By the fourth season of Netflix’s documentary collection about Formulation 1, “Drive to Survive,” the streaming firm had loads of proof that it was onto one thing: Rankings and attendance for Grand Prix occasions, in addition to merchandise gross sales, had been surging.

So Netflix executives started discussions with the present’s producers: What different sports activities are on the market?

“It actually confirmed us that the ceiling was a lot larger than we would have thought,” mentioned Brandon Riegg, the Netflix vp of nonfiction collection.

On Wednesday, Netflix’s newest sports activities documentary collection, “Full Swing,” which focuses on males’s skilled golf, will grow to be accessible, simply weeks after its tennis-focused collection, “Break Level,” debuted.

For years, Netflix executives have resisted paying for the rights to hold reside sports activities, whilst streaming rivals like Amazon, Apple and YouTube have chased them aggressively. Netflix is as a substitute pursuing a extra modest technique, constructing out a sports activities lineup targeted on telling the tales past the leaderboard — and at a significantly smaller price than for licensing rights to reside video games.

It’s not clear if “Full Swing” or “Break Level” will come near matching the impression of “Drive to Survive.” Rankings for the Australian Open males’s remaining, which came about a little bit greater than two weeks after “Break Level” was launched, hit a decade low.

However, Netflix executives are assured in specializing in leagues that haven’t “actually been coated in an exhaustive method in comparison with another sports activities,” Mr. Riegg mentioned. {And professional} golf and tennis are bursting with enthusiasm on the prospect of getting access to Netflix’s 230 million paying subscribers, and are hopeful of the type of bump that Formulation 1 obtained from “Drive to Survive.”

“It turned individuals not into simply ‘What’s F1?’ but it surely turned individuals into precise die-hard followers within the U.S. that might flip it on Sunday morning — it’s on at like 5 a.m.,” mentioned Collin Morikawa, the 26-year-old golfer who has gained the British Open and the P.G.A. Championship, in an interview at a placing inexperienced in Arizona.

For a while, the PGA Tour has been trying to do a documentary collection to assist increase the game’s profile. In June 2017, tour executives met with Netflix officers to debate the opportunity of a collection. Netflix handed on the time as a result of it had not but found out its sports activities technique and the idea was “too unbaked,” Mr. Riegg recalled.

However by the subsequent 12 months, with the debuts of collection like “Nailed It!” and “Queer Eye,” Netflix started investing closely in unscripted tv. A documentary about Aaron Hernandez, a soccer participant who was convicted of homicide, was a success in early 2020, and “Drive to Survive” grew to become a success shortly thereafter.

For years, reside sports activities rights have been a subject of close to fixed debate in Netflix management conferences. However whilst executives have thought-about it, they’ve all the time settled in the identical place: The corporate’s cash is healthier spent elsewhere.

“We’re not within the enterprise of reside sports activities rights. We’re not within the enterprise of renting,” Mr. Riegg mentioned.

Netflix is open to doing documentary collection on extra in style American sports activities like soccer or basketball, Mr. Riegg mentioned. However it will want the entry, and the complete editorial management, that Formulation 1, golf and tennis have given it.

“Whether or not it’s reside sports activities or documentaries or reveals or fictional reveals about sports activities, sports activities resonate with nearly everyone not directly, so Netflix is aware of that,” mentioned Chris Wandell, a PGA Tour govt who was central to the negotiations in regards to the documentary collection.

Not lengthy after Netflix’s cameras started rolling, males’s skilled golf changed into a cleaning soap opera, with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund investing billions of {dollars} into the rival LIV Golf, a league that drew the defections of a number of main PGA Tour gamers, together with Phil Mickelson, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson. During the last 12 months, there have been lawsuits, in addition to heated debates over ethics, greed, energy and human rights.

Like “Drive to Survive,” the collection focuses on behind-the-scenes story traces, and producers gained entry to gamers’ locker rooms, properties and personal jets. Stars like Mr. Koepka, Mr. Morikawa and Jordan Spieth are featured, as are lower-profile gamers like Joel Dahmen.

“As quickly as they mentioned the entire individuals from ‘Drive to Survive’ are coming over and are going to do that, that’s instant credibility,” Mr. Dahmen mentioned.

Gamers and executives mentioned they welcomed an outlet that didn’t broadcast the game.

“Netflix’s observe report is fairly good, and it’s the most effective on this house,” mentioned Martin Slumbers, the chief govt of the R&A, the governing physique that organizes the British Open. “What is nice about them is they’re really a worldwide platform, and I believe if we had gone for a streaming that was extra simply U.S., U.Okay., I don’t suppose we’d have had the impression, and I’m undecided I might be as enthusiastic about it.”

The collection units out to current golf otherwise from the “considerably staid protection on CBS,” Mr. Riegg mentioned, referring to a longtime golf broadcaster.

“Folks suppose golf is a gents’s sport,” Mr. Koepka mentioned at first of the second episode. To disabuse such a notion, he added that rivals “wish to step on my throat, and I wish to step on theirs.”

If some die-hard Formulation 1 and tennis followers grouse that the Netflix documentaries higher serve newbies, “Full Swing” may be, at occasions, equally elementary. The opening episode explains primary scoring guidelines, together with what a bogey is.

“You understand how arduous it’s to clarify ‘par’ in a single sentence?” mentioned Chad Mumm, the chief inventive officer at Vox Media Studios, which, together with Field to Field, produced “Full Swing.” (Field to Field additionally produced “Drive to Survive” and “Break Level.”)

Netflix has not but dedicated to a second season of “Full Swing.” However finally week’s Phoenix Open at T.P.C. Scottsdale, “Full Swing” digital camera crews had been conspicuous.

Even when it doesn’t attain the heights of “Drive to Survive,” many gamers really feel that “Full Swing” can solely be a lift to the tour.

“If we will simply get a fraction of that,” Mr. Morikawa mentioned, “we’re doing fairly nicely.”