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As I write this, I am headed to Vegas to play some golf and get time with two guys who heretofore have only been internet friends.
That was a tough pitch to my wife: Hey, I met these two guys … online … and I’m going to Vegas with them to play golf and talk about business and stuff good luck with the kids see you in 48 hours.
She was very gracious – which I’m grateful for – and now I’m in a group where somehow I am the least accomplished niche newsletter writer.
Will report back on the festivities.
Onto the news.
Today’s newsletter sponsor is a new one that we’re excited to announce as a 2025 partner. Meridian Putters is a company that you’ll be hearing a lot about from us over the next year.
Their story is easy to root for and, like us, they somewhat accidentally found themselves building a golf business. We write and illustrate what’s going on in the golf world while they forge awesome putters from hunks of metal so it doesn’t feel like there are many similarities there, but the, “Wait, is this is a business?” narratives are more or less the same.
We’ll get into all of that in the future and bring you tons of news, information and stories about them. For now, though, you should check out what they’re doing and keep an eye out in this very newsletter for the line of junior putters — powder coated pink, blue and green — that they’ll be releasing before Christmas.
I can’t wait to see them.
Three other things on partnerships that have become clear throughout the process of joining up with different businesses and people in this industry.
1. We will encourage you to support businesses that support us.
2. We are not testers of equipment, nor do we aspire to be. We want to partner with businesses who have great products and stories that we connect with. Meridian fits in that perfectly.
3. It has become clear to us that (and maybe this was obvious all along and I just didn’t realize it) trust — not my writing or Jason’s illustrating or the size of our newsletter list or anything else — is our most important asset. We have earned it over time (I think!), and it’s something we talk a lot about not squandering. It’s something we will attempt to protect at all costs, which is something we tell our partners as well.
When we jump into business with other companies, we’re never going to tell you things like “Well we hit 20,000 putts with this putter and the coefficient of restitution was superior to the other 17 putters we tested.”
No, that would be insane for us. Good for others, absurd for us.
What we will say is that the products and services we partner with are great and the stories are easy to fall in love with. That’s it. That’s the whole thing, and it’s something that we think is easy to get behind and support.
After a year and a half of basically nothing, interest piqued over the weekend when The Sun — not sure what it’s tantamount to in the U.S. but feels like a cross between National Enquirer and Sports by Brooks? — declared that the framework has in fact been agreed upon.
It hasn’t.
In lieu of The Sun’s report (if we’re calling it that) I would point you toward Bob Harig’s writeup. This part from Harig in particular struck me as incredibly bleak.
“The sweetener for golfers who stayed loyal to the PGA Tour is likely to be another massive cash injection into the £1.2bn fund created this year to reward those players,” The Sun wrote.
“The DP World Tour will also benefit, as their ‘strategic alliance’ with the PGA Tour will be reinforced, with extra cash diverted for prize money.”
That fund is referring to the equity shares that are being awarded to players based on investment by the private equity company Strategic Sports Group, which in January agreed to spend $1.5 billion, with a commitment for another potential $1.5 billion.
The player equity program that was later announced will see various shares go to players but they need to vest between four and eight years. And the money is not just sitting there waiting for them. It needs to be earned through the profits of PGA Tour Enterprises, which means not only does that staggering sum need to be earned back and then some, but so does a return for SSG, and eventually, the PIF.
What’s unclear is if this means that more money would be directed to players who remained loyal to the PGA Tour and turned down LIV offers?
And I’m supposed to care about … any of this?
All I read when I read stuff like this is the following: More money needs to be made than is reasonable, and we are going to squeeze this thing not only until every last drop has been extracted but the particles of the thing itself begin to disintegrate. The thing we are holding will look like the Sahara after we get done squeezing it.
And the thing, I am sad to prognosticate, that is being held is – either directly or indirectly, implicitly or explicitly – going to be the fan of regular, non-major championship professional golf.
Maybe that’s not how it goes in the future, but it’s certainly how it feels in the present.
We built this little thank you page for anyone who signs up for the newsletter. That means every new subscriber gets an opportunity to share their story because as one of my friends said recently, “Everybody has at least one insane golf story.”
This, it turns out, is true.
Here’s this week’s.
I played a college tournament with a kid who refused to tell us his scores. He would put up fingers to show what he had on the previous hole. I assumed he may have an issue speaking … nope! His teammates told us after he just does that sometimes.
Todd J.
Me reading that …
I thought this one was great.
And I can’t stop laughing about the idea of Scottie and Sam Burns pulling it off on the 17th at Bethpage next year after winning a colossal match against, like, Matt Fitzpatrick and Shane Lowry.
Can you imagine Scottie, arms at his side, on his neck on the 17th green at Bethpage?!
Would need to have this fellow on speed dial.
Who are we kidding? There’s only one right answer to Brentley’s question.
“When work is your idol, success goes to your head and failure goes to your heart.” -Tim Keller
That one got me.
When work has been an idol for me, I have experienced both sides of what he’s describing. The success did go to my head, and the failure did go to my heart. There’s no way around it.
Other than not making work an idol.
👉️ This thread on golfers as candy is pretty amazing.
