Thursday Threads - Ancillary Product Edition

The tell is that there's nothing related to the PGA Tour's core product that I feel compelled to discuss....Perhaps my "tell" should, yanno, tell them something.... Not that they're listening to mere fans.

Full Swing And Miss - Wherein my two sports passions, golf and the N.Y. Yankees are mashed up.

Season Three is out, can you feel golf growing?  I had been reliably informed that Season One would transform golf into Formula One, so I'm sure further growth in the game isn't feasible.

Despite being in the bag, Shane Ryan seems less than thrilled by it all:

In Season 3, 'Full Swing' struggles to connect until it's too late

Hard to connect with the audience when you're FIGJAMing them..... This does sound about right:

Each season, Netflix's “Full Swing” features dozens of players, spouses, children, commentators and other personalities around the world of professional golf, but it's hard not to conclude that the show's favorite character is “Full Swing” itself. This belongs to the class of documentary that can't resist showing off its means of production—a clapping slate, a producer's voice—and if it were possible to get Vegas odds on how the very first scene of the season would play, the heavy favorite would have paid off.

There's an inherent smugness to the whole undertaking, the cool kids deigning to share said coolness with those less well endowed....

If you hadn't guessed by then that you were watching Season 3 of “Full Swing," the cavalry was on its way: more slates clap over more famous faces, Tom Kim tells his puppy "you're on Season

3 Netflix, buddy," and within five minutes, they even get Ben Stiller on camera saying, "I started watching ‘Full Swing,’ it's great. … It's really well done."

This is nothing new—“Full Swing” has always been a show that insists on itself—but where in past seasons the self-consideration verging on narcissism seemed like tactical bombast, promoting something bigger, louder and sexier, now all that "this ain't your daddy's golf" bravado feels like insecurity. When you're afraid that you don't have the goods, one time-honored strategy is to loudly proclaim that you have the goods.

And they'll proclaim it repeatedly....  My biggest memory of the first two seasons is that each clip is repeated ad nauseum.

Sounds like we don't need to tune in for a bit:

If this sounds a little brutal so far, rest assured that at times in its third season, “Full Swing” really does have the goods, mostly in the final two episodes. In fact, the very last scene of the last episode is classic “Full Swing”: just when you feel at your most underwhelmed, they hit you with something so jaw-dropping that it not only makes the entire ride feel worth it, but instantly adds a level of almost delirious intrigue to the 2025 season. (I won't spoil it, but I won't need to—it involves Keegan Bradley, and you're going to be seeing it everywhere soon enough.)

Other times, though—frankly, too often—they're drawing dead. In the trailer, there's a focus on Scottie Scheffler's arrest, Rory McIlroy's divorce, Bryson DeChambeau's comeback from the dire days of 2021 and the U.S. Open drama at Pinehurst. As it happens, they end up putting all four of those stories in one episode, and from my perch as someone who was very excited to get new information or at least a deeper perspective from the main figures on any one of them, the result is a significant disappointment. There's just not much there that you haven't seen, and it seems that the principal characters—all of them featured subjects this season—simply didn't want to talk about it.

 And some amusing bits:

While we're enumerating complaints, there is also the persistent feeling from past seasons that the talking heads are being fed their lines rather than speaking them organically, and that certain proclamations are meant to build drama in ways that stretch belief (the show's depiction of Gary Woodland and Camilo Villegas was mostly superb, but the assertions in the final two episodes that they're "one of the most beloved players on tour" is not based on any reality I recognize). There are narrative issues, too. We see a full hour of Olympic build-up, but aside from a throwaway mention in an earlier episode, you’d barely know Scheffler won gold. And in a throwback to Season 1, the coverage of majors seems disjointed at best. (It must have been annoying for the producers that Xander Schauffele, who allegedly had a major hand in limiting their Ryder Cup access last year, won two of them.) In these moments, it becomes impossible for “Full Swing” to feel immersive.

Allegedly?  I guess someone is still worried about access.....  But the bigger issue is, if players such as Xander and Patrick are that worried about protecting their image, there isn't much of a reason to watch, is there?

The very same Shane Ryan seems to be reacting quite differently here:

6 key lessons we learned from 'Full Swing' Season 3

I didn't know it was supposed to be educational.

1. Keegan Bradley is even more intense than we thought

Last season, Bradley was a great subject, and having the cameras follow him around as he tried

and eventually failed to make the Ryder Cup painted a picture of a man who, more than other professionals, lives and dies with his fortunes on the golf course. After Bradley endured a decade in the wilderness, with a few snubs along the way, his Rome rejection at the hands of Zach Johnson hit you like a sledgehammer, even though you already knew what happened. This season, there's redemption for Bradley, who not only makes the Presidents Cup team, wins a big Day 1 match and clinches the winning point, but also gets named Ryder Cup captain.

Through much of the season, the story is uplifting, but in the final moments, with a speech to the Presidents Cup team that begins with "I've been underestimated my whole ****ing life," you can see the red-hot fire burning. We won't spoil what comes next, but to call it bulletin board material for Team Europe is a massive understatement, and it shows yet again that beneath a sometimes placid exterior, Bradley burns with a desire to prove himself, fueled by a strong undercurrent of resentment for the respect he feels he deserved but never got.

