BP#8 The Short Game

The general argument made by author Josh Greenbaum in his work, the Short game, is that 7 yr old kids from around the world are fighting for the top spot as world champion, and are already under this tremendous pressure. He shows these young athletes practice and compete at a higher level than some high school athletes will ever compete at. In this documentary, Greenbaum suggests that some of these young golfers are not ready for the pressure of playing golf at such a high level yet, and that some of their parents are pushing them too far at too young an age. In conclusion, Greenbaum’s belief is that these young golfers are very talented and have a vastly different childhood than most kids their age.

In my view, Greenbaum is right because I have seen this first hand being a four year tournament golfer myself, and these parents to push these kids too far, and put too much pressure on these kids. More specifically, I believe that some kids are not only living a different childhood, but are pushed to the point they hate a sport they once loved. For example, Amari could not handle the pressure on the course and had multiple meltdowns. Although Greenbaum might object that these kids are not ready to compete at this level, I maintain that they should not be competing at this level of competition at such a young age. Therefore, I conclude that this is a very informative documentary that many people can learn from, and shows many people what goes on not only before and after each round, but off the course with these young athletes.

Josh Greenbaum's sports documentary, The Short Game, he shows the pressure put on ever younger tournament golfers and how this has affected their childhoods greatly. The narrator first introduces eight of the junior golfers competing in the U.S. Kids world golf championships. He then shows them competing in the three round tournament going through their struggles and successes. His purpose is to show some of the best junior golfers all over the world and show how tournament golf at such a young age can effect the childhood on these kids. His audience is parents and children and fans of golf.