Golf’s run on the small screen is continuing for yet another year.
On Tuesday, Netflix announced that it was renewing the docuseries “Full Swing” for a second season, locking in production of the highly popular show for the remainder of the 2024 season.
“‘Full Swing’ debuted to Netflix’s 230 million subscribers the week of the Genesis Invitational and has been consistently in the Netflix top 10 worldwide,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said in a press conference at the Players Championship Tuesday announcing the news. “As a result of such strong performance out of the gate, Netflix announced earlier this morning that they are officially green-lighting season two.”
The decision marks a notable if unsurprising development for the series, which has been shooting season two for the better part of the 2023 Tour season. The first season of the show, which debuted just weeks ago on the streaming service, has earned mostly positive reviews for its portrayals of some of golf’s biggest (and quirkiest) characters, including the likes of Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Tony Finau and Joel Dahmen.
“Full Swing” has also earned high marks for its access, which included behind-the-scenes looks at life at each of golf’s four majors, including the Masters. While it’s expected that Netflix will retain access to golf’s biggest events, it remains to be seen whether season 2 will follow the same narrative structure, which focused on the individual arcs of players more than the chronological developments of the golf season.
Netflix self-reports streaming data, which means we don’t know a tremendous amount about the viewership of the new show. Still, the buzz surrounding the show’s first few weeks (which included a Super Bowl ad) and the fact that Netflix would continue placing considerable resources behind the show’s production seem to indicate Netflix executives are seeing a positive trendline. (Last month, a ratings report showed the company’s tennis sibling “Point Break” off to an underwhelming start, though Netflix also optioned that show for a second season on Tuesday.)
“A point of emphasis for our organization has been delivering the PGA Tour to fans where they are and making our sport more welcoming through innovation and strategic partnerships,” Monahan said. “I think that the commitment that we made at that time to Netflix, some of the real innovation that we’ve had around concepts like TGL, all that starts to manifest itself at that point in time.”
It’s early to know when the new season will debut, but Netflix’s announcement teased a “Spring 2024” release timeline. Viewers can stream the first season of “Full Swing” here. And check out all of our episode reviews here.
