sport news Full Swing Season 2 review: Golf's explosive 2023 teed up tantalizing ... trends now
The opening sequence of Netflix's Full Swing Season 2 ends with Rory McIlroy turning to the camera and declaring, 'It's been quite the year in the world of golf.'
He wasn't lying. And Netflix's cameras were rolling to capture every moment of the sport's explosive 2023.
Without doubt, last year teed up tantalizing storylines from a fiery Ryder Cup clash, breakout wins and, of course, the June 6 bombshell news of the PGA Tour and LIV Golf ceasefire.
And, while the sport didn't exactly make it hard for Netflix, unlike its debut season, the streaming giant flushed it.
Where Season 1 was a surface-level introduction to golf, Season 2 is deep dive into one of the most gripping year in the sport.
Season 2 of Netflix's eight-part professional golf docuseries is released on March 6
Rory McIlroy sets the scene for a dramatic season in the opening sequence of the Episode 1
The eight-part series, which is released on March 6, gets all golf's major moments right, especially the PGA Tour-LIV Golf merger.
The breaking news rocked the sport when it was announced to the surprise of everyone - even the players - and cameras were rolling to capture their live reactions.
They were in Justin Thomas' house as he watched PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan on the TV. They were at a Waffle House with Joel Dahmen and his caddie, Geno Bonnalie, as they read the news on their phones. They were in the car with Collin Morikawa and caddie, Jonathan Jakovac, as they were left stunned.
Most importantly, Netflix was there to capture the candor of the PGA Tour's sacrificial lamb, McIlroy. 'I'm almost at the point where it's like, f**k it, do what you wanna do,' he bemoans in a behind-the-scenes shot of him in his car.
The Northern Irishman, just like his role on the Tour, is the main figurehead for the series as it navigates the fallout of the biggest bombshell to rock golf.
McIlroy is a man unleashed. He's purely unrestrained in his behind-the-scenes interviews, even dropping the bomb that he wishes LIV rebel Brooks Koepka isn't triumphant at the Masters or PGA Championship.
The two-part curtain raiser dedicated to the fallout builds up to Monahan's reckoning in the form of the players' only meeting, which ironically is the only moment the Netflix cameras weren't permitted to capture. And the ultimate question golf fans have been asking themselves for the past nine months rears its head once again: Just how on earth is Monahan still in a job?
While Netflix finds the fairway on the drama, it also blends the storylines fans were tuning in for with the wider stories from around the game, which creates a lot of raw moments.
Season 2 of Full Swing achieves its goal of showing all aspects of golf by using the sport's biggest events to tell multiple golfers' stories on and off the course.
McIlroy admits he wishes Brooks Koepka isn't triumphant at the Masters or PGA Championship
The cameras capture all the action , including at players' homes (pictured Justin Thomas)
The Masters and the PGA Championship provide the setting for the PGA-LIV soap opera to unfold but they also act as the setting for McIlroy's continuing major drought, Koepka's redemption arc and Dahmen's struggles.
Dahmen, who had an episode dedicated to him in Season 1, is once again the star of his own show in Episode 3 'Mind Game' but this time the fan favorite is tolling with fatherhood and newfound popularity - fame, ironically, caused by his breakout appearance on Full Swing.
The particularly gut-wrenching storyline culminates in his
