Rory McIlroy proved last year that you can’t be a golfer or a politician at the same time. No matter how hard Donald Trump tries…
2023 was supposed to be Rory’s year, flying the PGA Tour flag and pinning it at the top of the mountain in the face of LIV when he won his fifth major.
It turned out to be anything but.
LIV is the underlying narrative to episode one of Full Swing season two on Netflix but while season one of the fly on the wall documentary failed to capture the imagination, this edition starts with a bang.
It charters the pressures and strains that McIlroy felt as he balanced his seemingly never-ending quest for that elusive fifth major with his unofficial role as the PGA Tour spokesperson against LIV Golf – a role he never planned to assume.
The new season of Full Swing was released in Ireland on Thursday and it will instantly capture the Irish audience as McIlroy heavily features as he bids to end his near ten-year major drought.
“I know that clock is ticking,” the Holywood opens. “I was able to knock off four Major championships pretty quickly in my career, but I’ve been stuck on four for a while.
“I don’t deserve and no one deserves anything in this game. Like nothing is handed to you. It’s all earned and I feel ready to earn it again.”
The first major of the year is the Masters and obviously it was the first time that PGA Tour and LIV players were coming together at Augusta, but it was also the major McIlroy seemed primed to win for the Career Grand Slam after finishing 2nd the year before which led to a run of 8, T5 and 3 in the following three majors in 2022.
“I laid an egg, I played like dog-s**t.” McIlroy said after surprisingly missing the cut at the Masters.
It was a nervous weekend for McIlroy despite not playing as he watched through gritted teeth as Brooks Koepka narrowly missed out on overtaking the Northern Irishman in the race to five major titles.
“I was relieved Brooks didn’t go to five major titles and I was still stuck at four!” McIlroy admitted.
Those sentiments didn’t last long as Koepka was back on top at the PGA Championship having completed the now symbolic drive for five – winning all five of his major titles after McIlroy won his fourth in 2014.
Not only was it a realisation that he wasn’t top of his class as far as the best golfers of his generation go but also that he needed to step away from his political role with the PGA Tour.
“F**k, someone in my era has got more Majors than I have,” he said after watching Koepka win the 2023 PGA Championship at Oak Hill. “It’s hard for me not to define myself as one of the best golfers in the world, so when you struggle like that, you feel a little lost.
“But I think it was a wake-up call for me to say, let’s just focus on the golf a little.”
At this point in the season it had been a very underwhelming start to the first half of the major sequence, although he finished in the top-10 it was two majors he hadn’t competed to win after ending 2022 on such a high. Despite not winning a major it felt he was destined to win one again and let the others follow.
“It’s a spiral,” McIlroy said of what it feels like to try and win major championships.
“When you’ve momentum and things are going your way, the spiral works upwards. But if you get an unlucky break, you hit a shot you thought was going to be good and it didn’t end up good, it just starts going the other way a little bit.”
McIlroy played a last minute role in season one, but in episode one of season two he is the main man. It appears Netflix will give the viewers more locker room footage and less tournament action which should be box office if McIlroy’s discussion with his caddie Harry Diamond and manager Sean O’Flaherty is anything to go by.
“It’s not that Sean, I f**king s**t myself to left pins, my technique is nowhere near as good as it used to be,” McIlroy vented in the locker room after the PGA Championship.
“I almost feel like I want to do a complete re-boot because it’s the only way I feel like I am going to break through,” he said.
“Like it feels so far away. I am not at a stage in my life where I feel I can come out and do these two-week boot camps. I feel good enough to be f**king top-10 in my head but not good enough to win.”
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