“The Full Swing” is a documentary series on Netflix that explores the world of golf and professional golfers’ various challenges and triumphs. Episode 5 of the series focuses on the LIV Golf Tour, a new professional golf tour (Spitzer, 2023). The golf expedition promotes gender equality and diversity in the sport. Various aspects such as diversity, ethics, global awareness, and justice have been showcased differently.
Diversity
Throughout the episode, several ways diversity is shown on the LIV Golf Tour are highlighted. Some include Gender Equality: The LIV Golf Tour uniquely features male and female professional golfers competing in the same events. This differs from traditional professional golf tours, which typically have separate events for male and female golfers. By featuring male and female golfers together, the LIV Golf Tour seeks to promote gender variety in the sport.
The LIV Golf Tour also aims to promote racial diversity in the sport by featuring golfers from various racial and ethnic backgrounds. Throughout the episode, golfers from countries such as South Korea, India, and Spain and golfers of African American and Hispanic descent are seen. This diversity of backgrounds and experiences adds to the tour’s richness and helps break down barriers in the sport. Another way assortment is shown on the LIV Golf Tour is age. While many professional golf tours tend to feature younger players, the LIV Golf Tour includes golfers of all ages. This includes golfers who are in their 20s and 30s, as well as golfers who are in their 40s and 50s. By including golfers of different ages, the LIV Golf Tour can demonstrate the many different paths that golfers can take to become successful in the sport.
Global Awareness
‘Full Swing’ vehicles the journey of six young golfers worldwide as they try to make it to the 2018 Masters Tournament. In episode 5, titled “Fitting in,” global awareness is presented in several ways. Firstly, the episode features two young golfers, Kaitlyn Papp from the United States and Albane Valenzuela from Switzerland, discussing their experiences of feeling like outsiders in the predominantly male sport of golf. They reflect on the challenges and stereotypes they overcame as women in a male-dominated fields. Their discussion highlights the importance of global awareness and recognizing people’s experiences from different backgrounds.
Secondly, the episode illuminates the international nature of golf and the diverse backgrounds of the players. One of the golfers featured in the episode is from Mexico, and we see him and his family discussing the challenges of being undocumented immigrants in the United States. This segment highlights the intersection of sports and politics in that countries must be intentional about their relations to promote golfing and the importance of understanding people’s experiences from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Finally, the episode also touches on the mental health issue and the stigma still surrounding it in many parts of the world. The of the golfers featured in the episode, Albin Choi from Canada, discusses his struggles with anxiety and depression and the challenges he has faced in seeking help (Jongseong et al., 2020). This segment highlights the importance of understanding that mental health issues are a universal challenge affecting people from all backgrounds.
Ethics
The Full Swing also highlights several ethical issues primarily affecting women, including fairness and discrimination. One moral issue that is highlighted is gender inequality in sports. Women’s sports have historically been underfunded and undervalued compared to men’s sports, resulting in a need for more opportunities for women athletes to compete and showcase their talents. The LIV golf tour seeks to address this issue by providing a platform for women golfers to compete at the highest level as their male counterparts.
Discrimination is also an ethical issue in the episode. The LIV golf tour was created to address discrimination against women in golf. The episode discusses how women golfers have faced discrimination and bias in the sport, including being denied opportunities to play and paid less than men, as is seen in South Korea. The episode also highlights how the LIV golf tour seeks to challenge these biases and create a more inclusive and diverse golf community. Overall, Full Swing Episode 5 raises several ethical issues related to gender equality, fairness, and discrimination in sports and highlights how the LIV golf tour is trying to address these issues.
Justice
In this episode, justice is primarily demonstrated through the competitive nature of the LIV Golf Tour. The tournament features top female golfers worldwide competing for substantial prize money. The players’ performances are evaluated based on their skills, strategy, and mental toughness, ensuring that the winner is the most deserving and just. The documentary also highlights the role of the LIV Golf Tour in promoting gender equality in sports (Ehlert, 2020). Tour’s founders aim to create a level playing field for female golfers, providing them with the same opportunities and recognition as their male counterparts.
Through interviews with players and organizers, the documentary showcases how the tour empowers female athletes and challenges gender stereotypes in sports.After watching the LIV documentary, I got the complete picture of what golf competitions were all about and how the LIV golf tour works. Like any other sport, golf sport has its challenges with how it operates. (Dickin et al., 2020). I understood that the LIV association wants to help professional golfers grow by providing healthy competition and opportunities to shine.
LIV Tour Challenges in Comparison to Other Sports
Just like other sports, the LIV tour, as seen above, dwells on the challenges facing women’s professional golfers. The episode highlights female golfers’ difficulties in securing sponsorships, making enough money to support themselves, and achieving equality with their male counterparts. When compared to other issues in sports, the challenges facing female golfers are similar to those facing female athletes in other sports. Historically, women’s sports have received less funding and attention than men’s, leading to disparities in pay, facilities, and opportunities.
The gender pay gap is a significant issue across all sports, with female athletes typically earning less than male athletes. According to Forbes, the highest-paid female athlete in 2021, Naomi Osaka, earned $55.2 million, while the highest-paid male athlete, Conor McGregor, earned $180 million. This disparity in pay is even more pronounced in team sports, where male athletes can reach millions of dollars per year while many female athletes struggle to make a living wage due to a lack of funding. In conclusion, LIV is a leeway into the lives of female and male professional golfers, the challenges they face, and their golfing journey. It provides insight into the world where little is known so that people can appreciate golfers more.
References
Dickin, C., Edwards, N. & Wang, H. (2020). Low back pain and golf: A review of biochemical risk factors. Sports Medicine and Health Science, 2(1), 10–18. Web.
Ehlert, A. (2020). The effects of strength and conditioning interventions on golf performance: A systematic review. Journal of Sports Sciences, 38(23), 2720–2731. Web.
Jongseong, A., Chua, L. & Gabriel, W. (2020). Optimising Golf Putting. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 19(2). Web.
Spitzer, G. (2023). Full Swing. Web.