Golf fans, rejoice! Non-golf fans, give it a try!
Netflix’s new sports documentary series, Full Swing, takes on the golf world like we’ve never seen before in probably the most tumultuous season ever. The makers of F1: Drive To Survive take on the golf world and they seem to do a brilliant job of catering to both die-hard fans and ones who know little to nothing about the sport or the golfers.
You follow one or two golfers an episode through their 2022 seasons. If you know the golfers, great and if you don’t they do a good job giving you some backstory into each of them, how they’ve fared in their PGA careers, etc. They also have analysts who explain the golf terminology, the importance of tournaments and some more background into the featured guys.
The 8-episode first season dropped last week and it’s been a fun ride so far. I would call myself a casual but knowledgeable golf fan while my wife knows little to nothing about the sport and the golfers outside of Tiger Woods. We’re three episodes in and we’re hooked. You get some great insight as well as unfiltered conversations that you would never see on regular golf coverage. Plenty of four-letter words go flying as well as seeing the pressures of the golf season, especially when wins are hard to come by.
One great example of catering to both hardcore and casual/novice golf fans is when they focus on Ian Poulter in the third episode, my wife was unaware that if you fail to make the cut you literally do not get paid, which obviously adds to the pressure of being competitive and doing all you can to push your body to its limit as well as not get in your own head too much.
Other great moments so far have been the wild swings of success from a guy like Scottie Scheffler, who came out of nowhere in 2022 and dominated, while a guy like Brooks Koepka is struggling to find the success he once had. Seeing Scheffler ride the highest of highs while Koepka is finding it difficult to find the swing he’s comfortable with shows how much pressure comes with each and every tournament.
Of course, the topic of LIV Golf is picking up steam with every episode. From a reference here and there to start the series as the league was just a rumor to covering the guys being asked if they’ll make the leap, where the money is coming from and a whole lot more.
It’s been a fascinating first three episodes and even my wife is ready to keep binging. Surely, this was the golf world’s hope of capturing the interest of casual fans and it’s done just that so far. Will she sit through four full days of a tournament? Probably not but she probably won’t roll her eyes when I turn it on like she used to.
Full Swing is available to stream on Netflix.
-Marc Dykton
