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3. Windows are interesting. Which window do you care about most as it relates to evaluating players and their performance? 10 years is too long but 10 weeks is too short. Is 10 months too long, too? What about six months? Or 12 tournaments?

I asked Rick Gehman one time what the most predictive window is, and he said right around 50 rounds, which I think is fair. That’s between 4-8 months for the top players, which is enough time to move in one direction but not so much time that you’re a completely different player (i.e. Spieth in 2017 vs. Spieth in 2021).

Anyway, this is a Scottie take. Because you can turn the dial to any window, and he’s the best (and it’s not really that close).

Here’s 50 rounds.

Here’s 12 months.

Here’s 24 months.

As JLM and I discuss in our upcoming exchange, strokes gained is not everything, but one thing strokes gained does well is tell a decent story over a broad period of time.

There are a lot of interesting takeaways here. These are three.

1. Rahm is underrated right now. Like Morikawa, though, at some point you have to cash in your SG and turn it into wins, and until he does that, he’s in a bit of a purgatorial space.

2. Scottie is doubling the strokes gained of the 13th best player in the world over the last two years (Niemann), and he’s a stroke better per round than the fourth best golfer over the last two years (Bryson). What?!?!

3. JT is back. Officially official.

4. I am reading Ethan Strauss’ book, The Victory Machine, right now. It’s really interesting on a number of levels, and I enjoy it primarily because it’s barely about basketball. It’s more so about everything that’s not basketball.

One takeaway (I’ll have more later)...

1. There is a Rory-KD parallel that I floated to Neil at the Masters that I’m not all the way in on but can kinda-sorta get there. They are very different in some ways. KD is much moodier and more discontent. Almost definitely more online.

But there are a lot of similarities as well. This hit me again when I read this paragraph about Strauss hanging with KD at a hookah bar when KD first got to San Francisco. KD was waving everyone into the VIP area, including Strauss and a group of naval officers.

Strauss details this fascinating interaction where KD, perhaps the greatest basketball player on the planet at that time, was hammering these naval officers with questions about their world, their jobs and their lives. Curiosity.

Despite the differences between Rory and KD, this nugget highlights their similarities, too. Both seem to be curious and empathetic in ways their peers are not.

Each is a top 15 player ever in his sport.

Both care (although KD more so) about what other people say about them. Both have said things and given answers that they would probably love to have back. But neither can help himself when asked a question. They both find it imperative to share how they are feeling about a topic in that very moment. Both have tried not to, but it goes against their nature. They are both honest to their own detriment.

Both have made stupid (and public) mistakes that make it seem like they are like us.

Both remind you very quickly that they are not.

5. Speaking of Rory, I am intrigued by a phrase he has used now twice in relation to that Sunday at ANGC. Here’s what he said at Philly Cricket Club on Wednesday.

He has not done a sit down yet about the specifics of that day, but I want to know what’s going through his head on the tee at 15. What he’s feeling after he hits it up the left and doesn’t know whether he has any kind of line for his second shot in. I have said this many times now, but I truly think the most remarkable part about that day is not the shots he hit or the way he won but his ability to function within this tiny sliver of time he was afforded that he may never get for the rest of his life.

It’s the time that I keep thinking about.

For all of these guys, it goes so quickly on a Sunday at a major. But you can at least talk yourself into getting another opportunity to win a major later on. Being up four on the back nine with eight to go and the slam in sight? Never happening again, and you know it in the moment. That must be crushing. Must be! It cannot have even been fun.

This is perhaps the best summary …

Also, I stumbled into this Rory recitation of the last 35 Masters winners. He was only off on himself by a year.

6. This interview of Victor Dubuisson is really good. He talks a bit about his decision to quit pro golf in his early 30s and about how the Ryder Cup was (by far) his favorite event. Here’s a quote from him about deciding to retire because he was tired of pro golf.

Dubuisson is such an interesting character, and I loved that quote in the last two sentences: I knew I was not happy anymore with this life. Instead of doing bad things I prefer to do what I wanted to do.

It is a privilege to be able to do what one wants to do, of course, but one that many people (not just golfers) have the opportunity to take but shun instead. Why? Many reasons, but I think sometimes because we believe that, No, really, THIS win or THIS million or THIS deal is finally going to be the one that satisfies me.

Spoiler: … It’s not.

7. Saw this quote the other day and it took me off my feet.

I … I think I agree?

Theologian John Piper — who I don’t agree with on everything, to be clear! — once said the following.

It sounds crazy (and possibly even dumb), but I’m definitely a believer. I can see sentences or phrases or even tweets in my mind that lit me up. An example: This book title. You don’t even need to read the book!

[Jason here] Even with the all time great rounds, our minds go back to the one shot. Tiger's bunker 6i, Bubba's hooked wedge, Happy’s tower putt, Rory's slinger. Even without mentioning the tournament or date you remember the shot and the magnitude of the moment.

8. I have not listened to the entire podcast yet, but Michelle Wie’s recent idea that all men’s majors and women’s majors should be played at the same spots every year is provocative (not sure if she means ANGC).

She’s obviously a bit biased given that she won her U.S. Open in a year when the men and women played the same course, but the context of having both the women and the men at the same venue every year would be pretty incredible.

I’m sure there are a million reasons why organizations and (especially) courses wouldn’t want to do something like that, but the upside there for both sides — men and women — is tremendous.

9. Spieth talking Scottie last week was really insightful. It’s obvious, but you don’t often hear three-time major winners say, “Yeah, that guy is just better than I am.”

Counter: I heard a little nugget at the Masters from someone that Scottie has said something similar about Spieth. Basically: This guy is unreal at home, but then for whatever reason it doesn’t click on Tour.

Not sure how real that is, but I thought it was intriguing and would also be very on brand for Spieth.

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