Issue No. 237 | August 6, 2025 | Read Online

I have been absent from this newsletter (my job) for nearly two weeks now.

Jason held things down last week by sending his JUGS rankings, which I was thankful for (and amused by).

My absence was part vacation that turned into a bit more than that.

I will probably disclose the full story at some point, but let’s just say I found myself in a hospital bed last Saturday evening contemplating ways Young Cam was going to kick away a Tiger-sized lead.

He didn’t, thankfully, and I am back home now (also thankfully), not fully recovered but certainly ready to share a few thoughts I had about the golf world over the last few weeks.

But First!

Today’s newsletter is presented by Holderness and Bourne.

H&B is is giving away $500 worth of Ryder Cup merch to Normal Sport readers.

Here’s how you can win it.

1. Follow H&B’s account on X (Twitter) right here.
2. Comment on this post with who you think should be the last four picks on the U.S. Ryder Cup team.

That’s all — best of luck!

OK, now onto the news.

11 Thoughts I Had on Vacation

1. Last time we chatted, I (unfairly?) left you with my current Ryder Cup team and absolutely zero explanation. Here it was.

Scottie
Xander
Bryson
Harris English
Henley
Spaun
JT
Spieth
Griffin
Burns
McNealy
Morikawa

I mostly stand by it, though I saw my guy JLM propping Cantlay up as a lock with no concerns (which seems crazy!). I will say about Cantlay that his demise (like Morikawa’s) is greatly exaggerated. He’s been fine — not amazing, but fine — over the last six months. Here are Ryder Cup-eligible players sorted by SG over the last six months. Cantlay has been better than all but four European players, which is hilarious and instructive.

The reason I left him off my team is that I don’t really view him as a plus in the locker room. However, he was kind of a dog in Rome. Maybe the only dog.

So I’m not totally sure what to do with him, which leads me to No. 2 …

2. I kinda don’t think it matters all that much. I believe this is mostly where I’m landing on the last 3-4 spots. Here’s the top eight right now.

Who do you want to throw in the 9-12 spots? Do you want the familiarity of Spieth, Cantlay, Burns and Wyndham? The juice Keegan brings? New faces with McNealy, Young, Gotterup, Griffin and others?

I honestly think any of those combinations will be fine at home.

3. Why am I saying this? Well, the last two Ryder Cups at home have been 36-20 good guys. Not close. And while those two Euro teams were worse than this one will be, and those two American teams were probably better than this one will be, I think the home advantage is so overwhelming that I’m not really that concerned about the last four spots on the team.

4. Here’s a stat I discovered wile perusing Data Golf on my trip (yes, sadly true).

If you look at best players at each spot on the teams, the U.S. has the advantage in 10 of 12 spots. True. In terms of SG over last six months, the U.S. has been a lot stronger.

1. Scheffler > Rory 🇺🇸 
2. Rahm > Bryson 🇪🇺 
3. Fleetwood > Henley 🇪🇺
4. JT > Straka 🇺🇸
5-12. U.S. 🇺🇸 

And only one other Euro (RNP) has been better than the U.S.’ 12th best guy (Xander) over the last six months.

5. We get very wound up about Europe’s names — Ludvig and Hovland and all those Rasmuses — and rightfully so. They are much sexier than Henley, Spaun and Griffin. And on paper, it looks bleak for the U.S. But man, they just haven’t been as good this year as the Henleys and Spauns and Griffins.

Look at this!

And listen, I (of all people!) know Ryder Cups are not won on data golf dot com or in spreadsheets. And the U.S. is definitely still vulnerable. But let’s not just look at the two sides and declare a Euro rout just because Ludvig’s name is more trustworthy and easier to project than J.J. Spaun’s name. The U.S. side has been much stronger this season than anyone would think by just looking at the rosters.

6. Spieth? My nurses asked why my blood pressure spiked, and I just played this clip for them (tl;dr Andy eviscerating Spieth, calling him a fringe PGA Tour player).

I’ll be the first to admit that Spieth is not what he used to be, not what he once was. But we should also collectively admit that all of it is confounding in that nobody has ever done what he did age 21-25 and then fallen off like this. No historical precedent. Which makes the acceptance of whatever the last few years have been even more difficult.

Also, here’s a fun one.

We talk about Griffin like he’s conquering the world and Spieth like he’s a borderline KFT player! Different expectations, sure, but my gosh.

7. Also, while we’re here, the strokes gained discourse needs to be kept in check. Is strokes gained a good measurement of a single player in a single tournament? Not really. It’s pretty noisy in the very short term. I’m even leery of it when you’re talking multiple weeks. There are just too many things that can affect it.

But in the medium-to-long term, there is no better objective way to determine who is playing good golf. Does this mean it can determine who will play well in match play at the Ryder Cup? No. Should it be used as a determinant of who makes the Ryder Cup team? As a tool, sure. Does Europe normally outplay its SG numbers heading into Ryder Cups? Yes, especially at home.

It’s extremely difficult for a player to be something other than his SG number in the longer term, and what SG tells me as it relates to Spieth is that over the last six months, he’s been better than Collin Morikawa, Daniel Berger, Xander Schauffele, Ludvig Aberg, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick. Most of whom will be Ryder Cuppers.

The two things working against Spieth.

1. He has gotten a lot of exemptions into signature events. I disagree with this and am very much against it. It is unfair and bad from a competitive standpoint. However, he has also played above average to pretty well once he got in, which is all that should matter from a Ryder Cup perspective.

2. No contention. Not all SG numbers are created equal, and Griffin’s are more impressive because he won (Colonial), nearly won (Memorial) and got in the mix at the U.S. Open at Oakmont. Yes, pros aim for high levels of consistency, but you wouldn’t take Spieth’s season over Griffin’s when Spieth’s consistency has led to no real contention at all.

8. I did not mean for this to turn into a Ryder Cup-only newsletter (I never do). But speaking of Griffin, I listened to this interview with him and Soly on my vacation and it was awesome.

One of my friends said it well: Maybe the perfect mix of cocky and humble.

9. This Cam Young-adjacent image made me laugh. The hardscrabble upbringing gets a proper denouement!

For those who missed the joke, it happened at St. Andrews in 2022. Cam grew up at Sleepy Hollow — literally on the property! — and he was asked the following.

Anyway, good for him for getting his first at Wyndham. He’s not my favorite kind of player — zero emotion, never talks — but he’s solid and was impressive throughout last week.

I went and looked up the best players (by SG) since the start of 2022 sorted by wins.

The five best players with one win in that span.

Spieth
Young
Morikawa
Conners
Day

The five best with two wins in that span.

Cantlay
Fleetwood
JT
Henley
Sungjae

10. A non-exhaustive list of people/things I found myself grateful for over the last two weeks.

1. Jason Page, David Hill and Jeff Smith — You know Jason, but all three are partners and co-founders on this venture, and they are easy to lean on while I’m away. Glad for them.

2. YouTube golf — Some NLU, some Phil, some Horvat, some Scottie, some Bryan Bros. I actually watched a decent amount while I was away and enjoyed almost all of it.

3. Psalm 27 — elite, elite stuff.

4. That I mostly missed all the Happy G II stuff — I just … don’t think I can do it.

11. Paradise, great show. Finished it on vacation. Absolutely loved it. If you have any other recs for me while I rest up, please send them my way.

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