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Issue No. 189 | April 22, 2025
Two things before we get to the news.
1. I am pulling off the accelerator on this newsletter just a bit over the next few weeks because 1. I need to rest a bit following the Masters and 2. We are working on turning all of our 2025 Masters content into a little book (!)
Books — as Jason and I found out with Normal Sport I, II and III — are very difficult, and while this one doesn’t require much new writing since we wrote and illustrated the entire thing during Masters week, it does require a lot of attention to detail.
The digital version of the book will be free for Normal Club members, and we hope to offer a print version (not free) to everyone, as well.
We aren’t totally sure when it’s going to drop, but we wanted to do this because it’s such a pivotal moment in golf history and we’re nimble enough to make it happen somewhat quickly.
Also because so much of our work during majors seems to just disappear like that [snaps fingers]. This is as much for us — to have everything from one of the best weeks of our careers in one tidy place — as it is for everyone else.
This is the type of experimental project our Normal Club membership (just shy of 800 now!) allows us to test out.
So thank you for that.
Also … let us know your interest level (this is not a commitment to purchase anything!).
2. I have a few leftover items from, uh, a merch store I visited in Georgia two weeks ago. I will give them away randomly to two of our next five Normal Club members.
I will also buy a copy of Golf Is Art 3, my friend Jeff Marsh’s upcoming photo journal, for one of the next five who join.
So three of our next five members will receive something immediately after become a Normal Club member, which you can do right here.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Meridian Putters.
Meridian’s putter names have been inspired by places. The one depicted below is an ode from one South Carolina town to another. It’s called the Charleston Mid Slant.
There is a power in place. Like ANGC, the RBC at Harbour Town has a familiarity that reminds us of our memories of Hilton Head.
Even when we’re hungover from the Masters.
I recently asked Meridian founder, Ryan Duffey, about why he named his company Meridian and where the putter names — Charleston, Key West etc. — come from.
Here’s what he said.
I'm a big ocean guy. What I was thinking of is something straight. I was thinking of all these different nautical names just because that was where my head was going, something straight and true.
There's a Jimmy Buffett song song that mentions the prime meridian. I was like, “Meridian … that might be it.”
All of a sudden, meridian is a line that goes all the way around the globe, and it's straight, it's true. I was thinking, “Oh, you can make a logo with it. That looks like a ship steering wheel.” Then it just started going.
Honestly, there's a little Jimmy Buffett inspiration in a lot of it. That's where everybody's like, “Why all the beach towns? Why all the towns in the south?”
It's places that … there's just something about them that inspire me a little bit. It's a weird nautical connection that drives the business for me.
Ryan Duffey | Meridian Putters
Naming your putter business after a Jimmy Buffett song is as normal sport as it gets, folks. Which is why we would love it if you would support Meridian Putters.
• I gotta be honest, I didn’t watch a ton until Sunday. I’ve never done illicit drugs, but whatever it feels like to come down off of those, must be what it felt like for me to return to regular life after Masters week.
But I did have a few thoughts.
• Andrew Novak — who I interviewed recently — has an aspirational pace of play. Aspirational! Wanted to see him get it done, but he’s kind of getting into some interesting Ryder Cup territory (which we’ll get into).
• Here’s a JRay special. Since 1960, six players have won 16+ times on the PGA Tour, including multiple majors, before age 32:
Arnold Palmer
Jack Nicklaus
Johnny Miller
Tom Watson
Tiger Woods
Rory McIlroy
Justin Thomas
And it begs a question from a few years ago: Will JT (16 wins) ever trail Spieth (13 wins) again?
• This made me laugh.
• This from JT on how Xander helped him with his putting is really good and especially this specific part.
I think it's a serious, serious, serious skill to continue to work on the things that you do really well and not doing it differently, and I think that's been more of what it is.
Justin Thomas | 2025 RBC Heritage
Doubling down on what you do best is so counterintuitive to the point that it can feel stupid. Oh I’m already great at that, I need to work on this other stuff. And yeah, of course, we can all always get better in multiple areas, but think about it like this …
Imagine a scenario where someone is the best elephant saddle maker in the world and they have gotten there because of the work they’ve put in. Once they climb the mountain, they start thinking, You know what, I think I can be elite as a producer of elephant food, too.
Not only will it take too long for them to get good at making elephant food, the time they spend working on becoming a good elephant food maker will take away from the time they need to continue putting in to remain the best elephant saddle maker.
They will become net worse overall.
That’s an extremely stupid example and I do not know where it came from (here’s a better one), but the point is that in most cases, I believe you should double or triple down on the gifts you were given in lieu of trying to dramatically improve your deficiencies.
• Also, I guess, roll tide.
• It has been interesting to see two of the best of the last 10 years — JT and Rory — talk openly about the struggle to win over the last two weeks. Here’s what JT said on Sunday.
I just feel like my game is in such a better place and in a good spot to where I'm just really trying as hard as I can to get myself in a place mentally of just trusting and playing and just committing to what I'm doing and having the belief that it's going to be good enough the more often I get myself there.
I've done that a couple times this year and haven't been able to close it out.
Justin Thomas | 2025 RBC Heritage
The word that comes to mind: Control. Relinquishing it. Not squeezing it too tight. Trusting that your best is good enough to win trophies. It’s so difficult in golf, even more so for the guys who are expected to win at the level JT is expected to win at.
