I’m glad a few people are watching Ooi! Tonbo subbed (it feels like most of them are here, too). I wish it was more, but I’m unsurprised it isn’t. This show is just really, really good. It was strong right out of the gate but if anything I think it’s getting better. In a sense sports series are like romances – they have to get the definitional sub-genre part right. But the really good ones do not just that, but tell good character stories too. And boy, does Ooi! Tonbo ever do that.
The first part of this episode focused almost exclusively on the golf part, but it was ingeniously connected to the other half of the story. The last three episodes have been pure fanservice for golf lovers like me. This time the focus is on putting – and Kuta-san’s conviction that Tonbo can’t succeed putting with a 3-iron. There are good reasons to think so, and while one can get as technical as they care to here the gist of it that it’s impossible to get a true roll using a long-iron (or choking up on a wood). Only a putter (which has a slight loft by design) is capable of that.
The only way to prove that to Tonbo is to have her try and put some tournament-fast greens. Which Kuta, golf baka that he is, happens to have have built. He’s got a practice green with some video game slops to it, and he turns Tonbo loose on it with her 3-iron expecting it to teach her a harsh lesson. When she adapts quickly to that, he gruffly orders Igaiga to mow it (he’s gotten rather skilled at that, at least) like he would a tour-caliber course while he and Tonbo head back to his bungalow for a nice lunch.
This is good shit, golf fans. Kuta raises a fascinating point. People talk about “fast greens”, with Augusta National (which Igaiga references later in the episode) as the most prominent example. This week’s U.S. Open at Pinehurst has greens rolling at about 13 on the Stimpmeter, which is damn fast. But “fast” refers to how far the ball rolls after a set amount of force is exerted on it by the putter. In fact the ball rolls more slowly on these greens because you exert less force on it – which means gravity is exerting more force. The net effect of which is that putts will have more break.
The slope Kuta-san eventually turns Tonbo loose on is a ridiculous cliff that forces her to turn her back on the pin and putt straight away from it. In effect there’s no way to “gather” to the hole here, to stop the ball close – much less putting with a 3-iron. This is a trap, which Kuta expects to break Tonbo. But being the purely instinctual wild child she is, Tonbo does her usual bypass of convention here. After going barefoot to get the true feel of the greens, she winds up effectively chipping the ball (you occasionally see pros literally chip on really large greens when the direct line is blocked), and using cut spin to fight the slope and slow the ball down. It’s pure genius, and no one but a golfing genius could ever pull it off, never mind uninstructed.
Kuta-san has seen enough now to believe in Tonbo’s magic. But Igaiga clues him in about her reluctance to leave the island. And here, Ooi! Tonbo displays the nuance it addresses difficult topics with yet again. What’s wrong with living your life on a beautiful island you love? Why, absolutely nothing. Kuta, as a guy who chose to do exactly that, is in no position to lecture. But there’s a big difference. He made his decision after having made his way in the world – experienced its wonders, made his name and fortune. He came to understand the larger world and what it had to offer, then chose to come to first Hino and then Akureki to live in solitude and reflection. If Tonbo chooses to do it without having experienced what the world has to offer, and does so out of fear, that would be an entirely different choice.
I don’t think there’s an ironclad right or wrong to this. And crucially, I don’t think Ooi! Tonbo does either – it’s too smart for that. But it does believe that what Kuta-san says has truth to it. Can Tonbo really make an informed decision about the life she wants to live with a middle-school education and no experience outside her small community? No, she can’t – and while that doesn’t make it wrong to decide to stay anyway, it does mean she’d be letting an opportunity pass her by. Especially given her innate skill at golf and the depth of her love for the sport.
When she gets home (looking a bit more mature for her experience), of course Tonbo immediately wants to go practice with the Taylor Made putter Kuta-san has gifted her (she even begs poor Igaiga to mow again, ROFL). But rain forces them into the gym – where Tonbo gets a taste of a really Augusta-fast “green”. And once again displays her otherworldly instincts with a club in hand, even one she’s never used before. As someone who loves sports in general and this one specifically, I really feel Igaiga’s wonderment in watching this stuff play out. And as a fan of coming of age series, I’m thoroughly taken with this series’ subtlety and insight.
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