Greetings!
Here was me watching the leaders play the front nine on Saturday.
It got momentarily better on the back.
When Ludvig dropped that 3 on No. 11, I gave it one of these.
But all in all, Round 3 at the Players lacked some juice we’ve become accustomed to getting at this tournament over the years.
Still, there’s a lot to discuss and a bit of looking ahead to do for Sunday.
Name drops today: Odysseus (!), Joaquin Niemann, Wembanyama and Adam Scott.
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Charlie Golf Co.
Big Sundays like this one always make me want to get out on the golf course myself. And if you need your kid to carry their own clubs while you, say, stick your fingers in the side of a hill or measure the distance between your feet with a tape measure, then you should check out Charlie Golf Co.
They are the best in the game when it comes to both bags and clubs for young kids, and all of it at 1990 Players Championship purse prices rather than the 2026 edition.
And as Jason illustrates below, 1 pair of Tony Finau's pants = 6 Charlie Golf Co. bags. We don't know if that's true, but we do know that they give you a lot of bag for your buck.
You can (and should!) check them out right here.
OK, now onto the news.
Shout out to Tron for proposing a Christo artwork for the trees on No. 6. Just an Incredible idea to increase the already high thread count at TPC.
As a reminder, this week’s content is partially behind the paywall (though thankfully not behind the moat). You can read it all — as well as the rest of our major championship coverage — by becoming a Normal Club member right here.
1. Ludvig had this 5 footer for par on the 7th hole on Saturday. If he misses it, he falls back into a tie for first with The Bridgeman.
Instead, he drains it, birdies 9 and then hits a filthy shot into 11 and goes on to make eagle there. One hour later and his near-tie turned into a four-shot lead.
This particular moment on No. 7 won’t be on any highlight reels, it kicked off a stretch that was the inflection point of the entire tournament (so far) for me.
2. The shot on 11 was extraordinary. It brought about one of these.
A rainmaking long iron from 238 to 17 feet that he pours in the middle to really take over the event. The kind of shot that makes you wonder not “if” but “how many” when it comes to major championships.
I linked to the exact shot in this video (click below).
Overall, it wasn’t the prettiest 18 holes you’ve seen from him (that came on Friday), but he did what he needed to do — avoid doubles, build on the lead, hit one tournament-changing shot — and is now 18 holes from a win that would reshape his (still very young) career.
3. I loved this quote from him when he was asked if he’ll think about winning the tournament tonight when he goes home.
I think about winning a lot. I think a lot about what it would look like, what it would feel like. I think a lot about the different scenarios that might happen, and I did that in college, I did that when I turned pro and I still do it.
So I think I'm trying to embrace it. I'm trying to be okay with all those things that comes with it, which is why we play golf. We spend so much time practicing, playing, training, preparing, so why wouldn't we think of what it would actually mean to win. So naturally that's what I'm going to do tonight. But does it change anything for me tomorrow? I don't think so.
Ludvig Aberg
I love that he’s embracing it. It would be much easier to talk about The Process or Taking It One Minute At a Time or whatever, but I love that the robot swinger has a human heart. Easy to watch, fun to embrace.
To quote Scottie at the 2022 Open, How could you not root for Rory Ludvig?
As Gabby Herzig pointed out, there's a lot of Ludvig love on TikTok. WATTBA!
4. JT bouncing back after the early triple was so impressive. I have no idea how he’s T4 with how many penalty shots he took on Saturday, but he’s now among a group that can take a run at Ludvig. One of these eight guys is going to shoot 66 or better on Sunday, which probably won’t be enough, but give JT credit for putting himself among them with a 4-2-4 finish late in the day.
The one I’m most interested in of that group, by the way, is Thor. After all the talk about how the Olds were doing work in the early part of the PGA Tour season, the biggest event of the year includes a 26 year old and a 24 year old in the final pairing.
I don’t think Thor is quite ready for the stage he’ll be on in the finale — he may get the full tutorial from Ludvig — but that experience will be invaluable for someone that got a little lost in all the Clanton-Sargent-Dunlap hoopla.
We have reached capacity on the Top 10 Dog Leaderboard. Time to see who the big dog is.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes thoughts on …
That sick pin on 18.
Some thoughts on Scottie’s best stuff of the week.
An amazing (amazing!) Joaquin Niemann comp.
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.
Normal Sport is exploratory, sometimes emotional, always entertaining. It also has one of my favorite writers in the biz at its foundation.
Kyle is the best columnist in sports. That he has channeled those talents through strokes gained and Spieth memes is a blessing to golf.
Few make the sport feel as fun and as thought provoking.
Kyle approaches coverage of the game with both conviction and curiosity
Kyle sees golf in a way that no one else does—and we're all fortunate to get to share in that view through Normal Sport!
Kyle's content is a product of a sick sense of humour, a clear passion for golf and unquestionable dedication to hard work. That's not normal!
Kyle is one of the best in the golf world at finding and synthesizing the absurd, the thoughtful and the fun things that make being a golf fan worthwhile.
The way Kyle has been able to mold a silly Twitter joke (normal sport) into a must-read newsletter on the weekly happenings in our silly game gives a great look into why he's one of the smartest people in golf.
It's a treasure trove of the important, the seemingly important, and — importantly! — the unimportant stuff. It's an asset in my inbox.
Kyle is a perfect curator of the necessary moments of levity that accent a sport that will drive most of us insane.
There’s been no one else in golf that has tickled my funny bone as often as Kyle Porter does. He’s been instrumental in ushering in a new era of golf coverage and it’s been a pleasure to be along for the ride in that.
.svg){kind=spacer}
