Hallmark Movie Review: “Love On The Right Course”

There will never be a day in my life where you will be able to convince me that golf isn’t boring. I get the sport behind it. I get the sport behind it and I appreciate how hard it is and how hard people who play work at it. It’s just not for me (and yes, I am prepared for some of you being mad that I had the nerve to say that).

That being said, I will move past the golf part of this movie and focus on the growth, the dealing with grief, the bond that family has and the way to move forward while honoring the past.

Yes, this is me and I am able to find the lesson and story that I can relate to in most anything. Blame TGIF and Boy Meets World for showing me how to do just that.

Love On The Right Course isn’t a bad movie, but it’s definitely one that made me more sad than anything. It’s a story about golf – sure. But it’s more about moving on from the grief of Whitney’s Mom passing away. And well, that just made me sad. The truth is, as much as I wanted to love this movie, it was just the wrong course for me.

WHAT IT’S ABOUT: Whitney (Newbrough) is a professional golfer who is struggling to make the cut to qualify for her next tournament in Europe. Concerned that she might not be able to continue competing on a professional level, she returns to Budapest and the golf course her family owns there to reevaluate her career. She finds that her father (Roy McCrerey, “Blood & Gold”), who has grown reclusive since losing his wife two years ago, has handed over day-to-day operations of the club to a laid-back, new golf pro, Daniel (Rosner). Daniel’s casual style is at odds with Whitney’s, and it throws her off her game, literally. As the pair get to know each other, their perspective changes and a romance develops. But, when Whitney’s former trainer returns and pushes Daniel out, it might just cost Whitney her best shot at love.

Here we are and lets talk about it –

OUR THOUGHTS

Individually, we love Ashley Newbrough and Marcus Rosner. Together… well, not so much. The two don’t have on screen chemistry and that’s just my opinion – and one that i will die on a hill for. I get that Hallmark keeps wanting to put them together, but to the casting gods, I beg… either give me a movie I can tolerate with them or please stop casting them together.

Now, look – Ashley Newbrough and Marcus Rosner both are great actors. They truly are. But maybe it’s that they aren’t being given great scripts to work with. Maybe it’s that they don’t have the onscreen chemistry that I would want. Maybe it’s the setting. I am not sure.

But I just watch them on the screen and I can’t get into the movie. It doesn’t matter what it is, I just pull out my phone and get lost in TikTok and just listening, because I can’t.

Now with Love On The Right Course, Whitney is a professional golfer who returns home to Budapest after loosing a tournament. When she makes it home, she realizes that everything isn’t as she expected. Her father isn’t doing well – he’s considering selling the club that her family owns. Everything for him is a memory of his wife and that’s too much for him to deal with. Being alone is easier and it protects him.

He never goes into the office, and lets his golf pro, Daniel, is running things. Daniel is headstrong and innovative, but he’s also very much just bleh. Like he doesn’t seem interesting, but hey, to Whitney he is. She’s intrigued by him and knows that she can learn something from him.

That being said though, while I do get the lessons that she learns with golf and remembering why she loved the sport, I can’t help but not care. I can’t help but not care because I have no interest in the characters as a whole. The only part of the story that is capturing me is the part where Whitney wants to take care of her Dad and honor her Mom.

With her Moms passing two years prior, Whitney had never hired a new coach for herself. She missed her Mom and her Mom passing, destroyed her. She knows that she needs to move forward, but like her Dad, she’s stuck. While her Dad wants to sell the resort and move forward, she reminds him that no matter where he goes, the memories will still be there.

While I do love the aspects of her helping her father, guiding him out of his depression and making him re-enter the world. I loved the way she supported her Dad and he supported her.

While I wanted to love the movie, I just couldn’t. The pacing, the holes in the story, the script, and the casting pulled me out. I know that Hallmark can do so much better. Can someone remind them of that?