The second season of Full Swing is now available on Netflix. If you have a subscription to the service and you are reading this then I’m guessing you have probably already watched it. Given the amount of attention generated within the game by the PGA Tour/LIV Golf shenanigans for much of last year, it is no shock that topic garners a considerable amount of airtime. The first episode included Tour commissioner Jay Monahan making the point that his organisation is all about “legacy, not leverage”, a comment that grows old very fast with the beginning of the second episode being about the fall-out surrounding the framework agreement signed between those two erstwhile warring factions.
That episode is called ‘The Game Has Changed Part II’, although based on the accompanying player comments a more apposite heading would have been ‘What the F— Just Happened?’ Or, as Rory McIlroy put it: “I’m like, why did I just waste 12 months of my life to fight for something that was always going to come back together?” McIlroy is in general the stand-out character of the whole show, not least in being so open about his disappointment at Brooks Koepka getting to five major championships ahead of him – especially given that he had four majors three years before Koepka (who reveals that he was paid a nine-figure sum to switch to LIV) had won his first.
One appreciates the hard yards the film crews, and indeed the scriptwriters, have to put in without knowing whether any dedicated subject will lead to a worthwhile storyline. When Tom Kim and Alex Fitzpatrick came good at last year’s Open, they got what they wanted – and deserved, I guess. The whole Fitzpatrick clan, including Matt and his and Alex’s parents, are the subject of the fifth episode, which is excellent. “It’s a goal to get out of Matt’s shadow,” Alex admits. “Whether it’s doable, I don’t know.”
The final three episodes are essentially about the Ryder Cup in Rome; good news if you’re a fan of European golf! The first of these focuses on the wild-card dilemmas confronting the US captain, Zach Johnson. It was telling – not in a good way if you were Keegan Bradley – that during the Open, Johnson shared a house at Hoylake with Rickie Fowler, Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas. Over dinner, Spieth speculates on the odds of all four men being in Rome. They were: one as skipper and three as wild cards. Only Thomas won a full point while Fowler played only once before the singles and lost both times. His explanation as to why he conceded a missable putt to Tommy Fleetwood on Sunday which guaranteed victory for Europe – “In any other time or match, that putt’s good – why is it not in that situation?” – perhaps suggests he wasn’t the right guy anyway.
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The Saturday evening spat between McIlroy and Patrick Cantlay’s caddie, Joe LaCava, was well handled, as was the appreciation that players on both sides have for what the Ryder Cup means. Whether it be McIlroy for Europe or Spieth for the United States, they are not alone among the elite of professional golf who believe that every two years the Ryder Cup represents the best week the sport can offer.
You can follow Robert Green on Twitter @robrtgreen and enjoy his other blog f-factors.com
