Netflix golf show episode rankings, recaps, highlights

Netflix episode summary:  Ian Poulter debates whether a lucrative LIV Golf contract is worth giving up his PGA Tour card – and facing the public scrutiny of his decision.

Star of the episode: Poulter the father and his interactions with his kids stands out a lot more than Poulter the player, who didn’t do himself any favors trying to explain why he went to LIV. He said there were uncertainties that came with joining LIV and rumors swirled about the outcomes from the Tour and Ryder Cup if they joined LIV when it was well known what would happen. Poulter would have been a prime candidate for a Ryder Cup captaincy, sooner rather than later, too. He said it would be devastating and disappointing if “it was taken away,” yet still went and put himself in the position.

Thoughts and highlights:

• The episode introduces LIV Golf, then jumps briefly to the Players Championship, then it details the Ryder Cup – because you can’t explain Poulter without the Ryder Cup – then back to expanding on LIV. It was a bit jumbled.
• Pro golfers, they’re just like us: Poulter’s kids making fun of him for bailing on a diet and wearing “funky” clothes.
• Professional golfers, they’re not like us at all: The Poulter family putting on a private jet in “the 41,000 foot putt challenge,” as deemed by one of his sons.
• The PGA Tour can’t be happy the Players, its flagship event got, got passed over without any explanation of it importance in the schedule. That said, the series is about the players themselves, not the season or Tour.
• Poulter, Jhonattan Vegas and Pat Perez were discussing Instagram and Twitter follow counts during the Players and making fun of Rickie Fowler for having tons of followers but never posting. Guess you can’t be fully locked in for 72 holes.
• We saw it in the trailer but Poulter threw a temper tantrum and blew up in the locker room after losing to Matt Fitzpatrick at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play.
• Fitzpatrick driving down the fairway at the PGA Championship talking about Poulter and Lee Westwood definitely going to LIV Golf, as well as Sergio Garcia, just showed the players were talking about it as much as the fans and media.
• Poulter saying “I’m not traveling to the U.S. Open” was a next-level way to spin and frame that he didn’t qualify.

Episode ranking: 8, the worst of the season