In 2023, professional golf was defined by the acrimonious split between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. After the Saudi Arabia–owned LIV Golf established itself as a force in 2022 by poaching some of the PGA Tour’s most recognizable names, the dust appeared to have mostly settled: The two factions would rarely cross paths.
However, a few months into the 2023 season, the shocking announcement of a merger between the organizations upset the already shaky status quo and brought fresh uncertainty to the sport. Full Swing Season 2 chronicles that shake-up, offering behind-the-scenes footage of one of the most momentous shifts in golf history. Created by Box to Box and Vox Media Studios –– the same minds behind Formula 1: Drive to Survive –– this immersive docuseries follows a diverse group of professional golfers (with both new faces and returning cast from Full Swing Season 1) across relentless months of competition on the PGA Tour, including all four of golf’s major championships: the Masters, PGA Championship, US Open Championship, and the Open Championship.
“At the start of 2023, things are much clearer. Last year, there was so much uncertainty,” golf journalist Daniel Rapaport says in Episode 1 of Full Swing Season 2. “Now you understand who’s on which side of the battle lines. You’ve got the LIV guys, and you’ve got the PGA Tour guys. They’ve chosen their team, and now it’s product vs product.”
While that drama plays out off the course, the Ryder Cup looms at the end of the season as a chance for American and European players to win one of golf’s most prized trophies.
What is the Ryder Cup?
The Ryder Cup is an international competition that occurs every two years and pits 12 Americans against 12 Europeans in a unique team format. First contested in 1927, the Ryder Cup is played purely for pride, with no money paid to its participants. Despite that, it features perhaps the most intense fan environment in the sport, as both players and spectators passionately rally behind their home country (or continent). With each side selected based on how well players perform throughout the season, majors and premier PGA Tour events leading up to the event have even more meaning attached to them than usual.
“The best thing I’ve ever been associated with in my profession is the Ryder Cup,” Team US captain Zach Johnson says in Episode 6. “It is legitimately my favorite thing in golf.”
Team US was attempting to win in Europe for the first time since 1993. Heading into 2023, Team US held a large advantage over Team Europe in terms of the world rankings of its members. But as we see in Full Swing, those statistics can often be thrown out the window.
Here are all the names you need to know heading into the action on the green, as well as breakdowns of all eight episodes of Full Swing season 2.
Meet the Full Swing Season 2 Golfers
Rory McIlroy
Occupation
Four-time major champion, 24 PGA Tour wins
About
In the years after Tiger Woods’ decline from dominance, McIlroy emerged as golf’s next superstar by winning four majors between 2011 and 2014. But the Northern Irishman has yet to claim another major victory since then, and despite starting the 2023 season as the world’s No. 1 ranked golfer, the long wait for another major championship gnaws at him.
McIlroy became somewhat of an unofficial spokesman for the PGA Tour by routinely criticizing LIV and those who joined the Saudi-owned league. But he took a softer stance as the battle between the two entities played out — which ultimately led to the announcement of a merger — while his game suffered.
McIlroy searches for some measure of redemption late in the season by hoping to lead Team Europe to victory at the Ryder Cup.
Justin Thomas
Occupation
Two-time major champion, 15 PGA Tour wins
About
Thomas burst onto the scene in 2017 by winning five PGA Tour events, including his first major at the PGA Championship. The Kentucky native started 2023 as the world’s No. 9 ranked golfer, but during Season 2 of Full Swing endures a disappointing year. That left him in doubt to be selected to participate in the Ryder Cup, where he previously thrived and served as a fiery leader of Team US.
Thomas is ultimately chosen to compete by his close friend and US team captain Johnson despite finishing behind several other candidates in the points system. Thomas tries to justify his selection by leading the Americans to victory.
Rickie Fowler
Occupation
Six PGA Tour wins
About
One of golf’s most popular personalities, Fowler is known for his loose demeanor and vibrant fashion choices on the course.
The Californian entered 2023 on a near four-year victory drought and has yet to win a major. He turned down a lucrative offer from LIV to continue plugging away on the PGA Tour — and finds himself playing his best golf in years during Season 2 of Full Swing, meriting a selection to play for Team US in the Ryder Cup.