Another word that comes to mind is … of course … perspective. Had to do it to ‘em.
• This graphic is sick. Can you imagine not only having played all of these golf courses on a regular basis but also owning the course record at all of them?!
It begs the question of which three courses you would want to hold the course record at. I think Winged Foot is up for there for me. I’m not officially committing to this answer, but it would be tough to talk me off of ANGC, Winged Foot, Shinnecock. although I want to throw Muirfield, Carnoustie and RCD in there too. Tough.
• The PGA Tour’s run since March 1 ...
▶️ Henley chips in for eagle to beat Morikawa at Bay Hill.
▶️ Rory wins a Monday playoff at the Players.
▶️ Hovland miraculously defeats JT at Valspar.
▶️ Min Woo downs Woodland and Scheffler in Houston.
▶️ Harman wins Texas.
▶️ Rory wins the Masters (lol).
▶️ JT's first win since May 2022.
Every single winner or runner up is a major champion.
1. Honestly don’t even really care to know the context.
2. Same with this one.
3. And finally …
I went on the Bag Drop podcast this week and talked for nearly 90 minutes with Matt Considine, Kevin Moore and SMartin about Rory’s Masters win. All three of them made brilliant points, but I thought this from Matt was especially insightful.
The moment for me was when he dropped the club on 10 and he ended up 15 feet below the pin and he buried the putt. Rory's brain believes he would blow it. I fully believe that his deep part of his brain thinks he will blow it.
That's the doubt.
Matt Considine
This is the part he’s talking about.
He continued.
No matter how confident we are, how committed we are to something, how prepared we are, how good we are at it, that doubt is a very, very instinctual human trait.
I was talking to my wife about this on Sunday. There are evolutionary things protecting us, right?
So when we were animals in the wild … is that rustling in the bush? Is that wind? Is it a predator? You know, the doubt is to alert us and to give us caution.
… Sean, you already talked about the self preservation. That's why I saw the segue here into my doubt thought. Self doubt protects [us] from failure.
It definitely holds us back.
Matt Considine
I thought that was such a great call. I was standing up the left on 10 when Rory hit that shot and my first thought was, “Oh no.” My second was, “The full Hideki!”
And my third was, “Hmm, that was odd.”
But I never put the thought into it that Matt did. In retrospect, though, it almost feels like Rory’s subconscious and his talent were warring against each other the entire back nine, and this is the only time — the club flip plus the terrific shot to 15 feet — you can truly see both of them come out at the exact same time.
Imagine being so good that your talent overwhelms that level of doubt.
Anyway, here’s the full pod. It was a total blast to chat with everyone on there.
👉️ The only time I’ve ever laughed harder at a Shotgun Start episode than I did at the Duffy Waldorf thing is when Porath was yelling into the phone after Caves Valley (which, if you haven’t listened to it, is one of the great moments in Golf Twitter history — it starts at ~7:00 here).
👉️ Gabby’s annual disposable camera thread from ANGC is always great.
👉️ There has been a lot of consternation this week about … a photo? Brandel said he thought this photo of Rory “may be the greatest sports photo” he has ever seen, and people lost their minds, which amused me but is also telling.
We’ve made this journey with the Rory haterz over the last three weeks.
HAHAHA YOU FOOLS … He’ll never win another major!
HAH OK, but if he does, certainly not the Masters!
Well he did, but it wasn’t pretty enough.
And yeah he won the slam, but the celebration stunk.
Oh and have you seen this photo of Dwight Clark?
To quote the great philosopher, Taylor Twellman …
👉️ This little thread on which players have three legs of the grand slam is super interesting. Arnie and Tom Watson had 58 combined rips at the PGA Championship, and either of them winning would have completed a slam but neither of them could do it. That’s pretty wild.
Thank you for reading a golf newsletter that is 2,072 words long.
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Kyle's content is a product of a sick sense of humour, a clear passion for golf and unquestionable dedication to hard work. That's not normal!
Kyle is one of the best in the golf world at finding and synthesizing the absurd, the thoughtful and the fun things that make being a golf fan worthwhile.
Few make the sport feel as fun and as thought provoking.
Kyle is the best columnist in sports. That he has channeled those talents through strokes gained and Spieth memes is a blessing to golf.
It's a treasure trove of the important, the seemingly important, and — importantly! — the unimportant stuff. It's an asset in my inbox.
There’s been no one else in golf that has tickled my funny bone as often as Kyle Porter does. He’s been instrumental in ushering in a new era of golf coverage and it’s been a pleasure to be along for the ride in that.
Kyle sees golf in a way that no one else does—and we're all fortunate to get to share in that view through Normal Sport!
Kyle approaches coverage of the game with both conviction and curiosity
The way Kyle has been able to mold a silly Twitter joke (normal sport) into a must-read newsletter on the weekly happenings in our silly game gives a great look into why he's one of the smartest people in golf.
Normal Sport is exploratory, ometimes emotional, always entertaining. It also has one of my favorite writers in the biz at its foundation.
I’ve always enjoyed your love for golf. So often I see favoritism showed to golfers in the social media world, but I enjoy reading you telling a situation how it is regardless of the person.
Kyle is a perfect curator of the necessary moments of levity that accent a sport that will drive most of us insane.
