Hello, and happy “yeah but what will Si Woo Kim do at this Presidents Cup?” week.
The goat is back in action at Medinah starting on Thursday. Also, make some time for this excellent Joseph LaMagna profile of our beautiful boy on The Fried Egg.
Name drops today: The Elivras (both of them!), Mitch McConnell, the Duck Shed, C.S. Lewis, The Mink, the Cotswolds, Jamie Kennedy and Jacob Bridgeman.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Seed Golf.
[Jason here] Kyle’s going to talk below about being surprised, and I love it when golfers are surprised by Seed’s golf balls. It happens all the time.
Like before a round when your Seed is sitting in the starting chute next to the serious[ly overpriced] balls. People ask, “What’s that?!,” at which point you can surprise them with facts about Seed’s world class performance for a percentage of the price. Or just give them a ball or two to play (because you can afford to) and let them surprise themselves.
Or in my case, really surprise them by saying Seed balls are the only ball that you can turn into smiley face. Last month I took a golf buddy trip to my favorite course in the Netherlands (and maybe the world), De Pan. After we played, my buddy was raving about how amazing the round was and at the same time noting how many balls he lost. He said something like, “Geez, I probably lost like €50 worth of balls today.”
And then he realized he actually didn’t because the balls he lost were actually Seeds and did not come close to totaling €50. Talk about a pleasant surprise.
We see more and more Seeds popping up in starting chutes and there’s a long list of reasons why. We have grown to love them not just as a partner but also as a smiley-faced product, and we would love it if you checked them out right here.
Alright, now on to the news.
I love being surprised. Not in the “we gathered in the crevices of your dark home and jump scared your soul out of your body to celebrate your 35th birthday” sense. But rather, I love being delighted from out of nowhere.
I suspect this is part of why we love following sports. It is one of the few areas in our lives where we don’t know the answers and — more importantly — where we are completely incapable of finding them out. Where we can still be surprised.
This happens so often in golf. You need not look any further than the 2026 major championship season. Aaron Rai at The Mink. Ryan Fox at The Open. Both solid players, but both major champions from somewhat out of nowhere.
When I was younger, I did not like these particular surprises. I only wanted Tiger or Phil to win. Now? I appreciate them. As someone who covers all of this on a day to day basis, I even revel in them a bit. To get a break from writing about Scottie and Rory.
It is one thing to surprise for the first time. To pop for 72 holes over four days can happen to almost anyone. These are often fun stories for a few weeks or maybe throughout a month. But what is more interesting to me is when players surprise multiple times throughout their careers.
We experienced this with Wyndham Clark at Shinnecock earlier this season. And while that win definitely did not resonate, I found myself with a completely different level of appreciation for his game and his career. Wyndham Clark surprised me twice.
This phenomenon is not limited to mid-to-high-level players like Wyndham, either. Even wunderkinds can surprise. Rory surprised when he lit up the golf world 20 years ago, firing 63s at the Old Course, nearly winning Augusta at the age of 21.
And then, somehow — and somewhat improbably — he surprised again in 2025 when he won the Masters and finished off the Slam many years past the expiration date on our belief in his ability to do so.
At the end of his career, even Tiger had the ability to surprise, with a 2019 Masters victory that still barely feels like it happened.
It is often quite fun when this happens. When a thing takes place that you cannot believe is taking place. At worst, it is fascinating, when a player accomplishes something you did not believe he was capable of accomplishing. Even more so when he’s doing it for the second or third time, after our belief has waned once again.
All of which brings us to J.J. Spaun, who …
1. Is a U.S. Open champion.
2. Is ranked No. 10 in the PCup standings, but was left off the team.
3. Won the BMW Championship on Sunday as a response to this.
And while winning Wentworth is not at the same level as notching a Masters or collecting a second U.S. Open, it is still surprising at the J.J. Spaun level.
Categorically, I thought I understood J.J. Spaun. A good and solid pro who had the week of his life at Oakmont, which earned him a Ryder Cup bid. But someone who would fade back into being a good and solid pro for the next 5-7 years.
Spaun himself said on Sunday that he was never “the guy” throughout his career. “I've kind of blossomed into this player I never thought I could be,” he said.
Winning Wentworth over Adam Scott, Rory, Foxy, Lowry, Lowry and the Fitzpatricks is a big deal. Technically, as a tournament field, it is not that dissimilar to the Texas Open, which Spaun won earlier this season.
But as a prestigious event, they are not close.
My expectation — even after watching him take down his first major at Oakmont — is not that J.J. Spaun would run around the world winning big time events and proving that leaving him off U.S. teams was a mistake.