👉️ This on five-tool golfers from Jamie Kennedy — I think — originated in a conversation we had in his Q&A. It’s really interesting and discloses just how good Xander is.
👉️ This explanation of what Rory is doing with his swing by LKD is excellent. Could listen to these from LKD all day.
👉️ I threw out a question about what the most normal sport moment of the last decade is. The answers did not disappoint, and they were mostly about Spieth. Obviously.
👉️ One source I have been reading a lot in the months leading up to the election is Tangle. If you, like me, are broadly interested in politics or what’s going on with the world but don’t have time to get in the weeds every day, I think Isaac does a terrific job of presenting the talking points of both sides and then giving his take on things. It’s really well done, and the way he thinks about building his business is smart.
👉️ Most clicked on Tuesday: The new Keiser course in Florida (which was confirmed this week)
👉️ Most clicked on Friday: How the election will shape the future of golf.
👉️ Most clicked on Saturday: This filthy Morikawa spinner.
If you missed my Q&A with Gabby Herzig from Saturday, you can read it right here.
Gabby is terrific and has been doing awesome work for the Athletic alongside Brendan Quinn and Brody Miller. She said a lot of interesting things, but this part about her grandparents introducing her to the game stood out to me.
My grandparents taught me about how special it is to get to know a stranger on the golf course and use the game to experience the world. They demonstrated how the game can be a never-ending exercise in personal development.
(Ex: My 90-year-old grandfather is still regaining his strength from a tough case of Covid, but the fight to get back those extra five yards keeps him chugging along every day.)
They showed me how to use golf as an escape, a therapy session, a networking opportunity, or even just a few hours of light exercise. Each of golf’s benefits is better than the next.
I hope to help my children and grandchildren find the same love and appreciation of the game’s multifaceted advantages, just as Carol and Harvey did for me.
My grandfather and Jason’s grandfather also introduced us to the game, and we thought the way Gabby framed her experience with her own family was so lovely.
As we all know, golf can feel very inaccessible, stuffy and honestly just kind of stupid to people who have a certain perception of it. But at its core — and this is what I tell friends who haven’t played — it’s just a three- or six-mile hike in nature with other people. Oh, and you carry around 14 metal sticks while you’re hiking and stop every once in a while to bat them at the air.
Each of golf’s benefits is better than the next.
We all know and believe that we should be …
And golf is a perfect excuse to do just that.
Forget the score and the architecture and all of that. It’s just a good and fun way to practice physical, emotional and social healthiness.
I think if more courses and complexes were designed from that perspective, we would get more 12-hole or six-hole loops, and golf would feel like less of a high society endeavor and more of what it is … the most communal game ever created.
The perfect meme doesn’t didn’t exist.
• I think this sums up the entirety of my text thread with JLM.
• This got me pretty good.
• But this got me the most. Mrs. Normal is always hollering about how arrogant I am re: my kitchen cleaning. You always have a stupid dishtowel draped over your shoulder like you just polished the Sistine Chapel or something!
• Shane Lowry looks more like Travis Kelce than Travis Kelce looks like Travis Kelce.
No, not a referendum on today’s race. Sorry.
Not sorry, actually.
One of the unintended joys of jumping into the newsletter full time has been our Friday Q&As. I have loved working on them, thinking up questions and I always learn a ton from the subjects.
Last week, I asked you guys what type of people you want to hear from.
Here are the results.
These numbers are not surprising, but the quotes were illuminating.
Here’s a sampling.
We are down to ~150 ad spots over the next 12 months that are currently unspoken for. The rest have been filled.
We would love to sell out of our remaining inventory before the year is up so that we can focus solely on writing and illustrating in 2025 as well as merch and our TBD membership program.
So if you have a service or business that you think might be a good fit to partner with Normal Sport, you can fill out our partner form right here.
Shane Ryan had a political thread on Twitter today that was very much his opinion and his take and his thoughts on the election. You can read it if you want, but what you should absolutely read is the way he ended it, which I loved.
However it pans out, however it makes you feel, try to find the humanity in everyone.
If there is a more apropos line for this newsletter and what I’m trying to do with it, I have yet to read it.
Thank you for writing that, Shane.
Thank you for the reminder.
Thank you for reading until the end.
You’re a sicko for reading a golf newsletter that is 2,639 words long.
I’m grateful for it.
"This is a sport comprised of millionaires traversing the globe, chasing a tiny white ball among various natural landscapes, adhering to a voluminous book of rules that no sane person can completely understand. Kyle captures the irreverent, joyous collective experience we all share as golf fans and reflects it as well as anyone. While golf (and all of us) walk through complicated times, we should savor this reminder that sports are fun."
"In Normal Sport, Kyle cleverly tells the story of the year in golf through his lens, yet manages to not make the book about himself. Anyone can list off the sequence of events of the last year. But Kyle has a special ability to both identify the most interesting moments to look back on, and at the same time, add his own personal flair that makes your time spent following golf feel worthwhile."
"Normal Sport is a deep retrospective of the golf year disguised as a group text with your buddies. It balances thought-provoking, serious topics with the most ridiculous things that happen in the game we love. It's a must-read then a must-read again."
