McEwan: No, golfers. “Full Swing” wasn’t made for you.

Anticipation, said Amelia Earhart, sometimes exceeds realisation.

And so it goes for “Full Swing”, the much-hyped, six-years-in-the-making golf docu-series. All eight episodes of the production were released on Netflix on Wednesday and, so far, the reception has been mixed.

Some appear to be enjoying it. Others, less so. Of the latter, the most noise is coming from people who are already immersed in the sport, work in the sport or consume it with gluttonous voracity.

“This isn’t telling us anything we don’t already know,” they lament and, for the most part, they’re right. There are no great exclusives in the show. Not for those who already follow golf.

But therein lies the rub. “Full Swing” hasn’t necessarily been made for golfers.

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“I think that this show has a chance to introduce golf to a whole new audience and I want people to see golf for what it really is and this kind of crazy traveling circus that is life on the PGA Tour,” explained Chad Mumm, the executive producer and de facto ‘face’ of the series.

“I think general sports fans may have some impression in their head about what pro golfers are like, and like anything, if you look under the surface, it’s nothing like you expect. I think people are going to have their expectations completely subverted in the first five minutes of this show and hopefully we can make golf as exciting as Formula 1.”

Jordan Spieth, who figures prominently in the opening episode of “Full Swing”, echoes those sentiments. The opportunity to reach a new, non-traditional golf audience was a big part of what secured his participation.

“I’m an F1 fan because of Drive to Survive,” said the three-time major champion. “I’m one of however many million Americans that it reached and went outside of your typical F1 fan base, which was already massive and global.

“For golf to see the Drive to Survive success and then have the opportunity to be a part of trying to get out of the typical golf fanbase, kind of what [F1] did, get global with it. 250m members (approximate Netflix total) is larger than your typical who tunes in to see a round of PGA Tour golf.”

This is precisely the point, and it’s one that has either been missed or conveniently ignored by the established corps of golf fans left cold by “Full Swing”. The show is unapologetically trying to create more people like them rather than cater to a comparatively small cabal.

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“Drive To Survive” is a solid representative example of what the
success of this approach might look like. It launched in 2019 and its
fifth season is set to be released next week. Season four was a
monumental success in terms of viewership, attracting its biggest
audience to date and securing top-10 status on Netflix in 56 different
countries.

The conversion rate from the show to live races has been emphatic.
ESPN, which broadcasts F1 in the US, has reported an increase in average
viewership from 554,000 per race in 2018 to 927,000 in 2021. That
broadly corresponds with the increase in “Drive To Survive” viewers over
that period.

Paul Martin is the ‘Chad Mumm’ of the series. In an interview last
year, he said: “When we went to the Austin GP it really hit home.
Attendance had gone up and tickets sold out in record time and people in
hotels and at the track just kept referencing the show.”

The following chart underscores the positive, tangible impact the show has had on its sport.

It’s what some people call ‘The Netflix Effect’.

Golf – specifically the PGA Tour – wants a slice of that, and why not?

The concern, and it is a concern, is what the long-term implication of any new-found popularity might be. Martin hinted at it when he mentioned the Austin Grand Prix selling out in ‘record time’. The bigger audience, the higher the demand. The higher the demand, the higher the ticket price.

Last September, Silverstone incurred the wrath of UK motor-racing fans when it announced that three-day general admission tickets for the 2023 British Grand Prix would start at £219, rising to £629 for the best seats.

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It’s a similar story in the United States where general admission tickets for the 2023 US Grand Prix have increased 160% on the 2022 rates, climbing from $180 to $475. The main grandstand tickets start in four-figure territory.

The justification? Record-breaking viewership and a growing audience.

‘The Netflix Effect’.

In the event that Netflix does for golf what it has done for F1, it’s hardly beyond the realms of possibility that fans, old and new alike, will be asked to stump up more for the privilege of attending the game’s biggest events… and even some of its rank-and-file tournaments.

It’s a content and numbers driven world we live in. And that, like everything else, comes at a price. Right now, the tariff is understanding that “Full Swing” might not be for you. Rather than get too upset about that, you might want to pause and reflect on what’s potentially coming further down the line.