He likes to do Hallmark movies that are set in foreign countries that are not Canada. And likes to bring his daughter, Hallmark actress Brittany Bristow, with him sometimes. She actually wrote this one. Good for her. One of the foremost odd things is that, as of this writing, the description of this movie’s plot on IMDb has nothing to do with this movie’s plot.* Our Heroine’s Dad is not injured, His golf course is not struggling and It’s a whole resort. The leading man is not a groundskeeper named Austin but a golf pro named Daniel, and our leading lady is not “reluctantly” entering an annual tournament to “win the purse”.

Ashley Newbrough plays Whitney, a championship golfer who has hit a rough patch since the death of her mother, her coach, and herself a legendary golfer. Her caddy who wants to be her new coach is a jerk and not happy about her placing in 12^th  at the latest tournament and barely qualifying for the Eastern European Open. He is a most annoying “Type A” personality who won’t shut up badgering and criticizing Whitney on her game.  When Whitney refuses to promote him from caddy to coach and tells him she is not going back to Arizona with him to practice for the big Open but going home to Hungary for her widowed dad’s birthday, he quits. She is not unhappy about that. Not at all. Unfortunately, I sensed that this would not be the last we saw of him.

Back home in Hungary at her father’s posh golf resort, she finds him bordering on, if not smack dab in the middle of, what appears to be clinical depression over the the death of his wife, Ashley’s mother. He has become a recluse and doesn’t get up early because “it makes the day too long.” He shows no interest in getting on with life even seriously looking into selling the place. He has closed the resort restaurant and has delegated running the place to Daniel, Marcus Rossner, who is also the golf pro. She is justifiably very worried. Instead of a good grief counselor or therapist, Whitney brings him a doggy to foster for a while. Smart move. Along with getting him out and about beautiful nearby Budapest and planning a barbeque for him to host, the dog does the trick. Dad is well on the road to recovery by the time the movie is half over. There’s even a possible love interest on the horizon. Meanwhile, Whitney is training for the Open and falling into strong like with Daniel, who loves teaching and coaching. How fortuitous.  She asks him to coach her as his laid-back approach, which has brought the fun back into the game for her, is proving very effective in getting her back on track. He is the complete opposite of Andrew the pest, who, as predicted, shows up unannounced wanting his job back. You quit, Dude. Go. Away. Just to be nice, she lets him follow her around carrying her clubs, and it isn’t long before he is back to his old heckling ways. Marcus misunderstands the relationship and backs off from coaching her. She has no choice but to give Andrew another chance as she needs a caddy for the big tournament. Meanwhile, her dad has gotten into a pickle with his greedy skank of a real estate agent, Bianka, who is charging him a large commission even though he has decided not to sell his resort after all. He even wants to re-open the restaurant! What luck that Marcus’s brother is a real estate lawyer and Whitney’s best friend is a talented chef whose own restaurant has fallen on hard times and needs a new position! Daniel’s brother deems Bianka’s claim that she is owed 200,000 euros for not selling the resort utter nonsense. So that problem is solved. Anyway, during the tournament Andrew persists in pressuring Whitney, nagging at her, and getting on her last nerve. This guy just doesn’t know how to read the room. In frustration, she just quickly whacks at a very difficult putt and it miraculously goes in the hole for an eagle! Andrew whisper-yells at her that it was just luck and this is where he gets himself permanently fired. I loved it. Marcus to the rescue and Ashley wins the tournament over her chief rival played by Brittany Bristow in a brief cameo appearance.

I mentioned some odd things. Although Marcus Rosner and Ashley Newbrough, last seen together in Countdown to Christmas’s Flipping for Christmas, seemed to have good chemistry (Argh! I have come to hate that word) the acting was very low-key and at times seemed stiff and stilted. In addition, the editing was not the best with some awkward transitions from scene to scene. The first hour or so was very slow and repetitive. And then there is also the mystery of Ashley’s biological father. Marcus asks her why she is based in Arizona. She says her “mom and dad” met when her mom was on a golf scholarship to the University of Arizona and she met “her Dad” there when he was studying Golf Course Management. But wait. She then throws her whole history into confusion by adding that she was not born in Arizona but in Florida and that her mom was a single parent when she married Hungarian Marton, who adopted her when she was 8 years old. And “he is the only father she has ever known.” What happened to the guy her mother met in Arizona and had a baby with in Florida? Did he drown in a water hazard? Cruelly abandon his wife and little daughter? Did he pay child support? Why does she refer to him as “her Dad,” just like her real Hungarian father? Sounds like this movie should have been about her mom because there is a story there, I bet! It was just a totally unnecessary and gratuitous detour into the land of TMI. And what was a Hungarian doing in Florida anyway?  I watched this scene 3 times to try to untangle the thing and still don’t know why she was based in Arizona. Marcus needed to ask some follow-up questions instead of just responding “That’s incredible” at the end of her tale (even though it was). Why so complicated? couldn’t Marton have just been her real Dad?

Despite its problems, I quite liked this one. It really picked up after the first hour, and I enjoyed the vanquishment of Bianka the slimy real estate agent and Andrew the pest. It also could have been beautiful Budapest and the lack of Christmas decorations and snow.

* it has since been corrected, but that was really funny.