Which is exactly why last weekend was surprising.
I was pretty determined this week to kind of prove … something. My whole career, I've kind of had to do that. I wasn't given scholarships. I had a walk on. I had to earn my PGA Tour card the hard way. I was never given a sponsor invite opportunities. I just had to do everything the hard way.
You know, being left off [the Presidents Cup team] was obviously for a reason. I don't know what that reason was, but I'm here now, and there was a reason why we're here.
J.J. Spaun
There is no real reason to believe that J.J. Spaun is “the guy.” He doesn’t really look the part. Has self-admittedly never truly played the part. He hits it far but not exceptionally so. His short game is fine but not great. He’s a good ball-striker, but so are Tommy Fleetwood, Si Woo Kim and Kurt Kitayama (that’s the ball-striking company he keeps).
But he balls out when it matters, and he wins. Which is the eyebrow-raising part.
Being surprised again is delightful.
I believe this year was a tough year for me because internally I was fighting like all these expectations of being like a worthy major champion.
I felt like I still had to prove to everyone that I wasn't a fluke … You hear things about that, and it kind of eats inside a little bit. I put way too much pressure on myself to start the year.
… It was just getting over that hump of expectation and mindset that I had last year, and I started playing better. Like this week, I didn't have a ton of expectation. I couldn't play the Tour [Championship] because I woke up with a stiff neck and couldn't turn it. So I had two weeks to get ready for this and I did it.
Sometimes no expectation is the best thing to have.
J.J. Spaun
What a quote there at the end: Sometimes no expectation is the best thing to have. Surprise is, by definition, inversely related to expectation. It is difficult (but still possible) for Scottie Scheffler to surprise us because we expect so much. It is much easier for someone like Spaun, which makes him a fun and joyful character in the golf world.
Jamie Kennedy laid out some of the reasons Spaun is easy to root for in his post about the BMW PGA Championship right here. Spaun talks about going to CVS in the middle of the night during the U.S. Open. His wife sends him Cotswolds homes on Zillow that she wants him to purchase. He is, as far as pro golfers go, relatable and likable.
Those quotes above, though. The ones about never thinking this is a player he could be. About low expectations in the long- and short term. Those represent the most likable thing about J.J. Spaun. Because for all that he’s now accomplished and all the bravado and swagger one must play with as a pro at that level against these fields, it’s not that he has consistently surprised us over the last few years that make him easy to root for.
It’s that he seemingly is still able to surprise himself.
No MacIntyre though.
• Tyrrell hit one of the filthiest shots you’ll ever see. But also not as filthy as this one, which I could — but will not — write 1,500 words about. Even among the best in the world, and even after 20 years, his swing and his shots still stand out.
• If you missed it, Manuel Elvira was tied with Spaun going to the 18th after making a 3 at the par-5 17th. He then laid up off the tee and laid up again into a bunker on No. 18. Never lay up. He made a double-bogey 7 to lose the tournament by two shots, which led to this incredible IYKYK tweet from Dylan.
• @BenSmith16, who was at Wentworth, sent me this photo via Twitter. It is perfect. Niklas Norgaard looking under something called the Duck Shed — which serves duck burger, duck wrap and duck salad — for his golf ball. 👌
• I got absolutely crushed on X the Everything App over the weekend for my Ryder Cup take in the Friday newsletter. Which … maybe deserved, may have been a bad take. But I wasn’t talking about the gathering of players at Adare Manor being performative. I was talking about the posting of it being performative.
And I stand by the fact that Ryder Cup Europe has gotten a little out over its skis when it comes to thinking their entire process is awesome and infallible. I am projecting there, of course, and I wish the U.S. did more things like them, but I think that they think that their whole schtick is pretty awesome right now.
Might be fine! Also, might go very badly at some point.
• Asheville winner, Jacob Bridgeman, thank you for caring about the health of Normal Sport. We have an interview with him dropping over the next two days that now more people are going to read than they would have otherwise.
• This I saw from C.S. Lewis is so money. And honestly — I hate hate hate saying this — it’s how Europe wins Ryder Cups. Small wins stacked up over a long period of time leads to victories you never dreamed of know are going to happen.
Thank you for reading the Normal Sport newsletter. Delight someone today with a note, text or call. Use golf as the excuse. Being delighted — like J.J. Spaun delivered at Wentworth — is a good gift that is free to give and great to receive.
I’ve always enjoyed your love for golf. So often I see favoritism showed to golfers in the social media world, but I enjoy reading you telling a situation how it is regardless of the person.
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