In the latest episode of Not Another Golf Show, Ben sat down with Chad Mumm, executive producer of Full Swing, to discuss what’s ahead in season three, which debuts February 25 Netflix. While you can listen to the full episode here, we wanted to consider the more textually inclined as well.

Check out a portion of their conversation below, lightly edited for clarity.

Ben: So you mentioned the personalities, the sort of characters. Who are we gonna see here this year?

Chad: I think the big breakout stars…Neal Shipley in episode one is going to really stand out to people. We sort of internally thought of Neal as the closest to like season one Joel Dahmen as a character and in some ways…even more relatable because he’s just like a college kid. Right? And you know, who among us like wouldn’t fantasize about being a college kid who ends up paired with Tiger on Sunday at the Masters? And Neal is just a very honest and funny person in general. And he’s just an interesting character. You go from his college dorm with his five roommates, basically to, you know, Butler Cabin, in like a couple of weeks. Pretty cool. I really think Neal going to be a breakout star.

Obviously Ludvig…and Scottie are sort of the other two big characters in season, in episode one of season three. Ludvig makes us look really smart because, obviously, just winning at the Genesis…sort of like the culmination of the storyline that we really start in that episode…this kid is for real. He’s also easy to look at. So hopefully our fans of easy-to-look-at people will find…

Ben: Yeah, if you don’t mind handsome Europeans…

Chad: …yeah, exactly. You’ll find something to like there. Then the other ones that stand out to me, we finally got to really do a caddie episode that we’ve been sort of talking about for a couple of years and really focused on Carl Smith and Ted Scott. Carl, Sahith Theegala’s caddie, and Ted was Bubba’s caddie and now Scottie’s and, you know, just a different look at pro golf at a different side of it that has like just as real stakes for everybody involved. I’m really proud of that episode. That’s episode four.

I think the Gary Woodland story is one that I’m very proud of. Obviously, we had amazing access to Gary. He was very open to kind of let us film with him throughout his treatment for his brain tumor. That’s just so much bigger than golf. It’s health and fatherhood, and where you sit, and looking at the meaning of life. I think when our show does stuff like that, it’s so compelling.

Full Swing: Season 3. Rory McIlroy in Full Swing: Season 3. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

And then, kind of culminating with the Presidents Cup really being built around actually the assistant captain, Camilo Villegas and his personal tragedy and his wife’s personal tragedy and how the sort of international golf community rallied around them in their darkest moment…It’s just, if you’re a parent it will make you cry, but also it’s pretty inspirational. So, you know, I think that we really kind of nailed that mix. There’s stuff in there that you’ve never seen before. We had sort of unprecedented access to the Masters this year. We’ve always had good access at the Masters, but this year, they really opened the doors and gave us real access in a way that we even didn’t have before. So I think, for hardcore fans, seeing the Masters from the inside, like you see in this season, I think is really exciting.

We get a point of view on the Scottie arrest that no one’s really had before. There’s a lot of footage in there that people haven’t seen, and I think that will be exciting and kind of, if anything, make you appreciate that round that Scottie shot on that day even more because you could just hear how scared he was in the moment and how uncomfortable it all was and how out of control it felt. And then obviously, Rory continues to be a great interview as always…and to have like the Bryson storyline and them sort of coming to blows at Pinehurst…and just his, his emotional reaction to that kind of heartbreak in a way that only Rory can, you know, he just does such a great job of like baring his soul every, every season. It blows me away just how good of an interview Rory is…

Then we got our first LPGA player in the show with Minjee Lee and her and her brother trying to make the Australian Olympic team together. So, there’s really something for everybody this season. And I think it’s sort of a culmination of having done it twice before…really knowing where to pick our spots and which things work and which don’t. We’re still throwing out, you know, hundreds of hours, by the way, but I’m super proud of this season. I think it really does get back to the tone of season one, which had such a broad appeal. And I think that’s what our hope is kind of to nail this season and hopefully audiences agree.

Full Swing: Season 3. Justin Thomas in Full Swing: Season 3. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

Ben: What the heck is the process like? You’re sending cameras, multiple camera crews to multiple locations. And again, you’re planning for some things and then some things are reactionary. Like, how do you manage this? Then if you want to tie it into season three, were there any times where you really thought you would get something somewhere and didn’t, versus having to scramble to get resources somewhere for something else that turned out to be incredible? I mean, just, it seems like such a unique process…

Chad: The way we staff the show, it’s actually a lot smaller team than I think people will realize. We have these sort of four field teams that are typically made up of like a shooter, director, an audio person, an associate producer, and then basically a producer. And these are the four that are kind of like our SWAT teams. And they’ll bounce around, but for the most part, they kind of own a group of characters.

So, one group will have Neil, and the other group will have the other amateurs that we were following that didn’t make it in the show. And someone’s got Scottie…and the benefit of golf for the most part for our show is the times where we’re getting access is kind of the in-between moments. Like, in the locker room before or after a round or, you know, riding into the golf course or riding home or a home visit. But when they go out and play, obviously we can move on because we have access to all that broadcast footage. So…we don’t really shoot a lot of golf. If we are on the golf course, it’s typically like an off day or a practice round or something, or we’re following a family member who’s miked up. And so we’re not even really watching the golf. We’re watching them watch the golf…but that actually enables us cover a lot of ground because of the staggered nature of the way that tee times work. It’s like, you shoot Scottie in the locker room, and then you go and you leave and then you come back 10 minutes later to get Neil, and then you leave and then, oh, Ludvig’s coming in from his round…

Full Swing: Season 3. Scottie Scheffler in Full Swing: Season 3. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025

So you can’t actually cover a lot of ground. I think the best break we had this year was we had a crew at Valhalla on Friday morning, like at 5 a.m. because some of our cast had early tee times. And so we were there before dawn in the locker room, kind of waiting for, I think, for Rory to show up. And so we got like a kind of front-row seat to the Scottie news as it broke with players, which was really interesting. They were all just as shocked as we all were that it was of anybody, Scottie, and people were trying to figure out what was going on. So that was just another one of those moments where we just were lucky that we had cameras there that day. I mean, we could have, the day before we didn’t have cameras there that early. So we got lucky, you know, and I think some of it’s good planning. Some of it’s now kind of knowing, you know, what’s usable. I mean, season one, we shot a ton of golf shots that we never used because you could go follow a player for five hours during their round and like none of that stuff makes it in. So really we’re focusing on the moments where there’s like drama or tension and the sort of, or the family reacting to stuff. And so we’ve just gotten tighter about it.

The one thing I did want to mention, I think the other really fun part about season three is it’s a real behind-the-scenes look at Happy Gilmore 2, which we had cameras rolling throughout the filming of Happy Gilmore. I was a co-producer on that movie. I helped them bring a bunch of pro golfers to make cameos in the film. We had almost 30 current players and past players kind of make appearances in the movie — and not just like cameos. I mean…a bunch of lines and, you know, in wardrobe and doing stunts. I mean, it’s ridiculous. We had the Full Swing cameras rolling the whole time. And so the first kind of five minutes of the show or 10 minutes of the show is really behind the scenes of Happy Gilmore 2…I know the guys had a blast doing and it’s fun to be able to kind of tie those two things together.

Listen to the full interview below, beginning around the 30-minute mark.