Thing is, the McIlroy who appears in the series isn’t just McIlroy the golfer. It isn’t even mostly McIlroy the golfer. The whole series is suffused with the fight that went on throughout 2022 over the future of pro golf. The breakaway LIV Tour, the PGA Tour’s response, the corralling of the troops by the leading names in the game, led by McIlroy and Woods. So the Rory we get is part-time union rep, part-time golfer.
Not so fast there, Jay. “There’s been a lot of blowback on that from the guys in the room,” McIlroy tells tour official Andy Pazder over lunch the next day, with the Netflix guys hovering a couple of feet away. “They were kind of blindsided by that. That’s sort of the feeling. We knew we were going to have elevated events but we don’t know anything about them being mandatory. I told them yesterday, ‘If I’m willing to do this, so should you be.
Rory McIlroy on the 11th tee during the second round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Photograph: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images