Rory McIlroy was standing on the range at East Lake Golf Club during last year’s Tour Championship in Atlanta discussing Patrick Reed being suspended by the PGA Tour after he bolted for Saudi-backed LIV Golf when he let out a revealing reaction in the game’s ongoing civil war.
“And dropped spots on the world rankings,” the Northern Irishman quipped as cameras for Netflix’s “Full Swing” were rolling. “Beautiful!”
The moment, revealed (spoiler alert) in the final episode of the docuseries that dropped on Wednesday, peels back the curtain on the dissension between the rival circuits and in particular the feelings of McIlroy, an outspoken critic of the controversial new league almost from its inception.
The series also premieres, coincidentally, a month after the infamous “tee gate” incident between Reed and McIlory at Emirates Golf Club in which the former flicked a tee at the latter after being intentionally ignored by McIlroy on the range at the Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour last month.
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McIlroy also revealed in his pre-tournament press conference in Dubai that week that a member of Reed’s legal team had hit him with a subpoena on Christmas Eve (for a lawsuit that Reed is not involved in) over an antitrust complaint against the PGA Tour.
Later in the finale of the Netflix series, McIlory takes a jab at LIV’s most notable signing, six-time major champ and World Golf Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson.
While undergoing treatment in the physio room, McIlroy was talking about Bills QB Josh Allen and his being a fan of the PGA Tour before adding that Allen is a Mickelson fan, “so I don’t know.” Someone can be heard responding, “Sounds like the guy is losing credibility!”
With everyone laughing, McIlroy let loose, “F–k you, Phil,” before adding that he hoped that made the cut.
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Other details revealed included McIlroy telling PGA Tour chief of operations Andy Pazder that players were “blindsided” by commissioner Jay Monahan saying the new “elevated” tournaments on tour would be “mandatory” for the game’s top players.
“I don’t know if Jay has communicated this to you,” McIlroy said. “but about that ‘mandatory’ … there’s been a lot of blowback on that by the guys in the room.”
Pazder responded, “Really?”
“They were sort of blindsided by it,” McIlroy said. “That’s sort of the feeling. We knew there were going to be four elevated events, but we didn’t know anything about them being mandatory.”
“Full Swing,” which began filming a year ago this week, consists of eight episodes and is streaming now on Netflix. Taping for a second season is already underway.
This story originally appeared on the NY Post and is reproduced with permission.
