Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Full Swing’ Season 2 on Netflix, Another Round For This Golf-Focused Docuseries

Netflix has gone hard into sports docuseries production, and last year added golf to their portfolio with Full Swing. The first season introduced a new group of viewers to some of professional golf’s biggest personalities, and the second season looks to build on that success. The new season takes on a drama-filled year on and off the fairway, with seismic changes promising to reshape the whole sport.

FULL SWING: SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A soundbite-heavy montage of scenes from the upcoming season sets the tone for a number of the storylines that you can expect in the episodes to follow, from LIV/PGA reconciliation to the Ryder Cup chase and the personalities involved in both.

The Gist: Where Drive To Survive–the obvious inspiration for any of Netflix’s sports-docuseries products–unfolds in a mostly-linear, week-by-week fashion, Full Swing takes a less-strictly-chronological approach, favoring storyline over timeline. Here, the biggest storyline is the reconciliation of LIV Golf and the PGA tour, and that’s expressed through extensive interviews with golfers–like outspoken LIV critic Rory McIlroy–about the impact of the merger.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Netflix is certainly hoping that it reminds you of the first season of Full Swing, because that’d mean you enjoyed it and are back for more. If you don’t have that point of reference, though, the extremely obvious comparison to make is to the wildly-successful Formula One racing-focused Drive To Survive, or the tennis-focused Break Point, both also on Netflix.

Our Take: When you’re trying to package a sport into a documentary series, you can only hope that there’ll be enough drama to keep viewers interested. Well, in professional golf, there was no shortage of drama in 2023.

The overarching storyline in golf was, of course, the shocking merger between the Saudi-funded, big-money breakaway organization LIV Golf and the long-running PGA Tour, an unexpected reconciliation that turned the biggest narrative of the previous year on its head. Prior to the merger, there was no shortage of tension on either side–a tension that’s on full display as we see LIV’s Brooks Koepka and the outspoken LIV critic Rory McIlroy competing at The Masters, a battle that gets significant screen time in the first episode of Full Swing’s second season. Koepka’s competitiveness in the tournament proved a rebuke to the idea that LIV golfers were strictly in it for the huge paydays and not serious competitors, and the eventual merger provides plenty of material to work with.

The question is, is it compelling to new viewers?

After a solid first season, Full Swing feels like a more mature show in its second season. It’s got more access to the athletes, more steady of a presence on the course–there’s a greater level of comfort evident in filming here. If you’re a devoted fan of golf–and someone who’s well aware of the personalities and storylines on display here–then you’re likely to enjoy this season.

If you’re one of the new viewers that Netflix and the PGA are hoping to draw into the sport the way that Drive To Survive has carried a spike in American viewership of Formula One racing, though, it’s a little bit more muddled. Again, there’s plenty of drama here, but the way the season is structured, it can be a little more difficult for casual fans to understand exactly what’s going on. A lack of truly engaging personalities hamstrings the show a bit, too–while Rory McIlroy endears with his noble stance on behalf of the PGA, and S1 darling Joel Dahmen brings his charm back, the top golfers aren’t generally the biggest personalities.

It’s understandable the decision to put the LIV/PGA drama–which eats up the bulk of the first episode’s screentime–at the forefront here, given the tectonic shift it represents within the sport. The trade-off, however, is that that’s time taken away from introducing us to new personalities, the golfers we’re supposed to be forming emotional connections with.

Full Swing Season 2 has plenty for the devout golf fan; whether it can win new converts is yet to be seen.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy battle it out again, this time at the 2023 PGA Championship in Rochester, with both sitting at four major championships and each sitting on one side of the LIV/PGA narrative rift. Koepka pulls out the win, edging ahead of McIlroy for his fifth championship, putting to rest the notion that he was washed up and striking a blow for golfers on the breakaway tour. The two graciously embrace after Koepka’s win, and we cut quickly to two weeks later, when news of the merger breaks. “Why did I waste the last twelve months of my life fighting for something that was always going to come back together?”, McIlroy muses.

Sleeper Star: While much of the season is focused on big names like Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka, the breakaway star of Season 1 was Joel Dahmen, who endeared himself to views with humor and self-deprecation, noting that “someone’s gotta be the 70th best golfer in the world. Might as well be me.” He returns in Season 2, and continues to make the most of his screentime.

Most Pilot-y Line: “If the 2022 season was about disruption, then the 2023 season is about figuring out what’s next,” golf journalist Dylan Dethier notes.

Our Call: STREAM IT. If you’re a hardcore golf fan, Full Swing is going to give you exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re new to the sport, though, it may leave you looking for a foothold.

Scott Hines, publisher of the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter, is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky.