This compelling documentary series follows a varied group of professional golfers over a demanding season of competition, both on and off the field. The golfers’ backstories in Full Swing are interesting; however, most golf fans have yet to discover behind the scene of these massive tours and the personal equation top golf players have with each other, and this Netflix series aims to bring that clarity to the fans.
If you’re new to the world of golf, you should be aware that The PGA is responsible for planning professional golf tours in North America. It oversees the majority of the competitions on both the PGA Tour’s premier yearly tournament series and the PGA Tour Champions. The Professional Golfers’ Association of America was established on April 10, 1916, and it is when the present PGA Tour got its start.
A tour card is awarded for a minimum of two years after winning a PGA Tour competition, with additional years added up to a maximum of five years. Also, a lot of athletes sign commercial and sponsor endorsement contracts. The golfer has the chance to win from the prize money pot thanks to the PGA Tour card.
There are several well-known names in the first season of the full Swing series that golf enthusiasts may want to keep an eye out for. The series mainly follows the lives of the biggest players, one of them being Rory Daniel McIlroy MBE, an acclaimed pro golfer from Northern Ireland who competes in the PGA and European Championships. He began playing golf at a very young age under the guidance of his father.
He was born on May 4, 1989. In the Official World Golf Ranking, he was listed among the top ones for more than 100 weeks at one point in his career. He has won the 2014 Open Championship, 2011 U.S. Open, 2012 PGA Championship, and 2014 PGA Championship, making him a four-time major champion. Just three athletes, including Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, have won four major titles before the age of 25.
Another major name you might know of from the series, a former world number one in the Official World Golf Ranking, Jordan Alexander Spieth (born July 27, 1993), is an American professional golfer competing on the PGA Tour. He won the 2015 FedEx Cup and has won three significant tournaments.
In the 2015 Masters Tournament, Spieth earned a score of 270 (18), earning him his first major victory. He thus became the second-youngest golfer (after Woods) to win the Masters and matched the 72-hole record set by Tiger Woods in 1997.
Recently in the news a lot for being unbothered by the Netflix show, Dustin Hunter Johnson is the first golfer to win each of the four World Golf Championship competitions. Johnson has six World Golf Championship triumphs, second only to Tiger Woods in total. He recently said in an interview that he doesn’t see any benefit to watching the Netflix documentary Full Swing because Johnson witnessed them taping him for the program.
Before his resignation to join LIV Golf in June 2022, Johnson was a PGA Tour player. With his victory at the 2020 Travelers Tournament, Johnson joined Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus as the only golfers to have won a Tour championship in each of their first 13 seasons (14). On the PGA Tour, Johnson had one of the longest drives.
- Release Date – February 15, 2023
- Genre -Docu-drama
- Where To Watch – Netflix
- Directed – Chad Mumm, James Gay-Rees, Paul Martin
- Starring-Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka, Scottie Scheffler, Ian Poulter, Joel Dahmen
- No. of episodes – 8
- Our Rating: 2/5
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With Every Tour, The Tables Are Turned, And Everybody Hates To Lose.
The docu-series begins on a friendly and heartwarming note. Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas, apparently, have been friends since childhood. They share in the episode about growing up and practicing golf together. Their presence and support have nurtured their affinity for golf.
Their bond is supposedly so close and intense that Jordan is the best man at Justin’s wedding. The two are seen riding a private jet together to Florida just to practice golf. We get to witness Jordan calling Justine to ask if he can do as he wishes for the best man’s speech or if there’s something off-limits.
Justin gives him all the liberty to take it away as he likes, and whatever he does would be meaningful. There is trust between the two. But their lives on the professional front are not so well blended.
Justin’s golf career has been static, and his disappointment continues to grow. Meanwhile, Jordan’s career and status continue to rise. A successful golfer with a trophy wins fame and sponsorship. The pressure to stay relevant and successful is felt from the very first episode of the docu-series.
Brooks Koepka, too has been having difficult times and going through a frustrating slump. He had won back-to-back championships, but for a couple of years, he fell out of form as he was battling injuries. He exemplifies the importance of health for sports players.
We also get a glimpse into his personal life as we are introduced to his fiancé and reveal they would be getting married. They met online as his girlfriend slid in his DM’s, and they kept the conversation going. He longs to win this.
The series shows the lavish house Brooks lives in with his fiancé. They are busy with the preparation for their wedding. But Brook shared he is unable to focus on the game and wedding both because he’s demotivated. He’s worried about his future in golf. He claims this to be the worst period of his professional life and is determined to figure it out.
The docu-series also sheds light on the audiences witnessing the tours. 15,000 of them, ecstatic to watch the tour, are not an easy crowd because every time a shot is bad, they boo and yell insults, they shared. The audiences also chug beers at the players when unimpressed with them. This can be difficult for players’ mental state during the game.
The players have their rivalries and competitions, but so do the tour organizers around the world. It seems. It is in episode 3 where news about Which Episode Does Ned Stark Die in Game of Thrones? planning and investing in their own golf league shakes up the golf industry, which is predominantly based in North America.
The Saudi Arabian golf league was offering large sums to players for signing up and playing in their league. It’s shared in the episode how they’ve already planned 8 games, and there’s no stopping them.
Episode four gives an interesting insight as to what attending a golf tournament could be like. When one thinks of golf, one assumes it to be a posh hobby where rich men in their polo t-shirts take it too seriously. But as seen in the show, Joel Dahmen was playing at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and the crowd demanded and screamed in a symphony to take his shirt off. I guess golfers have their bits of fun here and there.
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The Verdict
I wish I could say that “Full Swing” will appeal to non-golfers, but I am unable to. It’s something that necessitates having a working understanding of the game beforehand. The bite and staying power would have been significantly increased if it had been cut down to three or fewer hours.
The setting of the show frequently changes from one player to the next, then from the tour to the golfers’ home, and then from home to the gym or practice. The flow of the episode is tiresome. There are moments when a golfer wins and the crowd cheers, but if you possess zero knowledge of the game, it’s all just noise to you. This makes me wonder if releasing the series on Netflix was favorable at all.
The docu-series is neither inspirational nor entertaining. The pace of the episodes will wear you out, and it’s too slow and unrewarding. The personal lives shared in the series seem to be just surface-level and controlled, keeping in mind their public image. The real personalities are still a mystery to viewers after finishing up the series.
The show feels more like a business series rather than a reality TV show where viewers expect raw personalities, hard truths, and a lot of emotion running through the stories. The show is not well expressed. Too many stories are collapsed, and the series lacks depth in general.
There will occasionally be scenes in this series that appear to have been poorly staged. It was at times sloppy and uncomfortable at the beginning in a way that, I fear, could turn off the ordinary viewer’s interest. Despite some overplayed details, the golf itself is quite adequately described here.
Usually, such a show would make you want to be that brilliant and successful. Since this show is so bland, making a connection with the docu-series golfers’ stories is unanticipated. This show will not be creating any more buzz and publicity for the sport of golf than there already is, in my opinion.
Our Rating: ⭐ (2/5).
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