Netflix series ‘Full Swing’ offers unprecedented inside look at PGA Tour

Golfer Matthew Fitzpatrick’s dramatic U.S. Open victory last June tested his nerve, skill and countless hours of preparation.

Netflix’s film crews captured every angle to the point of becoming personally invested in the Englishman’s journey while chronicling the 2022 PGA Tour season for “Full Swing,” an eight-episode docuseries debuting today.

“Our crew ran out on the green to celebrate,” Chad Mumm, the show’s executive producer, recalled with a laugh at the recent PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando. “I was like, ‘You have to shoot!’”

More than five years in the making, Mumm’s ambitious project does not miss many opportunities to take viewers behind the curtain of the pressure-packed lives and moments of professional golfers.

Crews spent more than 300 days traveling around the world to collect unique footage. Mumm and Co. also accessed footage from broadcasts, tapped into on-course microphones and compiled every terabyte of possible data.

Mumm said the cutting floor was covered.

Critical were buy-in from players and the full blessing of some of golf’s more cloistered settings. This included Augusta National Golf Club, home to the Masters, and St. Andrew Golf and Country Club, the “Home of Golf” and site of the 2022 Open Championship.

“They let us bring cameras into places where they haven’t been before,” Mumm said. “It was a real team effort for golf.”

Fitzpatrick hopes the reward will be more fans and interest in his sport, similar to the impact of the Netflix’s hit series “Formula 1: Drive to Survive.”

“I watched all those and it got me into Formula 1,” the 28-year-old Englishman said. “There’s a real chance more people will get into golf because of it.”

“Drive for show, putt for dough” is the key to survival on the PGA Tour.

[ PGA Merchandise Show returns to normal: ‘Being with people matters.’ ]

“Full Swing” shares the ups and downs of the nomadic, solitary, high-stakes lifestyles of some of golf’s established stars and rising ones such as Fitzpatrick.

An avid golfer, Mumm said he’s pondered the project for more than half a decade. He envisioned golf’s version of HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” an annual series focused on life in one team’s NFL training camp.

The COVID-19 pandemic set back Mumm’s timetable and also coincided with the release and subsequent popularity of “Drive to Survive.”

“Now all of a sudden we had this model,” Mumm said. “Instead of a quick-turn show like “Hard Knocks,” you’ve got a season-long follow. You’ve got much more dynamic stories that unfold over an entire year.”

“Full Swing” got into full swing during the 2021 Hero Challenge, Tiger Woods’ annual limited-field event in the Bahamas.

Mumm invited a dozen golfers for an initial interview to crystallize his vision. How each golfer arrived and carried himself fascinated Mumm.

“Some came by themselves, some with an entourage, others had agents looming over me,” he recalled. “Everyone is so different. Then they get in the chair and they’re like, ‘I’m here to win.’ That alpha mentality.

“They’re all unique, they’re all different, they all go about it a different way.”

Film crews took a fancy to Fitzpatrick, an intelligent, insightful and unguarded subject who also sensed opportunity.

“It’s a brand-building exercise,” he said “Being able to tell my story, what I do daily, how I got into the position I did — it’s a great insight.”

Fitzpatrick’s work ethic, meticulous, if not obsessive approach to data and tireless regimen provided unique material. He then backed it up with a breakthrough season.

In June at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., Netflix crews were ready and waiting for Fitzpatrick’s moment. Holding a 1-stroke lead, his drive on the 18th hole found the left bunker. Cameras focused on the golfer and caddie, along with his family, which was mic-ed up as the tension built.

An 8-iron to the middle of the green effectively sealed a career-defining victory.

“We were there for all the moments,” Mumm said. “It was all a culmination.”

The moment was one of many memorable ones in “Full Swing,” itself a culmination of Mumm’s own personal journey.

“I played golf my whole life,” he said. “It’s been a huge part of my identity. I’ve always wanted to do something in golf. So for me, it’s just a chance to kind of give back to the game that’s given me so much.

“It’s just such a cool responsibility.”

This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osgators.