Dustin Johnson
Occupation
Two-time major champion, 24 PGA Tour wins
About
An 18-time PGA Tour winner during the 2010s, tied with McIlroy for the most during that decade, Johnson brought legitimacy to the LIV project as the first elite name to switch allegiances — and he was reportedly paid $150 million to do so.
“I knew I was gonna get shit for it. But if I had to do it over again, I’d make the same decision,” Johnson says in Episode 2.
Wyndham Clark
Occupation
2023 US Open champion, three PGA Tour wins
About
Clark’s first five years on the PGA Tour resulted in zero wins — and countless public fits of frustration that planted seeds of doubt about his future. The Colorado native’s game turned around after he started seeing a sports psychologist in December 2022. This echoed a similar positive change he experienced by seeing a therapist after his mother died of breast cancer while Clark was in college.
Clark goes on to claim his first three PGA Tour wins in Season 2, including a landmark major win, and he qualifies to play for the US team in the 2023 Ryder Cup.
Joel Dahmen
Occupation
One PGA Tour win
About
Dahmen has been on the PGA Tour since 2017 but has just one career win on the top circuit. Nevertheless, the testicular cancer survivor’s name recognition increased exponentially after being featured in Season 1 of Full Swing. His self-deprecating humor and fondness for bucket hats won him many fans.
During Season 2, amid growing frustration with career-worst results on the course, his support system pushes him to confront his declining mental state while he adjusts to his newfound fame and fatherhood.
Tom Kim
Occupation
Three PGA Tour wins
About
Kim is the closest thing golf has come to having a prodigy on the scale of Tiger Woods in recent years. Born in South Korea, Kim turned professional at age 15 on the Philippine Golf Tour, became eligible for the PGA Tour in 2022, and soon stamped himself as a rising superstar by becoming the first player since Woods to win two events before turning 21.
Kim has yet to take the sport by storm like Woods did in major competitions, however, and he’s often playfully teased by his older compatriots as he finds his footing stateside. But the polite yet defiant youngster, whose English name is derived from Thomas the Tank Engine, is eager to prove himself.
Matt Fitzpatrick
Occupation
2022 U.S. Open champion, two PGA Tour wins
About
Fitzpatrick enters 2023 flying high after his first major victory at the US Open, which boosted his credibility and level of fame, while his younger brother, Alex, toils away in the second-tier European Tour.
The Englishman played in his first Ryder Cup for Team Europe at age 22 and again at 27, but went winless in his first five matches over those two appearances. He entered 2023 as a core member of the European squad aiming to take back the Ryder Cup in Italy.
Alex Fitzpatrick
Occupation
Challenge Tour golfer
About
In June 2022, as his older brother Matt was being congratulated over text by the likes of Michael Jordan for winning the US Open, Alex Fitzpatrick was just joining the professional ranks in Europe.
As a member of the Challenge Tour, the second-tier European tour, Alex has a long way to go to match his brother’s accomplishments. It’s a heavy burden for someone to carry — but it’s also a strong motivation.
Keegan Bradley
Occupation
2011 PGA Championship winner, six PGA Tour wins
About
A PGA Tour fixture, Bradley entered the year eager to make up for past Ryder Cup failures. He played in the competition twice before but both times resulted in US losses, and he hasn’t appeared in the tournament since 2014. Bradley’s last action there was a singles defeat that clinched a victory for Team Europe, which the New England native defines as the lowest point in his career.
Bradley broke the scoring record at the 2023 Travelers Championship en route to his sixth career PGA Tour win, but still failed to place in the top six of Ryder Cup qualifying and was left to sweat out the fate of his selection as a potential captain’s pick.
Justin Rose
Occupation
2013 US Open champion, 11 PGA Tour wins
About
Rose turned pro at age 17 after tying for fourth place at the 1998 Open Championship as an amateur. He initially struggled to match that impressive showing but eventually reached the world No. 1 ranking in 2018.
A six-time Ryder Cup participant who grew up in England, Rose qualified for the competition via a captain’s pick for the first time in 2023 after drawing motivation from being passed over several times before. Rose served as a sort of elder statesman and source of experience for a young Team Europe.
