Netflix's Full Swing returns for 2025 and, with names like Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig Aberg featuring, it's set to continue the success of its previous two iterations.
The seven-part third season follows the 2024 PGA Tour season, taking in the four men’s Majors, Tour Championship, Olympics and Presidents Cup while highlighting a variety of different stories and personalities from the professional circuit, including some of its biggest names to experienced veterans and top caddies.
However, what would we like to see next time?
We can't confirm if there will be a fourth season but, if there is, there are seven episode ideas or themes that we would love to see for Full Swing season 4:
A DP World Tour episode (or acknowledgement)
I'm not at all surprised that Netflix completely ignored the DP World Tour in Full Swing Season 3. Who would have thought an American company based in California would have failed to acknowledge the world outside the USA? The word parochial comes to mind.
Not only are golfers on the DPWT highly skilled, they're often more relatable than their PGA Tour counterparts, regularly playing for far smaller prize pools and travelling around in cars and economy class instead of private jets.
Netflix had an opportunity to focus on the more human side of golf and the DPWT abounds with compelling storylines, but the producers didn't bother to cast their net beyond American shores.
Paul Waring won one of the biggest events of the DPWT season at the age of 39, a truly life-changing victory. Do we hear anything about it? No.
Min Woo Lee, who even had his own episode, is barely shown capturing the Australian PGA Championship title.
Linn Grant winning her second Scandinavian Mixed title, Billy Horschel dramatically claiming the BMW PGA Championship in a playoff over Rory McIlroy and Robert MacIntyre's emotional victory at the Scottish Open are also conspicuous by their absence.
But who needs to hear about those when you can watch Sahith Theegala finish third at the Tour Championship?
A college golf episode
If there turns out to be a fourth season of Full Swing, I would love for there to be a focus on college golf. The standard of elite amateur golfers continues to astound me, and we’ve seen breakout stars like Jon Rahm, Ludvig Aberg, Rose Zhang, Jennifer Kupcho and Nick Dunlap, to name just a handful, make the transition from college to tour like a duck to water.
That’s not even mentioning men’s World No.1 amateur Luke Clanton, who has already recorded two runners-up finishes on the PGA Tour. I fondly remember No Laying Up’s brilliant documentary on the Stanford women’s golf setup a few years ago that followed the likes of Rose Zhang and Rachel Heck.
I’m sure golf fans and casual viewers would really enjoy a look at how impressive the college golf scene is and learn more about how the Conferences and NCAA system works as well as PGA Tour University. I certainly would.
Feature all four men’s Major winners
I did enjoy season 3, but thought that Xander Schauffele was by-and-large ignored. I would imagine that he turned down Full Swing but there still could have been highlights from his wins (Full Swing did show lots from the PGA and Open) and supplement it with comment from his caddie, coach, other players and caddies as well as analysts and people within the game who can convey his career so far and personality.
Schauffele had one of the greatest seasons in recent history, winning two of the four Majors, but did not get much of a mention. He is an interesting character and so is his father, so it is a shame we missed out on his story. Next year, it would be good to recap all four men’s Major winners - even if some of them decline interviews - because they are THE biggest tournaments in the game that shape the narrative of the entire year.
A LIV Golf League event
It's no secret that LIV Golf has divided opinion and, as we say in the UK, it's like Marmite - you either love it or you hate it. However, for me, Full Swing is, arguably, better suited for something like LIV Golf.
In 2024, Majesticks GC created a docuseries titled 'Inside the Ropes' which provided an in-depth look at the LIV Golf team and it was exceptional. What's more, on the LIV Golf League, players seem more accommodating of the cameras and content, as seen with Bryson DeChambeau and his success on YouTube.
I know that LIV Golf was filmed momentarily in the first series of Full Swing, but I felt it only scraped the surface. Jon Rahm was the League's biggest mover in December 2023, but that wasn't even covered in the most recent series of Full Swing, despite it being one of the most shocking announcements of the year. If the League is filmed it will give the viewer more of a perspective on the differences between the two circuits, something that would interest both the golf and non-golf fan.
Monday qualifiers/Korn Ferry Tour
I know the big names draw the viewers, but why can't Full Swing include an episode on Monday qualifiers or those on the Korn Ferry Tour? Everybody loves an underdog story, and watching a player qualify for a big tournament and then wrapping up the biggest paycheck of his career is sure to create good content.
Three-time Major winner, Padraig Harrington, recently tweeted that: "If it was up to me I’d be focusing more on Monday qualifiers," in response to the PGA Tour reducing them as they fight the battle of slow play.
Harrington went on to add: "There’s a movie script story nearly every week. I’d give the leading qualifier a tv draw and get a tv crew to follow him for the week." Personally, I couldn't agree more! Not only are you likely to get more insight and behind-the-scenes footage, but it could create a great story and another fan favorite. We saw it with Joel Dahmen, so can't it happen with another near unknown?
More characters
When Full Swing is at its best, it's focusing on the game's most compelling characters and human-interest storylines. Through the first three seasons, think Joel Dahmen sharing about how he dealt with cancer and just wanting to make a living through golf plus his struggles to do so. Then there was the villain-to-hero arc of Bryson DeChambeau and his extremely relatable desire to feel liked and respected while just wanting to be himself.
In the latter stages of season three, there was Gary Woodland's humbling story about his fear of death after learning he had a brain tumor and the subsequent successful brain surgery he received. Admittedly, some lighter moments are certainly needed to keep fans engaged, but that could easily be sourced. On a similar note, there are a whole host of top PGA Tour players - Spieth, Thomas, Scheffler, McIlroy etc - who have recently become fathers around the same time. What about an episode detailing how their lives have changed since parenthood? That is arguably the most relatable human-interest story Netflix could have wished for.
To me, it felt like there was too much wasted time on themes that did not even nudge the needle, let alone really push it along, while several great opportunities to tell properly engaging stories slid by.
Women's golf
The second big change I'd make for Full Swing Season 4 is the addition of the LPGA Tour or any kind of nod to the fact that women's golf exists. It seems like the current contract Netflix has signed means they are to focus exclusively on the PGA Tour, but as I've already highlighted, the streaming service either ran out of intriguing stories to follow or simply chose the wrong ones - (No Xander winning two Majors?!).
Nelly Korda produced a similar season to Scheffler, winning seven times, so would have been an ideal narrative to document. The Curtis Cup was a brilliant competition which deserved far more publicity than it got as Team GB&I narrowly snatched victory away from the USA in the dying embers. The Solheim Cup would have been great to follow as that naturally steered towards a tight finish, and especially after what went down at Finca Cortesin in 2023, yet there was nothing for female golf fans to relate to.
By choosing to focus solely on the PGA Tour in 2024 instead of the plethora of other golf around the world, Netflix missed out on some of the game's best events and most interesting stories.