Spoiler alert, bet you didn't see this coming?

"I'm gonna get criticized as the captain next year. They're gonna underestimate me, they're gonna doubt me. I've been doubted my whole f-----g life. That's when I do my best work.

"We're gonna go to Bethpage to kick their f-----g ass."

Great, Keegs, now do a road game....

To me, these bits actually sound far more interesting than the Scottie/Keegan/Rory bits:

1. Ludvig Åberg making coffee

In some ways this is the heart of this show right? To see some human side to these golfing cyborgs? After all, we know what it’s like to watch Ludvig Aberg hit a golf ball. (It’s very cool

and impressive.) We know what it’s like to watch him win a tournament. (Also very cool and impressive.) We know that look; he’s in his golf uniform, in his golf mindset, hitting shots under pressure, going through the ritualistic car wash after, celebrations and interviews, all within the confines of a TV broadcast.

But what’s it like when he’s trying to froth milk with a new coffee machine in his new North Florida residence?

2. Neal Shipley pondering a late-night order — at Augusta National

Aberg takes the role of leading man during the opening episode, but amateur Neal Shipley is an

unexpected delight. He’ll make you laugh and he’ll make you feel and he’ll take you inside a round with Tiger Woods, but first he’ll take you inside a different corner of Augusta National than we’ve ever seen: the Crow’s Nest, where the amateurs stay tournament week (though often just for a night), and where we learn that dinner is served until 10 p.m. The fact that Shipley is coming from dinner doesn’t seem like a disqualifier as he mulls a second session.

Shipley is a known character, and I've acknowledged that Ludvig's facial reactions might be the best the TGL has to offer.

I will probably watch it in Utah, though the timing does oddly conflict with the Tour's other non-traditional offering....

The Day After Golf League - The memo has gone out and it's a home run....  Oops, wrong sport from which to analogize.  Still:

‘Golf’s getting better’: Pros discuss secret key to TGL’s continued surge

The technology has made the pros look silly at times. The simulator has seemingly had moments where it didn’t read the flight of the shot properly, leading to pros looking confused when a shot they thought was hit well drifts off course.

While the tech remains imperfect, the players are starting to figure it out, as evidenced by the lessons Tony Finau got from teammates Collin Morikawa and Sahith Theegala during his lone practice day at the SoFi Center.

“When it came to hitting into the screen, I noticed for my fade, it’s easy to hit it up the left side of the screen, and I felt like it wasn’t coming back, so I started to aim a little bit more to the right, and I kind of watched Collin and Sahith hitting, and it wasn’t anything they told me, but just watching them,” Finau, who signed a one-match contract with LAGC said.

Makes sense that there might be a learning curve, but it's probably more important that the matches have been more competitive.

It would take a heart of stone not to laugh at this, however:

TGL has been a success in Year 1 but a potential playoff issue looms

Rory keeps telling us that the key to the future is that we know when he (and his BFF) are going to play.  So, this has to be a positive, right?

As a result, the last few weeks of TGL have shown the best of what the league can be. The matches have been competitive, the golf has gotten better as players have figured out the tech, the stars have completely bought in and it’s attracting interest from a wide swath of people.

With the playoffs on deck, TGL is set up nicely for a big second season that could see the league

expand and bring in more of the world’s best golfers. Tony Finau just played on a one-match contract for Los Angeles Golf Club and raved about the experience. Jason Day and Brooks Koepka (who knows what the future of reunification holds) have been in attendance. The league should also look into adding LPGA players as they look to the future.

A strong playoff season would do the league wonders as it looks to capitalize on its new-found momentum. There’s just one problem: TGL’s two biggest needle-movers are currently on the outside of the playoff picture with one match to go.

As TGL looks to build to a crescendo at the end of its inaugural season, it would greatly benefit the league to have both Woods and McIlroy’s teams in the playoffs.

I have not been able to confirm this, but you know that Tiger and Rory are already working on how to reduce TGL field sizes for Season 2....  

Meanwhile,  this is the latest viewership trend line I can find:

Week 1 - 919,000

Week 2 - 1,005,000

Week 3 - 682,000

Week 4 - 864,000

Week 5 - 544,000

Week 6 - 365,000

Week 7 - 546,000

Week 6 is a bit of an asterisk because that was 3 separate matches and an average of those three.

Removing the Pilot in Week 1, the two big weeks featured Tiger Woods.

That paints a pretty good picture that without Tiger, you are looking at in the neighborhood of a little over half a million viewers.

Two weeks in that 500,000 viewer neighborhood and this observer seems to assume it's sustainable.  Color me skeptical, but shouldn't we expect those numbers to jump for the playoffs?  I mean, it's all on the line....  The audience sizes seem awfully small to this observer, though it's true enough that nobody actually watches real golf.

I shall leave things here.  My travel schedule is up in the air, so please do check back early and often and have a great weekend.