Zach Johnson
Occupation
Ryder Cup US team captain, two-time major champion, 12 PGA Tour wins
About
The winner of the 2007 Masters and 2015 Open Championship, Johnson was the first-time captain of Team US for the 2023 Ryder Cup after representing his country in the international competition five times, winning once in 2016. Though he didn’t actually tee up as captain, he was tasked with trying to steer the 12-man US team to victory on European soil for the first time in 30 years.
The most important of his duties was picking six Americans for the team who didn’t automatically qualify in the top six of a points system based on the year’s results. That put him in the difficult position of balancing how much to weigh the accomplishments of players who jumped to LIV Golf, such as Brooks Koepka, against those who stayed on the PGA Tour in more competitive environments.
Luke Donald
Occupation
Ryder Cup European team captain, five PGA Tour wins
About
The 2011 PGA Player of the Year, Donald won the Ryder Cup as part of Team Europe all four times he played between 2004 and 2012. The Englishman replaced Henrik Stenson as Team Europe captain for the 2023 Ryder Cup after Stenson was removed from the role over his defection to LIV Golf.
Team Europe hasn’t lost consecutive Ryder Cups since 1993, which is also the last time they lost on home soil. So after Team U.S. won in 2020, the onus was on Donald to helm the team that made sure neither of those streaks were broken against an American team featuring more star power.
What happens in Full Swing Season 2?
Episode 1
“The Game Has Changed”
Both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf kick off their 2023 campaigns as the underlying tension between the two organizations and the golfers representing them continues to bubble, and LIV seeks to prove its staying power in its first full season. That battle comes to a head at the Masters and the PGA Championship, the first two major competitions of the year, as one renowned player from each tour claims a title apiece.
Episode 2
“LIV with It”
The announcement of an impending merger between PGA and LIV sends shockwaves through the golf world, with many PGA golfers confused over the sudden change in strategy from commissioner Jay Monahan and LIV members claiming vindication. But with many details still to be figured out, both sides move forward in a state of limbo as the US Open returns to Los Angeles for the first time in 80 years.
Episode 3
“Intervention”
Wyndham Clark and Joel Dahmen, who had one combined PGA Tour victory between them entering 2023, consider unique methods to improve their games and psychological well-beings. One of them sinks to his “lowest point” at the US Open while the other rises to the pinnacle of his career.
Episode 4
“Prove It”
Tom Kim embarks on his first full year on the PGA Tour after bursting onto the scene as professional golf’s most promising young prodigy, aiming to fulfill his potential while juggling a schedule full of media commitments. The goofy youngster shows his gritty side by gutting through an injury at the Open Championship, where he puts his peers on notice.
Episode 5
“In the Shadows”
Brothers Matt and Alex Fitzpatrick are in very different places in their golf careers: Matt is a proven force after winning the 2022 US Open champion while Alex grinds away in the second tier of the European circuit, hoping to one day escape his brother’s shadow. The pair join forces for a special team event in New Orleans that could grant Alex an invaluable two-year pass to the PGA Tour — then play against each other in their home country of England in the final major of the year, the Open Championship.
Episode 6
“Pick Six”
The Ryder Cup, a biannual competition that pits 12 Americans vs. 12 Europeans, is fast approaching. Team US captain Zach Johnson debates which golfers to pick for his team as close-call candidates Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley make a last-ditch effort to improve their chances.
Episode 7
“All Roads Lead to Rome, Part 1”
Ryder Cup captains Zach Johnson (US) and Luke Donald (Europe) choose which of their compatriots to make the trip to Italy — and which to leave home. Both teams then arrive in Rome and tee off as a relatively inexperienced Team Europe tries to ride the wave of a raucous home crowd to take back the Ryder Cup against a star-studded Team US.
Episode 8
“All Roads Lead to Rome, Part 2”
Team US tries to rebound from a disastrous beginning to the Ryder Cup while Team Europe shoots for redemption for their 2020 loss. A report of a fractured US locker room leads to bedlam on the course and several dramatic confrontations between the two teams ahead of the decisive final round.
Watch Full Swing Season 2 on Netflix now.