NAPA, Calif. – There’s good news and bad news about the upcoming season of “Full Swing,” the season-long Netflix documentary of life on the PGA Tour.
The good news is that the Tour Championship in Atlanta won’t be the finale to the second season as it was in the initial season, which premiered in January. The show will go on and feature the 2023 Ryder Cup between the United States and Europe later this month in Rome.
That’s also the bad news because the show won’t be granted full access at Marco Simone, where the American side of 12 will attempt to win a road match for the first time in 30 years.
The Associated Press was first to report that the U.S. team expressed concerns about having a film crew in the team room. Speaking to Golfweek, U.S. team captain Zach Johnson said he addressed the subject with each member of the team and the decision to limit access to certain areas was unanimous.
“I was the one that told the PGA of America that we got to tell Netflix that they cannot be in the private areas of Team USA,” Johnson said. “That message came from talking to all 12 individuals separately and it was unanimous that this was the approach they wanted. So it was not about me or my opinion. I told them, ‘I’m not I’m not here for persuasion, and I’m not here to give you my opinion. It’s all about what you guys want.’ So that’s where that’s at, and I mean, there’s probably not a right answer but that’s the decision that we’re talking about.”
According to the AP, PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh, whose organization helps run the event, says Netflix will still be at Marco Simone.
“Netflix has been great for the game,” Waugh said. “They’re doing great things.”
PGA Tour pro Joel Dahmen, who was one of the stars of the first season of “Full Swing,” told Golfweek having the Ryder Cup featured in the second season will be a boon for the show.
“I don’t know how much they are going to pull back the curtain but anything that can somehow capture what the Ryder Cup is to golf, even a little of it, it will be cool,” he said. “They could almost do an entire season of eight episodes on the Ryder Cup. If they can get a little inside access to what the captains are talking about or why they made a pairing or insight into why they wanted to get a certain matchup, it would be really cool.”