peacreekpages This movie was great! It really had everything. It was funny, it had romance, it had action and sports, it had suspense, and had a great message. No matter what you do in life it is important, and God is always there.

jon lunt I didn't know this movie was a religious one. The tag-line on netflix is "Talent can only get you so far. For golfer Luke Chisholm, that turns out to be Utopia, Texas -- where he's left stranded after blowing his pro debut." Naturally I thought that this would be a movie about a golfer having to deal with being stranded in a small town and getting over the fact that he just embarrassed himself in his pro debut. It starts out that way, then he meets an old man who has all the answers to golf but yet couldn't make it on tour, which obviously makes no sense, because if the dude knew how to play so well, he would have won some tournaments. The first half of the movie I'd give a 6/10. Was a decent sports flick and I love golf movies so I was interested. Then out of nowhere, it turns into a extremely religious flick. I don't like religious movies usually, explaining how God is awesome and if you believe then nothing else is nearly as important doesn't do it for me. This was worst than most. Then at the end, instead of an ending, you get the most ridiculous plug I've ever seen, and I've seen at least 1k movies. Basically instead of finding out what happens, the movie cuts off (which at this point is a blessing) and tells you to go to a website where some televangelist type dude can preach to you and plug his new book. Ridiculous. I'd be surprised if they make the second book (which I wont read) into a movie (which I wouldn't watch anyway) but you never know. If you love golf, don't want God shoved down your throat, and would prefer for your movie to end on screen; watch The Legend of Bagger Vance, The greatest game ever played, or Tin Cup.

bob-rutzel-1 Pro golfer Luke Chisholm (Black) self- destructs on the last hole of a tournament and takes off in his car. He sees a fork in the road and takes the road to Utopia, a Texas town. After crashing into a fence he is met by Johnny Crawford (Duvall) a rancher and once a pro golfer back in the day. Johnny sees an opportunity to help the young pro and he gives Luke a proposition. This started out like a pretty good golf story, but there were problems with the acting and pacing all around. I wasn't convinced about anything because I had the feeling none of the actors were convinced either. Oh, they went thru the motions, but you could tell there was something missing: belief in what they were saying.Duvall pontificates throughout this and that's okay up to a point, but I had the feeling he knew he had to say the lines, but again, there was something missing: conviction. He said his lines like he was on roller skates. It was like we really didn't get into the story but here come the lines anyway. Something was missing: conviction. Maybe it was too much pontification. The scenes and dialogues felt rushed, and there was too much hesitation when other actors said their lines. Again, no conviction. Perhaps there was too much material to cover to allow a scene to develop so it became comfortable, likable and convincing. The last quarter of the movie became a religious quest and it became a little too much. The director should have checked with Kirk Cameron (child star on Growing Pains TV show) who stars in many of these types of religious themed movies. Actually, I felt blind-sided. For most of the movie, it was about golf training, such as it was, then we get hit with a pretty heavy religious aspect the rest of the way. And, here we find conviction in Johnny's dialogue. Took long enough to find it. Where was it before?Of course, Luke manages to learn the lessons Johnny gave him and when he has a putt on the last hole of the Texas Open to win the tournament, the movie stops in mid-putt and we get hit with: go to http://www.didhemaketheputt.com.OK, I bit and went there and I have no idea if he made the putt, but that wasn't the point of the movie, now was it? And, when I went there, I was hit with more religious material. Had I known about all the religious stuff in the beginning, this probably wouldn't have bothered me. Hey, I have watched some Kirk Cameron movies and they are good. But, here, I felt I was blind-sided. After all this was not anything like The Greatest Game Ever Played or a Bobby Jones story. (5/10) Violence: Not really. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: Soft stuff only and not much of it.

duncanhad This movie was in the same genre as 'The karate Kid' and countless other movies..disgruntled teen meets Yoda type character and discovers how golf/boxing/karate is a metaphor for buddhism/Christianity.Golf is like fly fishing, you should picture your shots before you take them, bury your bad feelings...it was like a smörgåsbord of clichés.There is always a girl involved and an anti hero - and I think you can guess the plot of the movie from that - and it does not disappoint. I was hoping that it would at least have an original ending - however it could not even come up with one! You had to come up with one yourself!At the end of the movie I felt I had been bombarded with Christian propaganda, product placement (there was Callaway on everything! The type of driver was even mentioned on the commentary in the closing scene) and tourism to Texas.Bland writing, directing, editing and acting - a perfect storm of blandness.