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Big week for us at Normal Sport.
On Monday, we launched our paid membership product. Very well thought out by us to put it out there right in the middle of the most rabid time on the golf calendar during the … RSM Classic and Fortinet Australian PGA.
But in all seriousness, this week and the response from folks has been a thrill for us.
We started with about 4-5 months of runway in our business bank account. My goal is to just keep adding to that runway. A month at a time. Maybe two months in one chunk.
Perhaps it gets to a year.
I was talking to an entrepreneur friend the other day who said the best advice he had for me was … “Don’t run out of money.”
Me …
But it’s true.
It’s actually great advice and has been a north star for me over the last few months.
And if you haven’t become a member, you can sign up right here.
We would love to get to 500 by the end of the year. So much so that Jason built one of those financial thermometers Michael Scott used when he was trying to raise money for the office. 😂
And yes, that’s the Jackson pullover I’m currently wearing as I type this.
OK (almost) onto the news.
Today’s newsletter is brought to you by Holderness and Bourne.
This week, next week, all weeks, we’re thankful that 10 years ago Alex Holderness and John Bourne dreamed up H&B together on the Yale Golf Course and that 10 years later they’re supporting us to build our own company at Normal Sport.
They’re celebrating a decade of H&B with limited edition Yale Bulldog gear. And while many of us will be traveling [away from our golf clubs] in the next two weeks, they’ve got you covered with their fall collection to bring a taste of golf to the table.
If you recognize Yale #9 in this illustration, you’re in the right newsletter.
It’s November, which means it’s time for my guy LKD to absolutely cook. I love this video he made recently about Scottie Scheffler’s misses because it’s not really about Scottie Scheffler’s misses.
I mean, yes, technically it is about Scheffler’s misses but it’s also about how we play golf as amateurs (or at least what it’s supposed to look like). Here’s his amazing breakdown of Scottie’s season with a few of my own notes on the video below.
• First of all, insane behavior from LKD. Manually looking at 1,300+ shots … what?!
• I aspire to the level of class with which LKD says the word Masters. “Maw-stihs.”
• Like I said off the top, Scottie thinks about golf the way most amateurs should think about golf (but obviously don’t). That is: Don’t miss on the short side, don’t leave it short, pick big targets etc.
• Instead, I get up there like I’m 2005 Cat just ripping at pins three paces off the front with three bunkers surrounding the front part of the green. Very smart stuff.
• This. This stat right here on front pins is why Scottie’s great.
• To go along with this, Scottie’s best (and most underrated and possibly least talked about) skill is his humility. Why? Humility leads to tremendous discipline to not take on hero shots, which leads to very few mistakes.
• Here’s his bogey avoidance for 2023.
• And for 2024.
• You will be shocked — I mean shocked — to see that Spieth’s bogey avoidance number for 2024 nearly equaled Scottie’s aggregate number from both years.
• I love what LKD has been doing. More of these videos!
Rory McIlroy career OWGR wins: 36
Rafael Campos career OWGR wins: 2
And yet …
The emotion that both players showed in their respective wins struck me over the weekend. Sports is better when there are meaningful consequences attached to the outcomes, and I’m not sure any sport offers a wider variety of meaningful outcomes than golf.
There is an interesting argument within these two victories about whether this means there should be a more unified world order or whether the current hodgepodge of global tours actually engenders more of these moments.
I am broadly pro-world order, but it’s weekends like these — when one legend catches another and a career grinder earns another few years of the grind — that make me question whether that’s actually the correct way forward.
In other words, and I realize this is a stretch, was the college football bowl system — as chaotic and insane as it was — actually more fun and enjoyable and wonderful than a more meritocratic 12-team CFB Playoff? It wasn’t “better” (whatever that means), but it was a blast. Myriad mismatched global tours, each with their own unique individual history is sort of like the old college football bowl system. If we continue with that theme … I think we have probably entered golf’s BCS era, which means we are officially stuck between release patterns with no real plan on the horizon.
I’ll have more on Rory’s win in Thursday’s newsletter btw.
1. I have heard the Earl of Winchelsea couldn’t eliminate the left miss.
2. The Sanderson Farms trophy model making a cameo at the Butterfield Bermuda. Normal stuff.
3. Golf, baby!
4. I’m not sure which sport is the normal one here.
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.
Got paired up with an exuberant ex-military guy who called the clubhouse from the tee box of the second hole to complain about the slow play of the group in front of us. Later in the round he pulled out a shaft with no clubhead and started thrusting it into the ground, demonstrating how he was going to stab the slow players in front of us.
Dan P.
The shaft with no clubhead is terrifying.
This is an incredible (and incredibly meme-able) photo.
And led me down this rabbit trail.
👉️ Not sure if Brandel is doing a bit (I guess the safe bet is always, “yes”), but this on Johnson Wagner is extremely my wheelhouse regardless.
👉️ Here’s a fun synopsis of my trip to Vegas with some friends to play Shadow Creek.
👉️ This from Sean Zak on Justin Lower’s anger and how the PGA Tour clipped it out of its recent video is excellent.
👉️ Most clicked on Tuesday: Purple states.
👉️ Most clicked on Friday: Our manifesto.
• I think we all did.
• Speaking of Max …
[climbs on soapbox] I cannot believe how much worse Twitter has become. And of course I will be out in those streets firing off #takes come golf season, but the quality of the discourse and the throttling of legitimately good stuff that people want to see and read (like links to this newsletter!) is disheartening. [climbs off soapbox]
I loved this from Patrick O’Shaughnessy, who has a podcast called Invest Like the Best, which I listen to from time to time.
He also just launched a print (!!) product with some of the best stuff from that pod. This was a comment from that launch.
So, why do this at all?
Howard Thurman said, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
That’s who we are searching for. This work makes US come alive. We hope our work lights a fire in your belly to find and do your thing, and to never settle for a mundane life.
🙋🙋🙋🙋🙋
Whew boy that is the good stuff. Building this newsletter makes us come alive every week. Thank you for allowing it to find a destination and for encouraging us to write it by continuing to read.
Thank you also for reading until the end.
You’re a sicko for reading a golf newsletter that is 1,418 words long.
I’m grateful for it.
We would love to have you as a member.
If you’re interested, just click the link below.
"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."
