Getting Golf Right: Nathan Leonhardt’s Unlikely Hollywood Journey

By: Nkele Martin

When his phone rang in the spring of 2024, Nathan Leonhardt picked it up as he would any other call. What he didn’t know was that the person on the other end was about to change his life.

From Richmond, B.C., Leonhardt began playing golf at 16 and quickly fell in love with the sport. He rapidly improved, capturing multiple junior and amateur events before captaining the golf team at Johnson and Wales University in Florida.

After graduation, and less than a decade after first picking up a club, he began playing against some of the best players in the world on the PGA TOUR Canada and PGA TOUR China before making the transition to full-time coaching in 2015.

Now, he runs the Tour Development Academy, a high-level golf academy based in Richmond.

With a successful career both playing and coaching, what more could be added to Leonhardt’s golf résumé?

That question was answered by the phone call he received last spring. One more title was about to be added to the list: Golf Consultant for a TV series.

Leonhardt’s initial thoughts were “what kind of scam is this?” but when he did his research, he realized the caller was legit, and so was the offer. He had been chosen to consult on the Apple TV+ show “Stick” starring Owen Wilson.

With just one day to decide, Leonhardt consulted his wife, accepted the offer and began a new adventure.

The Sniff Test

Premiering on June 4, 2025, “Stick” follows ex-PGA TOUR player Pryce Cahill (played by Wilson) who, after his life goes downhill, bets his future on a troubled 17-year-old golf phenom named Santiago.

While the production engaged multiple established golfers before and during filming, Leonhardt was the lead consultant, tasked with making sure everything in the show passed “the sniff test.”

“Jason Keller, the person who created the show, said, ‘I need to make sure that [no one watching] is like’ ‘that doesn't feel right or look right or sound right,’” Leonhardt said.

“Because once you lose someone who is a die-hard golfer, if it's kind of cheesy or goofy…they're zoned out and they're like, ‘it wasn't bad, but it’s just another show that didn't look or feel right.’”

Leonhardt said he didn’t exactly know what to expect when he started, but he felt prepared.

“The only prep I could have ever done was just all my experience in the past,” he said.

The job began with reviewing a copy of the show’s script, which he immediately spotted some issues in. He mentioned a scene in the first episode where Cahill talks about opening the club face. The phrasing was off to Leonhardt, who pointed it out to the team.

“Once I read something like that, I was like, ‘okay, this is the kind of stuff I have to look out for,’” he said.

In episode one, another character tells Cahill that he “triple-bogeyed his life”. Originally, the line was merely “bogeyed.” Leonhardt was behind that change.

“I'm like, ‘Okay, well bogeys are bad, right? But it's not the end of the world,’” he said. “And so, then they’re like, ‘What could we say that's worse than that?’ and I said double bogeys are worse. Then he's like, ‘is there a triple?’ And I'm like, ‘Yeah, triple can work.’ And so that's how it was landed on.”

Leonhardt’s advice made its way to nearly every department during his four-month stint in the role: from tweaking lines and actors' mannerisms, to advising ball placement, to spotting set and costume issues. One day, he noticed background actors carrying around cart bags, which he instantly flagged to the crew.

These small mistakes may go unnoticed by many, but to experienced golfers like Leonhardt, it just didn’t feel right.

“There are so many of these little things that I take for granted, but as I watch it on a screen, I'm like, ‘wait, what just happened? something felt weird there,’” he said.

“I don't want that feeling. I don't want anyone to have that feeling.”

Back to the basics

While his role was titled ‘Golf Consultant’, Leonhardt did more than just consult. The 2022 PGA of British Columbia Coach of the Year worked with the lead actors to craft a beautiful looking swing.

Peter Dager, who plays Santiago on the show, was the main focus of Leonhardt’s lessons. Before making the trip to B.C. for filming, Dager was based in New York City, the pair began their sessions virtually.  Leonhardt says the young actor would send him videos of his swing, and he would respond with feedback and tips. Once Dager arrived, the pair began an intense three-week program at Leonhardt’s academy that included hours of training daily.

His focus with the actor was different than his traditional coaching sessions, as the goal was to build a “good looking golf swing.”

“There's a difference when you're solely working on someone's game to shoot the lowest score possible,” he said. “There's a lot of feel and contact. The actor doesn't need to think about the shot, he needs to think about performing the part.”

Leonhardt says that Dager used to swing inside out, and would often squat at setup, which became something he joked with the young actor about. “I kept reminding him, even as we're starting to film, I'd be like, ‘get off the toilet, or get off the horse,’” he said. “And then he would just instinctively know.”

Leonhardt also worked with Wilson, who had a bit more experience in the sport, but was less athletic than the young Dager. He said the experience has helped him as a coach.

“I think what it really has done is open my eyes,” he said. “It gives me a new light to [coaching] people who are just starting off, simplifying it as best as possible by helping them understand these little pieces that go into everything.”

Blossoming

Leonhardt worked on various aspects of the show during his time as a consultant, but he said it took some time to gain confidence in the role.

Surrounded by star actors, big name directors and a fast-moving crew, Leonhardt said there was some “hesitation in the beginning.” When he saw an issue, he would go to writers or people behind the scenes to flag it. As time passed, he grew into his authoritative role and began speaking up on set.

“As I got more comfortable and they all trusted what I was saying, they were fine with me just being there on set and saying, ‘Hey, John Hamburg, can we do that again, please?’ and no one had an issue,” he said.

“I blossomed, let's say.”

As he blossomed in his role, his relationships with cast and crew did, too. Months of spending up to twelve hours a day with Dager, Wilson, and those on set led to friendships forming.

“Those experiences and relationships definitely meant a lot and blossomed into something real special,” he said.

His favourite memory happened while the crew was setting up a camera angle on a course. Leonhardt, Wilson, Dager, and Dager's body double were playing “closest to the pin” to a green about 80 yards away over a pond. Wilson went first, hitting the ball long into a bunker, then Leonhardt put his ball 15 feet away.

 Then, Dager shot.

“He hit it good,” Leonhardt said. “And he's like, ‘Oh, that was sick, nice.’ And he almost walks away, because he's just so happy.” Leonhardt told Dager to watch the ball as it rolled across the green.

“He turns around and the ball goes in the hole. The entire production is there, and everyone just erupts…. It's like a YouTube video. We're running around, we're jumping, we're hugging each other. It was one of the coolest experiences that we had on set all year.”

Leonhardt says even the moments that became routine, like Wilson coming to him for advice on a line, were special.

 “It didn't matter if it was at the beginning of the filming or at the end of the filming, if something like that happened, I would still come home and tell my family about it, because it never got old,” he said.

As the summer came to an end, so did Leonhardt’s time with the production. And when it did, he wasn’t just saying goodbye to a job, he was saying goodbye to the friends he had gotten used to seeing every day. 

“The (relationships) blossomed so much that it was sad when it ended,” he said.

While he continued to teach on the weekends during his time consulting, Leonhardt resumed his full-time coaching duties after a vacation with his family.

The first five episodes of “Stick” are out now, and Leonhardt said he’s happy with the results.

“I think I'm pretty sure we got [all of the mistakes],” he said.

“After rewatching everything, I think that, for the most part, everyone should be pretty happy with the way it turned out from the golf aspect.”