Six months after Santi Wheeler’s memorable run at the Ready Safe Invitational, Apple TV+’s Stick returns with a two-episode premiere that immediately repositions its central relationship. Season 1 built a warm, road-trip mentorship between washed-up former pro Pryce Cahill (Owen Wilson) and the talented teenager he guided back into the game. The opening episodes of Season 2, which dropped together on November 4, 2026, test how long that partnership can survive once real career decisions enter the picture. The result is familiar in tone—gentle, character-driven, and lightly comic—but sharper in its stakes.
Episode 1, “Sirens in Soft Spikes,” finds Santi (Peter Dager) competing as an amateur at the Dove Charity Pro/Am Invitational in Georgia. He finishes third, confirming that his earlier breakthrough was not a fluke and drawing the attention that comes with being a top young prospect. Pryce, however, continues to push a full-ride scholarship at Indiana University. He frames it as a chance for Santi to develop as a person rather than simply as a player. The argument is colored by Pryce’s own history: the death of his young son Jett and the subsequent meltdown that ended his Tour career. Santi sees the advice differently. Fans are already calculating the money he is leaving on the table, and he suspects his mother Elena may have influenced Pryce’s more cautious stance.
The episode’s sharpest sequence arrives when Pryce fills in for an old friend in Santi’s foursome. Other players bet that the long-retired golfer will fall apart. Instead, he produces clean, calculated shots, sets a course record with a crowd-pleasing Hail Mary, and briefly steals the spotlight that had been trained on his protégé. Santi is supportive in the moment, but the sequence plants the idea that the two may eventually compete rather than collaborate. A slick young agent named Jeremy Pierce begins circling Santi and Zero (Lilli Kay), who are now officially together. Meanwhile, Amber-Linn arranges a disastrous dinner date for Pryce with a coworker; Clark Ross (Timothy Olyphant) appears, mercifully ends the evening, and floats the possibility of Pryce becoming the oldest player to win the U.S. Open. Pryce turns the idea down, but the seed is planted.
Episode 2, “Don’t Be Summer Mayonnaise,” moves the group to Los Angeles for another invitational. Jeremy fully deploys the agent playbook: exclusive access, a party where Santi meets Michael Jordan, and a cautionary tale about a promising amateur who took a Stanford scholarship only to end up selling sandwiches in Arizona. (Mayonnaise, Jeremy explains, curdles in the heat.) Santi again plays well, finishing strong for an amateur, which only reinforces his conviction that waiting is the bigger risk. At a group dinner, he announces he is turning professional. Pryce reluctantly accepts. Then Santi delivers the actual break: he will do it without Pryce, having already decided to hire Jeremy as his agent. The partnership that defined the first season ends over a table. Pryce and Mitts (Marc Maron) part ways from Santi, Elena (Mariana Treviño), and Zero for the time being.
Rather than retreat, Pryce goes to Clark’s hotel room and agrees to come out of retirement. The decision lands with the force of a reaction as much as an independent choice. Two careers are now on separate tracks—one a rising amateur-turned-pro under new management, the other a mid-fifties comeback aimed at history. Supporting relationships continue in quieter registers: Mitts wants Elena to move in, and Santi endorses the idea; Zero remains both girlfriend and caddie. Clark’s repeated, slightly absurd pitches to Pryce provide the premiere’s most reliable comic engine.
As a pair of episodes, the premiere is efficient and clear-eyed about its direction. It wisely avoids turning Santi into a pure antagonist; his counterarguments about money, momentum, and agency are reasonable even when the delivery is sharp. Wilson remains the show’s most reliable asset, carrying both the golf sequences and the quieter notes of protectiveness that tip into control. Olyphant continues to elevate every scene he enters. The limitations are the same ones that marked Season 1: the major beats are visible from a distance, and some of the emotional friction feels engineered. Still, the series understands its strengths. It is less interested in surprises than in the specific texture of these people navigating the next fairway. The first two episodes successfully reframe the mentor-student bond as something that may not survive the professional stage, while keeping both characters sympathetic enough that viewers will want to watch them cross paths again. Season 2 continues weekly on Apple TV+ through December 30.
