Return to the sample pitch for the AIR/Third Coast panel
Revised pitch
On May 20, Sandy Tatum will wake up early to play a round of golf, as he has for so many weekends of his life. He's 85, and he’ll start his game at the clubhouse in San Francisco's Harding Park. The clubhouse is named for Tatum, in honor of his devotion to rebuilding this neglected course, and years spent breaking down barriers to underprivileged players when he was one of golf’s top officials.
On this day, he'll be joined by Luis Pearl, a conceptual artist and entertainer who performs as the "Bubble Man," Jane Howze, a hard-charging executive who has played every top course around the world, and Michael Murphy, co-founder of California's Esalen Institute, and the man who wrote the novel that has inspired a million golfers, "Golf in the Kingdom."
What brings these men and women together is the 15th Anniversary of the Shivas Irons Society, a group of golf evangelists and devotees who have joined together in a group named after the hero of Murphy’s novel. In this five minute non-narrated feature, we’d start on the golf course, and work backwards to trace the journeys of a few key players to the fairways and greens this Sunday. They would provide a sense of the energetic, free-spirited exuberance of the group. We’d learn why the society has donated more than $140,000 to golf camps and clinics for underserved kids.
Murphy's novel is soon to become a major Hollywood feature. The Shivas Irons Society consists of people, like Tatum, Pearl, Howze and Murphy, who believe that golf is much more than a game, it's a window into a better life, best shared by any and all. On a brilliant, sunny San Francisco May Sunday, they’ll tell their story in their own words, as they whack a dimpled ball into a hole.
The finished piece… edited by Alisa Barba
Golf's Transcendent Side: An Open Society
