Review: Tommy’s Honour takes an exciting true story of olden days golf and makes it quite dull

REVIEW: Tommy’s Honour is set in the wild, woolly and whiskery early days of Open Championship golf in 1870s Scotland.

THE only viewers who will score Tommy’s Honour as making par are golf tragics with nothing to do for the evening.

The subject matter is promising enough; the wild, woolly and whiskery early days of Open Championship golf in 1870s Scotland.

The best tournaments back then were free-for-alls of betting, braggadocio and bare-knuckle fist fights.

This is young Tommy, the best golfer in all of Old Time Scotland.

Which makes it all the more puzzling why this movie lodges itself early in a sandtrap of dullness, and stays there.

This is the not-so-stirring story of Tommy Morris (Jack Lowden), a Tiger Woods-ish tearaway who won the first of four consecutive British Open titles at age 17.

His dad, known as Old Tom (Peter Mullan), was once a great golfer himself, and doesn’t like having his reputation trumped by his boy.

Much of what passes for drama in the movie is that of a dour dad grumping it up on the sidelines while his carefree lad is living it large on and off the fairways.

(L-R) Tommy’s grumpy old man; his very bushy beard.

There’s also a number of terse, top-hatted toffs in the picture, the most notable of which is played by Sam Neill.

These snooty types turn a tidy buck wagering big amounts on golf in this class-conscious era, and consider it in poor taste to share much of the profits with the commoners wielding the sticks.

Worth a look only for the occasional outburst of ungentlemanly high-jinks on the links.

TOMMY’S HONOUR (M)

Rating: two stars (2 out of 5)

Director: Jason Connery (The Philly Kid)

Starring: Jack Lowden, Peter Mullan, Sam Neill, Ophelia Lovibond.

A lot to putt up with to get the hole story

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Originally published as Review: Tommy’s Honour takes an exciting true story of olden days golf and makes it quite dull