When the trailer dropped for the Netflix docuseries Full Swing last month, one of its biggest surprises was saved until the very end, with an appearance from Rory McIlroy.
Originally, it had been thought McIlroy had declined to appear in the series, but his brief cameo in the trailer only served to heighten expectation for the eight-parter going behind the scenes of life on the PGA Tour.
McIlroy is preparing for his first PGA Tour event since winning the CJ Cup at Congaree last October. However, before he tees it up in the highly anticipated WM Phoenix Open, he explained why he had agreed to take part in the series after all, and it appears his role as a defender of the PGA Tour amid the emergence of LIV Golf helped persuade him to join the cast.
He said: “Yeah, I sort of took the attitude of see how the first season works out, see if I like it, like the idea, feel comfortable letting cameras get into my life a little bit more. But I had a good chat with Chad [Mumm, one of the producers] in the summertime. Obviously with everything that’s going on in the world of golf, he just said having my voice in there in some way could just add a layer of context that wasn’t there already.“
Mumm also explained to Golf Monthly the circumstances of how McIlroy was persuaded to appear. He said: “Rory, and I sat down at the end of the season after the Open championship – after he and Tiger were basically kind of galvanizing the PGA Tour team and pulling the players together, in some ways to remake the PGA Tour, and I sat down at breakfast at an event and just pitched it.
“I said, ‘We may never get another chance at this. There’s no guarantee that we’re gonna do another season and I think the world needs to hear from you, you know, what you’re feeling in this moment, what this means to you, and why. And we could do it next year and they’re not going to see it till 2024. So you know, now is the time and golf needs this.’ And it’s like a five-minute conversation. He was like: ‘Yeah, I’m in, and then an hour later he had a mic on and with our team in the locker room. Rory only knows as far as I can tell… everything he does, he does all in. And once he said, yes he gave us as much or more access than any player did all season.”
While the series documents a tumultuous period for the PGA Tour, the LIV Golf threat has undoubtedly spurred it into action so it can remain competitive. One can be found at this week’s elevated tournament, meaning it has a far higher purse…
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