Despite failing to add to his tally of four majors last year, Rory McIlroy plays the prominent role in the third season of Netflix’s Full Swing docu-series which has just dropped on the streaming service.
This is golf’s inside the ropes answer to the hit Formula 1 series Drive to Survive.
Initially McIlroy was reluctant to become involved. The Northern Irishman made only a limited appearance in the first season, which charted the 2022 golf campaign.
This time it appears that much of his time in 2024 was spent with Netflix cameras in tow. He admits: “Sometimes I struggle with the balance of being the best golfer, the best husband or the best dad.”
It is a candid admission, although detail is in short supply. Nevertheless following the 35-year-old through the ups and downs of last year provides plenty of drama and intrigue.
His close friendship with 2019 Open champion Shane Lowry is reflected with the cameras following their success together in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans last April. There is a lovely moment when McIlroy reproaches himself for eating with just a fork “like an American”.
This episode leads into the US PGA Championship, a week in which McIlroy filed for divorce from his wife Erica and Masters champion Scottie Scheffler was arrested and taken to jail after a traffic incident on his way into the course.
It is clear the world number one is less giving of his time to the Full Swing crew, but they did well to access police camera footage of the dramatic early morning arrest.
This was the most stunning moment of the 2024 golf season, although charges were dropped within a fortnight. “Are you guys aware that I am playing in the golf tournament?” Scheffler pleaded as he was bundled into the back of a police car.
As well as allowing the Netflix crews to follow him around major championship venues, McIlroy also grants them a lengthy interview that covers the main touch points of the golfing year.
But the door is shut on the cameras after Bryson DeChambeau pipped McIlroy to the US Open crown at Pinehurst in June.
Having expressed happiness that he and Erica were back together by the time that major was played, it also becomes abundantly clear that McIlroy still rues his capitulation at that event in North Carolina.
He says his short missed putt on the 16th “let Bryson back into the championship” and that the climax to the tournament was the hardest of his career.
McIlroy exited Pinehurst without talking to reporters because he did not want to speak to anyone. “I think I did everyone a favour,” he says of his sharp exit from the scene of the year’s second major.
Familiar voices from the first two seasons – Amanda Balionis, Dan Rapaport, Dylan Dethier and Henni Zuel – provide commentary to maintain the narrative of the year.
Their contributions are necessarily yet frustratingly superficial. Dedicated golf fans will be aware their expertise runs far deeper than what they reveal in their basic excerpts.
Influencer Paige Spiranac is a new addition discussing the crossover appeal of DeChambeau. The show does a good job of explaining the way the two times US Open champion has reinvented himself into a fan favourite.
But for those who dedicatedly follow professional golf, the series is not especially revelatory. Then again, this show is not aimed at those viewers.
The idea is to make general sports fans care more about pro golf in the way Drive to Survive has done for Formula 1. And it largely succeeds, which is why Netflix commissioned this third season.
We see the biggest names on the movie set of Happy Gilmore 2, while Ludvig Aberg grants engaging access to his major debut when he was runner-up at last year’s Masters.
Assuming the young Swede maintains his current trajectory, following his recent win at Torrey Pines, he will surely have many more fans as he furthers his quest for a first major title. If he does then the series will have done its job.
McIlroy is less in need of such exposure, but his prominence in the third season of Full Swing reinforces its value to growing the appeal of the pro game.
