\n \n The seventh episode of Netflix\u2019s \u201cFull Swing\u201d is named \u201cGolf is Hard.\u201d It could easily serve as the title for the series itself.\n <\/p>\n \n Taken literally, it could refer to how golf\u2019s latest fly-on-the-wall show, documenting the 2022 PGA Tour season, shows just how difficult it is to win even a single tournament, let alone multiple or a major.\n <\/p>\n \n In the case of Matt Fitzpatrick, US Open triumph \u2013 his first PGA Tour win no less \u2013 proved the ultimate payoff to a dogged commitment to self-improvement, the reward for countless hours spent pouring over data and spreadsheets.\n <\/p>\n \n Dubbed the hardest working player in the men\u2019s game, the 28-year-old Englishman is shown to have logged details of his shots since the age of 15. Trawling through a plastic box stacked with yardage books, Fitzpatrick estimates he has recorded over 7,000 swings from both competitions and the driving range.\n <\/p>\n \n Yet Rory McIlroy, despite a season featuring some of the best performances of his sparkling career, could not clinch a fifth major that has eluded him for over eight years.\n <\/p>\n \n McIlroy is the main character of the series\u2019 eighth and final episode, which includes a sideline perspective of the Northern Irishman\u2019s heartbreaking falloff in the final round of the Open Championship.\n <\/p>\n \n But \u201cGolf is Hard\u201d could also reference just how tough the sport is mentally on its biggest stars. Many of the show\u2019s most compelling scenes are not of the golf itself, but instead those that allow viewers to peer into the psychological state of professional athletes navigating the pressures of elite sport.\n <\/p>\n \n Emotional strains are shown manifesting differently for golfers at different stages of their career.\n <\/p>\n \n While rookie Sahith Theegala suffers the mental torture of an agonizing near-miss in the pursuit of his maiden win, Ian Poulter \u2013 into his 23rd season on the PGA Tour \u2013 contemplates his future in a field being frequently bossed by players half his age.\n <\/p>\n \n Just two months into his debut year after a prodigious US college career, Theegala tied for the lead at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in February 2022, with just two holes to play. But after a bogey at the 17th, a dejected Theegala trudged off the final green one stroke short of making the playoff \u2013 eventually won by Scottie Scheffler.\n <\/p>\n \n Fighting back tears in his press conference, after he finished answering questions cameras captured the rookie collapsing into the arms of his parents. Their efforts to console their distraught son \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s okay, it\u2019s okay, you\u2019ll get your day soon\u201d \u2013 make for scenes as heartbreaking as they are touching.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSometimes you become a better player by failures,\u201d says Theegala\u2019s father Murli in the show.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cSo I felt that maybe that\u2019s great for him that he didn\u2019t win. Psychologically, I feel like because there\u2019s that hunger in him that he can still play well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBut I told him, \u2018Hey, winning is not easy. It (losing) makes you stronger.\u2019 I\u2019m really, really proud of what he\u2019s accomplished.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, the \u201cwill he, won\u2019t he\u201d narrative around Poulter potentially joining the breakaway LIV Golf Series is framed around his desire to \u201cmaximize\u201d his potential given his veteran status on the Tour.\n <\/p>\n \n His frustrations are in full view after a defeat to Fitzpatrick, one that deals a crushing blow to Poulter\u2019s hopes of making The Masters. Facing his young English compatriot in a match-play event \u2013 a format at which Poulter is renowned for his proficiency \u2013 he is beaten decisively.\n <\/p>\n \n Upon returning to the locker room, Poulter\u2019s frustrations boil over as he screams and throws his clubs. The 46-year-old later becomes one of the first to sign up for LIV Golf, which offers guaranteed prize money, in spite of the decision potentially ending his chances of captaining Team Europe at the Ryder Cup \u2013 a tournament he adores.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cPeople ask all the time, don\u2019t you have enough (money) already? But that\u2019s all relative,\u201d Poulter says in the episode.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI treat my golf as a job, and I want to obviously maximize every bit of my potential over the coming years.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Somewhere in between Poulter and Theegala is Tony Finau, a five-time PGA Tour winner balancing his career with family responsibilities. As the show poses the question of why the American, given his talent, hasn\u2019t lifted more silverware, the spotlight is turned on his close proximity to his family.\n <\/p>\n \n For the majority of the 2022 calendar, Finau traveled to events with his family, a decision prompted by the passing of his wife Alayna\u2019s father. The golfer\u2019s commitment to his partner, as well as his attitude to golf, is shown to be rooted in the loss of his own mother, who died in a car accident in November 2011, a day before Finau\u2019s son was born.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThere\u2019s always a special person in my life that\u2019s never able to be here \u2026 I had a pretty amazing mom,\u201d an emotional Finau says during a speech at an event for the foundation he has set up in his home of Salt Lake City.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI feel like I just have to show the world not only what a great player I am, but the person I was raised to be.