Driving to be a professional golfer

Netflix’s new documentary series, “Full Swing”, shows the history and struggles of famous golf athletes.

Netflix+promotes+their+new+documentary%2C+Full+Swing%2C+as+it+came+out+on+Wednesday%2C+Feb.+15.

Courtesy of Netflix

Netflix promotes their new documentary, “Full Swing”, as it came out on Wednesday, Feb. 15.

By Brendan Busky

Working a normal job is pretty self-explanatory. For the most part, the better you are at the job, the more money you make. This means that the best people in the world at their job would make the most amount of money. The Netflix documentary “Full Swing” thoroughly explores all types of pro golfers: the best in the world, the middle, and the bottom of the pack. It also talks about how golfers have a choice between the money that they make and the legacy they have.

“Full Swing” is another one of Netflix’s documentary series for golf and identifies the stories of various athletes and events impactfully. The documentary has loads of inside information which helps out a lot with understanding golf and its history.

The first episode shows Justin Thomas and his winning the Professional Golfers’ Association Championship of 2022. He was always in the shadow of Jordan Speith, who also happens to be one of his best friends. Thomas won the PGA Championship which pushed him into a position where he was seen more as an equal to Speith. 

“Full Swing” reveals the life and experiences of a pro golfer for players who are seen as the best in the world. The show lets people see that professionals of elite level are also human and experience lows in their golf life. It depicts how many also are uncertain of their skills and can be very frustrated at times within their career. 

Episode two is based on Brooks Koepka and his career. Koepka was the most dominant and confident golf athlete throughout 2017 and 2018. He won four majors in these two years, which is an impressive achievement. After his dominant run, he started to run into injuries. After coming back from those injuries, he has not been as prominent in his career.

“Full Swing” does a great job of telling his story. To the public eye, he is seen as the most confident player and does not have a worry in the world. However, the show depicts the doubt and frustration that he has faced throughout his career. It also shows moments where he failed to achieve the dominance he once had.

Discussion of the PGA Tour and LIV were also brought up in the documentary. The PGA Tour is considered to be the peak of golf and where the best players in the world compete. This league helps players gain a legacy, following, and sponsors, but also shows how traditional golf tournaments are played.

LIV takes a little bit of a different approach. LIV is a Saudi Arabia-backed tour meaning they have a lot of money. With this, they offer players guaranteed money to play and then can make money on top of it from their tournaments. The guaranteed money is mainly how they got players to switch tours. It also has a mainstream approach with loud music and other elements. 

Both tours have pros and cons and can make a person not understand a player’s choice in doing what they did. “Full Swing” goes into detail to show the audience why players made their choice to either stay with the PGA tour or leave and go to LIV.