Full Swing

I’ve just completed season three of “Full Swing” on NETFLIX.  If you don’t know what Full Swing is, that’s fair.  Full Swing was an ambitious undertaking to have cameras follow and document the daily routines and the comings and goings of players on the PGA tour. Uncensored, raw, honest, revealing and insightful.  And for the most part, it did, and it still is accomplishing many of those goals.  Now, in the spirit of full disclosure, I wasn’t too impressed with the first season.  You see, I’m spoiled.  I have the opportunity to spend a fair amount of time with many of the players featured.  And with my radio golf show, I’m kind of immersed in their world.  So, for me, there were no real insights, surprises or revelations in season one.  So, I stepped back after that first season and made an attempt to reassess my thoughts on the project.  The producers of this series are also the producers of a similar series on the platform about Formula One.  What I know about Formula One you could place on top of a golf tee, and if I watched that series all of the revelations would be surprising and insightful to me.  So, I decided to approach Full Swing as if I knew very little about the tour.  Truth be told, I did end up appreciating it more.

The producers decided on day one to drill down and focus on various players and various events, and that philosophy I believe has served them well.  Living here, one has to smile a little bit as it does seem that the first episode of each season seems to concentrate on the Masters.  Yes, they’ve been granted usual access and by golly, they’re going to take advantage of it.

Without giving away too many of the plots in the various episodes, in season three we do begin with the obligatory Masters episode and Scottie Scheffler’s second victory and Ludwig Aberg’s ascendancy to golf’s upper echelon.  Other episodes this season follow Bryson DeChambeau and Rory McIlroy at last year’s US Open at Pinehurst.

The last two episodes of the seven-episode season are poignant, as we follow Gary Woodland through his medical challenges and the comeback, he’s able to stage after having a tumor removed from his brain. 

And we also see and hear Camillo and wife Maria discuss the tragic loss of their first child Mia to cancer after just five months.

The series does humanize these players in a way that sound bites and quick interviews turning tournaments can’t.  If you’re a fan of the PGA Tour and or the players out there, Full Swing is well worth the time.  Do yourself a favor and pick it up at the beginning, season one, episode one, “Frenemies”, about the relationship between Justin Thomas and Jordan Speith.