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n That attitude gives Finau conviction in how he has balanced his priorities, despite his reputation as the nearly-man of golf following an array of strong \u2013 but ultimately fruitless \u2013 major showings.\n <\/p>\n Tony Finau’s quest for his debut major<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \n The episode juxtaposes his career with that of two-time major champion Collin Morikawa, who travels predominantly alone and discusses the benefits of being \u201cselfish\u201d while pursuing success. \u201cI don\u2019t have the family that Tony has. He\u2019s got five kids, and I\u2019m just learning how to travel with a dog,\u201d Morikawa says.\n <\/p>\n \n But Finau holds his ground. \u201cMy career means a lot to me. And at times I think we can mistake that it means everything,\u201d Finau says.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI knew what my wife was going through. It was more important for me to be there for her \u2026 than really be anywhere else.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cCould my game have taken a backseat? Maybe. Potentially. But that\u2019s not nearly as important to me as my wife.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n It makes for a fairytale ending to episode six when Finau \u2013 wearing green in honor of his mom \u2013 wins in front of his family for the first time on the PGA Tour at the 3M Open, before immediately following it up with triumph at the Rocket Mortgage Classic a week later.\n <\/p>\n \n By contrast, four-time major champion Brooks Koepka wrestles painfully with his loss of form, triggering a confidence crisis that has a profound impact on him.\n <\/p>\n \n A historic run of back-to-back major defenses between 2018 and 2019 established Koepka\u2019s name in the golfing history books, but multiple injuries have contributed to his falloff in recent years.\n <\/p>\n \n For an athlete who frames winning and losing as \u201clife and death,\u201d the subsequent mental torture is all-consuming, even when far away from the course with his wife Jen.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI used to be good at getting away from the game at home,\u201d Koepka says.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cBut lately, I cannot figure out how to f***ing turn it off cause I\u2019ve been playing so bad. This f***ing thing can consume you.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cJen will be talking to me, and I\u2019m thinking about my damn golf swing. It\u2019s one of those things \u2013 I\u2019ve probably lost confidence a little bit. So if you lose confidence, it\u2019s kind of tough to get it back just immediately.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Desperate to clear his mental block after an \u201cembarrassing\u201d missed cut at The Masters, Koepka cites the contrasting example of Scheffler, who is tearing up the Tour with multiple wins.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI guarantee if you ask him what he\u2019s thinking about, he goes \u2018nothing,\u2019\u201d a despairing Koepka laments.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe best player in the world doesn\u2019t have any damn thoughts in his head, so why would you? So if Scottie isn\u2019t doing it why the hell am I doing it?\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019ve got to win, man. That\u2019s the whole name of the game.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Not for Joel Dahmen it isn\u2019t. The polar opposite of the brooding Koepka, the self-depreciating \u201cgoofball\u201d of the PGA Tour insists he will never be good enough to crack the top 10, let alone win a major.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s not like I don\u2019t try and I don\u2019t practice. But someone\u2019s got be the 70th best golfer in the world. Might as well be me,\u201d Dahmen says.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m a middle of the road PGA Tour player. The top players \u2026 they\u2019re just built differently. They\u2019re mentally just different. They hit it further and they chip and putt better. I\u2019m not a threat when I walk into these things, really.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI am not going to be a hall of famer. When I retire from golf, no one\u2019s going to remember who I am. I understand that, I\u2019m fine with it. I\u2019m not playing for legacy. Some people are like, \u2018That\u2019s why you\u2019ll never be great Joel, coz you don\u2019t believe it.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The reason Dahmen doesn\u2019t share Koepka\u2019s life and death attitude to golfing success is shown to be rooted in two life-changing events. As a junior in high school, Dahmen lost his mother to pancreatic cancer \u2013 a death that left him directionless, \u201ca leaf in the wind.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n In 2011, aged 23, Dahmen was diagnosed with testicular cancer. However, it was caught early and he was back playing golf the same year.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think myself having cancer probably changed my life for the better,\u201d Dahmen says.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cNot take life for granted, try your best and do all the right things. Maybe a blessing in disguise.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n An excellent 10th place at the US Open, his best performance at a major, ensures an uplifting end to the episode on Dahmen, a change in rhetoric suggesting he had begun to chip away at his imposter syndrome.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cMy best golf is very good golf. I can compete against the best in the world,\u201d he says.\n <\/p>\n
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