Issue No. 222 | June 26, 2025 | Read Online

For all my former baseball players, this is our deuces newsletter.

Won’t happen again for another 2,000.

Swing thoughts. We all have them. We all change them. We’re all psychopaths. Mine right now is “slow back and then get through it.” Do I know what this means? Barely. But every time I’m over a tee shot I’m thinking, “Slow slow slow and now get through it.”

Helpful? Who can say. I shot 46 on an easy golf course and lost my church league championship match earlier this week because … I couldn’t get off the tee.

So maybe not.

On Tuesday, I drove down to Houston to cover maybe the most unique (and most normal sport) event I’ve ever covered. Endurance athlete Kyle Cokinos played 810 holes across 24 hours. He hit ~3,000 shots. Took ~125,000 steps.

Instagram post by @kidcoki

The whole thing was insane. I interviewed him afterward, and I’ll have that for you later this week, but I’ll leave you with his swing thought, which absolutely made me cackle after he ran 100 miles while swinging a golf club.

“The devil is the great deceiver.” Literally the thing going through his head while he was playing!

Not sure why, but that made me laugh out loud.

Maybe I should try it next time out.

Oh, by the way, if you missed it on Tuesday, we launched our Holderness and Bourne collection. Right now, it’s available to purchase for Normal Club members only, but everybody can view it right here.

Onto the news.

Speaking of swing thoughts … today’s newsletter is presented by Garmin and its world class Approach R50 launch monitor and simulator, where perhaps you can also play 810 holes in a single day.

During these oppressively hot summer months, you can easily tap into insights, select courses, review impact videos, or play a virtual round (subscription required) straight from the 10” built-in color touchscreen display 

These virtual rounds — which including putting — can be played with up to four players on more than 43,000 courses through Home Tee Hero, all viewable from the Approach R50 display.

The cool thing is that no additional gaming computer or phone connection is necessary. You can project the course if you want, but you can also just play directly on the device. I’ve done it, and it’s awesome.

Here’s a crazy thing that just popped in my head: I’d like to give one of these devices away.

Here’s the deal … we are currently at 884 paid Normal Club members, which is astounding to me. Our goal for the year was 1,000.

If we hit 1,000 before the end of the month — the halfway point of 2025 — I’ll buy one of our new members an Approach R50 ($5,000 value). If we get to 997 or even 999, no dice. But if we hit 1,000 before 11:59 p.m. on June 30, then I will send one of these Garmin launch monitors to member No. 885 or beyond.

You can sign up for our Normal Club membership right here.

Also, we don’t do many discounts throughout the year, but all Normal Club memberships will be 10 percent off from today until July 1.

Just use the code normalsportmidyear at checkout.

OK, now onto the news.

13 Thoughts on Keegan and the Ryder Cup

Let’s get right to it. Also if you missed the monstrous giveaway I’m doing, see just above.

1. Maybe this makes me foolish (actually, giving away a $5,000 launch monitor probably makes me more foolish), but we should start here so you know where I’m coming from: I loved Seth Waugh’s outside-the-box selection of Keegan as the 2025 U.S. captain.

I think it may have leaned a bit on the “Man, sort of feel bad for this dude after he got his world set on fire in front of several hundred million (potential) viewers on Netflix, let’s … give him the captaincy!” but I think that can be true and you can still like and believe in the selection. That’s where I’ve been throughout the year.

There are some caveats (see below), but that’s my starting point.

2. Keegan as captain gets the U.S. out of its circular captaincy that looked a bit like this: Furyk —> Stricker —> DL3 —> ZJ —> Furyk —> Stricker —> Wait aren’t all of these guys kind of the same guy anyway?

I think moving on from that circle is probably a good thing in the long term. If you’re not going to have a clear hierarchy within Team USA (see my thoughts on this below), and I don’t believe they ever will, then Keegan is a really good “I’m 12 years ahead of these guys, but I’m still in their circles and I’ve seen our missteps over the years and think I can correct them” guy.

I also wonder how much the captaincy matters on U.S. soil. Truly.

One stat has swung the last five Ryder Cups. Since the start of the 2014 Ryder Cup, the U.S. has scored 4 of a possible 24 points in foursomes on the road as opposed to 11.5 of a possible 16 points in foursomes at home. Is that a captain thing? Or is it just a home/away thing? Do European captains suck because they can’t win road foursomes?

The U.S. genuinely should have won its last four home Ryder Cups in a row, and I’m not sure it was the captaincy that made this happen ⬇️.

3. Let’s zoom out for a minute. When I think about great national teams, I think about Jerry Colangelo and USA Basketball.

He took over a program that had finished 6th in the 2002 world championships and lost to Puerto Rico, Lithuania and Argentina in Athens in the 2004 Olympics and failed to win gold.

Here’s how he got started in the position over all of Team USA.

There was no vision, no continuity and little leadership in USA basketball (does any of this sound familiar?). After he took over, he rebuilt the culture from the ground up and from 2006-2016, Team USA went 50-1.

This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes …

• More on how USA hoops can influence USA golf.

• Why you need The Juice on the road.

• And how Keegan changed my mind.

If you aren’t yet a Normal Club member, you can sign up right here.

If you are, keep reading!

Join the Normal Club to read the rest …

Normal Sport is supported by exactly 884 deranged individuals. By becoming a member, you will receive the following …

• Our very best stuff during majors.
• The delight of helping us establish this business.
• Possibly a new Approach R50 from Garmin (see above!).

By clicking below to join the Normal Club, you will also have first rip at our new H&B gear right here.