Canadian pals Nick Taylor, Adam Hadwin chronicled in newest 'Full Swing' season

Adam Hadwin walks up to a bartender and asks if there is any way they could put some hockey on TV.

He's with fellow Canadian Nick Taylor and, of course, they want to watch their beloved Vancouver Canucks.

This scene is played out fairly regularly between the long-time pals, but this specific instance comes from the second episode of the popular Netflix golf docuseries Full Swing which, in its third season, features the friendship storyline of the two Canadians — and culminates with the finale at the Presidents Cup at Royal Montreal.

Both Hadwin and Taylor grew up in Abbotsford, B.C., competed against each other, played at the same golf club, lived together while they were starting their careers, and have now both become PGA Tour winners. Their friendship storyline is bundled together in an episode alongside a similar tale with Irishmen Rory McIlroy and Shane McIlroy entitled Through Thick and Thin.

"When we were initially approached, both (Taylor’s wife) Andie and I were like, 'Well why do you want to see us on TV?'" Taylor told Sportsnet with a laugh. "But I think when we really talked about it, they were great with us even though we kicked the can down the road for a couple months about doing it.

"But we thought if this is part of our lives and with our kids being young and us being able to chronicle it and document it in a way that’s truly unique, we saw something cool with that."

The Canadian duo played a strong role in what series executive producer Chad Mumm says is a character-driven season that even non-golf-fan viewers will enjoy for a variety of reasons.

"For us, it was about getting back to, tone-wise, what worked in Season 1 and what made it such a broadly appealing show," Mumm told Sportsnet in an interview from Los Angeles.

The first season of Full Swing was the 267th-most-watched title through the first six months of 2023 out of more than 18,000 titles included in a Netflix report, despite its mid-February release.

"With the goal being that in mind," Mumm continued, "I think we hit it out of the park this year."

This season features dozens of the game’s biggest characters including McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig Aberg, along with, for the first time, two caddies (Scheffler’s looper Ted Scott and Sahith Theegala’s man Carl Smith) and a woman (Min Woo Lee’s sister, Minjee Lee, who plays on the LPGA Tour).

There are incredibly emotional episodes like one focused on Gary Woodland as he returns to the PGA Tour from brain cancer surgery, and one with Camilo Villegas, who helps the International Presidents Cup team as an assistant captain — and wins again on the PGA Tour — about five years after the tragic loss of his toddler-age daughter to cancer.

Within that mix, there’s also the story of the two Canadian pals which, from a story-telling perspective, leaned on Taylor’s incredible success — starting with his dramatic 2023 RBC Canadian Open victory — and Hadwin eager to join his friend at the top of the game.

"Adam and I have become closer as the years have gone on, especially after we both had kids," Taylor said. "The last few years we’ve been much closer (than) even when we were living together. I think they did a good job of (showing) that."

The production team already had good content with Taylor after his monumental win at the RBC Canadian Open along with his victory at the WM Phoenix Open early in 2024. They also had an existing relationship with Adam and his wife, Jessica.

"It’s Season 3 so we really know what works now. We really feel like we know the show and we can be a little more targeted about storylines because we know what’s going to pay off and what’s not so we can focus our energy," Mumm said.

Hadwin told Sportsnet some of the shoots — like the aforementioned restaurant scene — were a bit different for both him and Taylor.

Speaking with fans at a tournament or with media after a round is one thing, but rocking up to a bar with a camera crew was obviously unusual.

"That dinner might have been the most awkward Nick and I have ever been around each other," Hadwin said with a laugh.

Hadwin said as the year chugged along he and Taylor knew their friendship storyline would be tied together somehow versus an episode solely focused on just one of them. There was still no guarantee that the duo would be featured at all, though. For example, cameras followed Rickie Fowler for the entire first year, but his story wasn’t featured until Season 2 because there was no big payoff.

The unfortunate reality of making good television is that sometimes the payoff doesn’t mean it’s a happy one. For Taylor and Hadwin, it was exactly that. Despite their multi-decade friendship and their climb up golf’s ladder together, they did not make it to Royal Montreal as part of the Presidents Cup.

However, that episode was still Mumm’s favourite.

The Netflix team had tremendous access to the players (Mumm said International captain Mike Weir "really bought in" and his wife, Michelle, who was on both The Bachelor and was a television host in Utah, was "a real pro") and of course, there’s a baked-in conflict.

"Team competitions are great because you have 12 winners and 12 losers," Mumm said. "There are strong emotions on both sides — win or lose.

"It’s the perfect Full Swing episode. It’s just got all the things."

Although Hadwin and Taylor weren’t on that team, they can reflect now on their experience with the show as a fun one.

"It certainly kind of sucks that we weren’t able to cap it off with a trip to Presidents Cup together. It would have been a nice finish for Nick and I to play together and win a match and end the episode like that and not on a more downer note," Hadwin admitted with a smile.

"Some of it was a little uncomfortable, but one of Jess and I’s conversations at the end of 2023 before filming in 2024 was, 'How often, if ever, would you have a chance to do something like this?' If you’re going to do it, do it. You can’t really say no now and try to do it two years later. It was fun."