Rory McIlroy to film crew: "Stay away from Erica and Poppy!"

Rory McIlroy has revealed the ground rules he made clear to Netflix producers before signing up to the golf documentary Full Swing.

Ben Smith

10 Feb 2023

Rory McIlroy to film crew: "Stay away from Erica and Poppy!"

Rory McIlroy needed some convincing to take part in the Netflix documentary Full Swing.

The four-time major champion had initially planned to watch the first season and then take it from there.

But after the emergence of the LIV Golf League, the Ulsterman, 33, was persuaded by the shows exec producer Chad Mumm that he needed to be involved.

That was after a year like no other in professional golf in which McIlroy took centre stage as the chief critic of LIV Golf.

McIlroy duked it out with Greg Norman. The PGA Tour panicked and started throwing more money at their stars.

Madness.

Mumm recently told Mirror Sport that producers met with McIlroy several times and were told he wanted to focus on playing golf.

Then finally, McIlroy was in.

"We told him we needed his voice, there was no guarantee we could do this again and if he waits, people won't hear from him until 2024 at the earliest and now is the time," Mumm told the publication.

That being said, McIlroy had some ground rules.

Erica Stoll was a no go. Nor were they allowed to film his parents Rosie and Gerry. His daughter Poppy was also off-limits.

And he wasn't going to let the cameras inside his car.

McIlroy explained:

"Yeah, I sort of took the attitude of see how the first season works out, see if I like it, like the idea, feel comfortable letting cameras get into my life a little bit more. But I had a good chat with Chad in the summertime.

"Obviously with everything that's going on in the world of golf, he just said having my voice in there in some way could just add a layer of context that wasn't there already."

He continued:

"I made sure that the parameters were very much like, look, you can film me at -- you're not coming to my house, you're not coming in my car, you're not coming anywhere near my family, but you want to do some stuff with me at golf tournaments, totally fine. They were the ground rules that were sort of set, and here we are."

Full Swing will be available on Netflix from 15 February.

"It looked like I didn't have a backswing"

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McIlroy also added another impressive shot to his highlight reel at the PGA Tour's Waste Management Phoenix Open.

McIlroy explained that he hit a pitching wedge at the first full-field elevated event.

He said:

"It looked like I didn't have a backswing, but I didn't realize the angle, like how far right the green actually was.

"So I got over it, I was like, okay, I needed to take it a little bit more on the inside than I usually would and sort of just toe it in a little bit, but I sort of got lucky because the wind was hard off the left and I needed to hit that hard draw against the wind, and it was the only way to stop it on -- that green I feel like is the firmest green on the course, so it was the only way to stop it.

"I got lucky with the tee shot that I had a swing, but I hit a great shot and was delighted to walk away with a par."

Next page: Rory McIlroy sends ominous message to his rivals