The vision for an immersive series on the lives of professional golfers goes back half a decade, but it came to fruition at a 2021 dinner at Soho House in Los Angeles.
That’s where Chad Mumm met Paul Martin and James Gay-Rees for the first time. The latter co-founded Box to Box Films in 2016 – known for the highly touted Formula 1: Drive to Survive series – and listened to Mumm pitch his project.
“Five minutes into the dinner they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re in. Let’s go,’” Mumm said of the meeting.
The immediate interest stemmed from a stereotypical perspective: people outside the game have a picture in their head of what pro golf is. The trio of producers were intrigued by the rare opportunity to totally subvert people’s expectations.
“You just don’t get those kinds of opportunities,” said Mumm.
The result? Full Swing, an eight-episode series that drops in its entirety Feb. 15 on Netflix. We caught up with Mumm to preview the show and explain just how they pulled it off (no spoilers, of course).