The pilot episode includes a few golf⁣ swings and flashbacks to Cahill’s best days as a pro, where he topped out at 18th in the world, won some⁤ tournaments ‌and played on ‌a Ryder Cup team, ⁤and picked up ⁣the nickname “Stick” from his peers​ for‍ having the most ⁣pure talent on Tour.

As the 10-episode first season unfolds, there is plenty more golf talk and ‌golf‌ swings and golf tournaments, ⁢and Keller ensures that however critics judge‌ his most significant‍ project since he wrote ⁤the 2019⁢ Academy Award-nominated​ racing movie Ford vs. Ferrari, the ​golf is beyond⁢ reproach.

“We​ have endeavored to make the golf in this show as authentic and real as possible at every level,” ‍Keller tells Sports Illustrated. “Early‍ on when I was developing the scripts, I had a couple of ​professional golfers constantly reading drafts.

Nathan Leonhardt, a Canadian teaching pro⁤ and former touring pro, ​was on set for​ the entire ⁤production of golf scenes⁢ shot in Vancouver, ​checking the⁤ actors’ swings all the way down to their grips.

And to make the tournaments resemble what golfers watch⁣ on weekends, Keller and ⁢fellow executive producer Ben Silverman recruited ⁤Keegan Bradley, Wyndham Clark, ‍Max Homa and Collin Morikawa, plus CBS⁣ broadcasters Jim Nantz and Trevor Immelman.

All that attention to detail lifts a​ story that ⁤Keller, 56, said has been⁢ percolating within him​ for some 20 years. His father, ron Keller, was selected in⁤ the eighth round of the first Major League Baseball ‌draft in 1965. He appeared in nine games as a pitcher for the ‍Minnesota Twins in 1966 and 1968, then left the game⁤ for a career in ‌business.

“His story has always rolled around in ⁢my head,what that ​must have been like to spend the first 24 years of your life focused on ​a game,then ⁣resetting and‍ choosing a different path,” Keller says.“that little point of inflection in my father’s life has always fascinated me,‍ and⁣ a couple years ago I found ‍a venue in the sport of golf to really explore that character.​ That⁤ character became Pryce Cahill.”