Season two of Netflix’s ‘Full Swing’ is nearly right here, and here is what we have discovered to date.
Netflix
PACIFIC PALISADES, Calif. — Say what you’ll about the oldsters from Netflix’s Full Swing, they know when to drop a trailer.
Sure, there are many acceptable instances to launch a teaser for a brand new season of a golf docuseries, however few strike this writer as extra becoming than Genesis Invitational Wednesday — the identical day the PGA Tour yearly hosts a VIP-only pro-am at an unique non-public membership within the shadow of Hollywood.
As celebs and golf stars ready for the hit-and-giggle at Riviera on this Genesis Wednesday, the bigwigs at Netflix appeared to agree, blasting our first look into the brand new season of golf’s hit present out to the world.
The teaser trailer, which weighs in at a whopping 26 seconds, doesn’t provide a lot by means of substance, however it reveals loads of clues about the form and really feel of season two, which can arrive on Netflix on March 6. And from the patio exterior the Riviera clubhouse on Wednesday afternoon, two individuals intimately concerned with the present — Netflix’s VP of nonfiction sports activities programming Gabe Spitzer and Chris Wandell, the PGA Tour’s VP of media enterprise improvement — provided just a few extra.
Below, we dig by way of our 7 largest learnings about season two of the brand new present from Wednesday at Riv.
7 clues about Full Swing season 2
1. The Ryder Cup is a serious focus
One of the massive criticisms of Full Swing season 1 was its lack of a propulsive drive. In season 1, the sequence adopted the 2022 season by way of the eyes of a handful of stars, however it struggled to indicate the connective tissue between golf’s occasions. (Part of the explanation for that is golf’s battle with having connective tissue between its occasions, however I digress.)
That gained’t be a problem in season two. It doesn’t take various seconds of the teaser for viewers to know that the Ryder Cup goes to be an enormous focus of the brand new season, offering a central narrative rigidity for the present’s documentation of 2023.
Justin Thomas’ arc within the new season (rightfully) seems to comply with his quest to succeed in one in all Zach Johnson’s six captain’s choices, and two of the present’s eight episodes of the present look like devoted to documenting group Europe’s thrashing in Rome.
Of course, Hatgate alone may benefit a full episode’s price of protection, so maybe that’s not completely stunning information, however it does qualify as notable.
2. Merger insanity
The PGA Tour/PIF merger of June 6 looks like a lifetime in the past, and maybe that’s excellent news for Netflix, as a result of it appears as if Full Swing cameras had been rolling all around the golf world when the information broke.
“I think you won’t be surprised to hear that there was some drama on Tour last year,” Spitzer stated. “We were behind the scenes for that, and much more. If you were following the game last year, I think you’re going to get a player’s perspective on how that all evolved.”
One speedy character of curiosity in these proceedings? None aside from Rory McIlroy, whose merger response would qualify as the largest must-watch piece of content material captured by the present so far. And talking of Rory …
3. The massive weapons are again
The trailer opens with a picture positive to excite golf followers hoping for some juice concerning final 12 months’s ongoing PGA Tour/LIV beef: Rory McIlroy sitting for his season two interview.
Rory, whose episode of the present marked in all probability essentially the most intriguing phase of season 1, returns once more in 2023 presumably to debate the highs and lows of a turbulent 12 months because the voice of the PGA Tour en path to a dominant Ryder Cup efficiency. He’s joined by Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Joel Dahmen and Matt Fitzpatrick as Full Swing’s repeat characters in season two.
“With season one, we were so thrilled with how it turned out, but it was sort of interesting to go out into the world,” Spitzer stated. “I feel like that’s what I’m really excited about in season two — the extension of what we built in season one.”
4. New stars have arrived, too
Netflix and PGA Tour execs appear pumped about the position performed by two first-timers — Tom Kim and Wyndham Clark — within the new season. Kim’s standing within the present’s paintings recreating his river journey from the PGA Championship offers some trace as to the course of his episode, whereas Clark’s episode certainly spotlights his life-changing U.S. Open triumph in Los Angeles in June.
5. The edit crew has been DEEP in footage
Executive producer Chad Mumm raised eyebrows when he stated the present had combed by way of 900 hours of Netflix-shot footage and greater than 10,000 hours of archival footage within the edit for season two.
PGA Tour VP of media enterprise improvement Chris Wandell raised them even additional on Wednesday when he revealed a placing stat about the Netflix edit group.
“We have a library of content — everything we’ve ever shot at the PGA Tour — it’s called our media asset management system,” Wandell stated. “There’s one person on the production team who’s the biggest user of our system. It’s an amazing thing. A hundred people use it.”
6. Season 3 stays up within the air … sorta
Filming has already begun for Full Swing season three, however Netflix execs haven’t formally agreed to greenlight a 3rd season of the present but. Still, Spitzer hinted, issues are trying good.
“We always want the next season to launch and then see how it does,” Spitzer stated. “I’ll just say, we’re thrilled with how this series is doing, and we did continue filming. We don’t want to miss any of these first three months [of the 2024 season] to decide. So, you know, we’re filming, but we haven’t officially announced anything.”
Last 12 months, season two was greenlighted inside just a few weeks of the primary season’s launch. Assuming season two performs in addition to season one, the same timeline will be anticipated right here.
7. Netflix is selecting golf
A prevailing query going through loads of golf followers for the reason that present’s inception runs two phrases in size: why golf?
With larger sports activities leagues providing simpler entry to brand-name stars and fewer hierarchal fracture (a ache with regards to coping with filming approvals), it’s honest to marvel what attracted Netflix to golf. This is particularly complicated contemplating Netflix’s larger machinations look like pushing the streaming big nearer to reside sports activities, an space the place golf presents solely restricted alternatives.
But Spitzer appeared to point that the trail to golf was very a lot intentional.
“You talked about the larger growth strategy,” he stated. “The truth is we get hit up by every league at this point who wants their own Full Swing or Drive to Survive.”
Left unsaid: there’s a cause why Full Swing exists, and people different exhibits don’t.
You can attain the writer at james.colgan@golf.com. To obtain golf-media exclusives earlier than they attain the online, subscribe to the Hot Mic Newsletter beneath.
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