EPISODE 5 – In the Shadows
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On the 18th green at the U.S. Open in 2022, Alex Fitzpatrick was one of the first people to hug brother Matt Fitzpatrick after his emotional major-championship breakthrough. Now, a year later, Alex is as motivated as ever to step out of his brother’s shadow and prove that he, too, can make it on the game’s biggest stage.
This episode follows the Fitzpatrick brothers from competing together at the Zurich Classic (a team event on the PGA Tour) to Alex, four years younger than Matt, getting through qualifying to participate in his first-ever major, The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool.
Alex Fitzpatrick played poorly at the Zurich (just one week after his brother won a Signature Event, the RBC Heritage, on the PGA Tour schedule) but earned his own way into The Open and finished T17, beating his brother in the process.
BEST MOMENT
The conclusion of the episode was a really nice payoff. For people who aren’t hardcore golf fans, the fact that Alex managed to keep his fine play going for four straight rounds at The Open and did manage to finish better than Matt gives the viewer – and Alex himself – some hope for the future.
There was also a laugh-out-loud moment when a fan asked Alex for his hat but called him “Matt” and Alex muttered, “He would’ve had my hat if he’d called me Alex.”
WHAT WE LEARNED
With this episode, the narrative was pretty quickly baked in. Viewers get it – Alex is a major champions’ younger brother, and he also plays golf but he’s about 700 spots higher in the world ranking. Although it felt like, at times, viewers were knocked over the head with that idea, the familial connection is real and strong, and you can just tell Matt does indeed want the best for his brother.
EPISODE 6 – Pick Six
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At this point in the year, the PGA Tour season is well underway, and Justin Thomas (one of the main characters of this episode) has had a year very much unlike his usual – especially at the major championships, where he missed three of four cuts. Thomas, however, is laser-like in his desire to want to join the Ryder Cup team. During The Open Championship, Thomas stays at a house for the week with Rickie Fowler (who is also gunning for a pick) along with Jordan Spieth and captain Zach Johnson – lending itself to a great TV moment with all four of them at dinner. Johnson is another focus of the episode along with the arc of Keegan Bradley. Bradley is also looking for a pick and had a career resurgence in 2023 winning the ZOZO Championship in the fall of 2022 and then won again at the Travelers Championship in the summertime, his hometown event. Bradley ends up 11th in the standings and awaits a call – along with Fowler and Thomas – from Johnson.
BEST MOMENT
Everything to do with Keegan Bradley and his obsession with the Ryder Cup, including the suitcase that has gone unpacked from the 2014 edition. Bradley has played on two Ryder Cup teams, losing in both, and the passion he has to return to the biennial event just oozes out of him.
WHAT WE LEARNED
Playing on the Ryder Cup is really unlike anything else in men’s golf, and having to sit and wait to receive a call to become part of the team – versus making it on merit – is an emotional rollercoaster.
EPISODE 7 – All Roads Lead to Rome Part 1
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This episode gets quickly into the action as we land directly with American Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson who is tasked with making his captain’s picks. Spieth is up first and doesn’t answer – turns out he was changing a diaper – but he’s in. Brooks Koepka, who won the PGA Championship earlier in the summer, is also in. Rickie Fowler gets choked up when he finds out he’s in, too. Then it’s Keegan Bradley, and unfortunately he’s out. The team has decided to go in a different direction, according to Johnson. There’s great emotion in this scene (viewers find out later that the team had Bradley’s address wrong and called him just minutes before Johnson called him, and Bradley thought it was because they were going to set up to film his emotion for getting picked) and Bradley takes it honourably. Johnson then calls Thomas and he’s in, too, even though Johnson said Thomas didn’t make it easy on him. We then pivot to Europe, led by Luke Donald, who picks Tommy Fleetwood, rookies Sepp Straka, Nicolai Højgaard, young superstar Ludvig Aberg , along with major champions Shane Lowry and veteran Justin Rose. The teams roll on to Rome and the Ryder Cup begins with Europe getting off to a 4-0-0 start after the first session.
BEST MOMENT
Again, the emotionally charged section with Keegan Bradley was the best of the bunch. It’s obviously disappointing, as compared to everyone else’s excitement (Justin Rose finding out he got on the team while playing soccer with his family in the backyard was done very well, too) but it made for one of the most powerful 60 seconds or so from either the first or second season of the program.
WHAT WE LEARNED
With this episode, it’s hard for the American side to shake the “old boys club” mantra when it comes to its Ryder Cup team. Between Johnson staying with Spieth, Fowler, and Thomas at The Open Championship (from Episode 6) and he telling Bradley that the team wanted to “go in a different direction,” it’s almost no surprise to know why the European side feels more like a team. Donald, contrasted to Johnson, seemed to pick the perfect group to compliment his superstars (Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, and Viktor Hovland).
EPISODE 8 – All Roads Lead to Rome Part 2
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We’ve reached the finale of Season 2, as the whole 2023 campaign has us land at the Ryder Cup. Europe has busted out of the gate to a 4-0-0 lead and end up leading 6.5-1.5 after the first day. “Friday was one of the best days we’ve ever had as a Ryder Cup team,” Rory McIlroy says. McIlroy was in the middle of some high drama after the second day, with he and Patrick Cantlay’s caddie getting into a bit of a testy exchange on the course that boiled over into the parking lot afterwards. We all know what’s happened by now – getting no new information or perspectives was a little disappointing – and the American side would head into the final day down five points. They put up a valiant effort, but the European side is just too strong. Team Europe wins the cup, via a Rickie Fowler concession to Tommy Fleetwood, 16.5-11.5. It makes sense that most of the focus was on the two captains – Luke Donald and Zach Johnson – while McIlroy, who opened the second season, also got to have the last word in the finale.
BEST MOMENT
Hard to top the celebration of Team Europe after a long week. The emotion pouring out of the guys – Donald and McIlroy, especially – was strong, while it was nice to get some storylines tied up after spending almost one-third of the season on the Ryder Cup. Having the cameras keep rolling on Joe LaCava’s celebration alongside Cantlay (which sparked the disagreement between Shane Lowry, McIlroy, and others) and picking up some more audio to let the viewers into what was being talked about on the green was excellent TV. It’s too bad we didn’t get any locker room access, however, nor was there any visuals from the after-party, which would have been an all-timer.
WHAT WE LEARNED
While these two Ryder Cup episodes were the most golf-recap heavy (likely due to not having the behind-the-scenes access like at a regular PGA Tour event), there really is nothing like this team event. The scale, the emotion, the potential for drama – it’s all right there, and makes for excellent storytelling.