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Issue No. 165 | March 6, 2025
Hello,
On Wednesday, we drew for our Ireland trip giveaway, presented by Seed Golf and Experience Ireland Golf and Travel.
Normie Club member, Trevor H. won the goods.
He was pretty pumped, which you do love to see.
THIS IS INSANE!!! I can't believe I won this! Holy cow. What a rush!
This newsletter and your journey has been such an inspiration to me and my own career journey as a part time freelancer.
I look forward to reading this newsletter every time it hits my inbox, not just for the golf, but just to see if there are any insights into this crazy journey you’re on and you never disappoint.
I appreciate your vulnerability and I’m glad I get a chance to support your work, truly. It’s crazy how this came kind of full circle and now I get to go play golf in Ireland.
Trevor H.
Enjoy Ireland, Trevor. We’re thrilled for you. And for everyone else, this definitely won’t be the last giveaway we’ll do this year!
Today’s newsletter is presented by Garmin, which has partnered with us for the 2025 season. This is a thrill for me as the partnership started last year at the PGA Championship (I believe on the Scottie arrest day) when they saw me on TV and reached out and said, We need to get you a new watch.
They did, and that turned into a few giveaways and now an official partnership.
What I didn’t realize is that in addition to their vast assortment of watches and GPS devices, Garmin has also gotten into the golf simulator game. Their Approach R50 allows you to play year-round and is the premium golf launch monitor with a built-in simulator, so you can play virtual rounds directly from the R50.
Performing in front of a screen and this act actually helping you improve your game is a very Normal Sport thing. Imagine trying to pitch this in football or basketball. And Garmin’s setup is premium at a more affordable price point.
We’re stoked to be with them this year and excited about the products they have to come!
OK, onto the news.
1. If you missed it at the end of last week, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler were denied exemptions into Bay Hill this week in favor of … Rafa Campos, Min Woo Lee, Justin Rose and Mackenzie Hughes. This is … whatever, but the explanation from Sam Saunders — who helps decide these things at Bay Hill — was absurd.
Campos got in because he wrote a “passionate letter” and then Saunders said this.
“Rickie's one of my friends but it has to be non-biased. You try to make sponsor exemptions to be objective and not subjective. And I think that's what our team did quite well.”
Golfweek
Unless the criteria was literally a writing contest (which, to be clear, I am into!), then awarding an exemption to someone based on a letter is the opposite of objective!
Anyway, that brings us to Jordy S., who sarcastically said last week that he should have played better injured golf last year to qualify for Bay Hill.
This is whiny, which is surprising from Spieth (off the course edition) and also uncharacteristic. I find him to be someone who is reasonable and thoughtful about most things. It was also ridiculous, considering he’s coming off of back to back exemptions into Pebble and Torrey!
People were … upset that I called this out.
This is understandable. Everybody wants to see Spieth, me most of all.
2. But this isn’t really about Spieth. It’s about decision making and a league that has credited itself for being “a true competitive meritocracy” (Jay Monahan at the 2024 Players).
Incredibly, this situation somehow represents the worst of both worlds.
It is broadly not great to have sponsor exemptions when you are touting yourself — in the face of a rival league — as a “true competitive meritocracy.” It is also specifically not good to, if you do have those exemptions in place, use them on people who are not Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.
In a lot of ways, I appreciate Saunders’ nod to Campos (don’t call it “objective” though!), but his dedication to growing the game (or whatever) comes at the expense of attention on the Tour.
I believe this is called an inability to get out of your own way.
The bottom line: Blow it all up. The PGA Tour rules and regulations read like a piece of computer code constructed in the 1980s that just kept getting added onto instead of iterated and refreshed. There should 100 percent be pathways for Luke Clanton and Gordon Sargent to play their way onto the Tour. They absolutely should not be subjective like sponsor exemptions.
Part of the thrill of the Tour at the highest level is the reality that Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler can in fact fall out of the top 50 or 70 or whatever number.
Jordy?! The three major guy?! Heir Jordan? Yeah, he was ranked 67th last year. Forgot how to hit his irons.
If you’re not going the route of guaranteed contracts, then stuff like that should absolutely be part of your league’s story.
At some point, the Tour needs to decide whether it wants to actually be a meritocracy or just kind of tantamount to one. Binary. “Did you do it or not do it.” Not “Did you do it or not do it OR do you have 300 made cuts in your career ok you can be in too.”
I know which route is more compelling.
I also know which one the players who run the league are going to choose.
3. Why does any of this matter? It doesn’t, other than that it highlights how messy and sometimes confusing the PGA Tour is. And how what is best for business is not necessarily best for the long term health of the organization (this a consistent theme).
To be clear, I enjoy the drama! But it’s such a unique (and possibly odd) way for any league to operate. Imagine the NBA exempting G-league teams that it deems worthy into portions of the regular season! How many exemptions would Bronny’s team get?! The Blockie of minor league hoops!
4. One of my favorite writers, Charlie Warzel, put together an awesome piece for The Golfer’s Journal about the walk from the 18th green to scoring at ANGC. He was kind to quote me in it, but this was my favorite part.
But the truly revealing sequence comes near the end of the walk, not long after he crosses the first fairway. Having made the first part with Charlie by his side, Woods, riding on a weapons-grade level of endorphins few humans have probably ever experienced, picks up his pace. Charlie fades to the background, and suddenly Woods is by himself, marching with a smile as wide as Augusta’s roomiest fairway.
To watch Woods in this moment is to understand his singularity, his awesome otherness. Here he is, surrounded on all sides by people positively losing their minds, and yet Woods may as well be on Mars. He has done the unthinkable, defied all the odds and made more history. The world is watching, but no one, not even those closest to him, can keep up.
Tiger Woods is the center of the universe. He is also, ultimately, alone.
Charlie Warzel | Golfer’s Journal
What’s the saying, the smaller the ball, the better the writing? I think that applies here. Warzel has so many gifts, and I love getting to experience them. I’m told TGJ unlocked that article for Normal Sport readers today, which was very kind. You should go read it!
This post will continue for Normal Sport members below, and includes …
An amusing Sergio Garcia-Hank Haney mistake.
What Ken Griffey Jr. has to do with the Honda Classic.
How golf can lean into its humanity.
For the record, these were the best shoes of my childhood no notes no questions at this time pls.
Let’s get it.
Welcome to the members-only portion of this Thursday’s newsletter. I hope you both enjoy it and find it to be valuable to your golf and/or personal life.
Thank you, as always for supporting Normal Sport.
5. I’m going to be honest here, I thought this was about Sergio Garcia and Hank Haney for a minute. Update: it was not.
6. With the first TGL regular season in the book, here is my biggest takeaway (among many): Guys cared more than I thought they would.
I think they cared more than they thought they would.
I tell everyone how much more competitive [it is] than I thought it was going to be. When you get here, you see the players, and you don't want to lose.
Tom Kim last week
I think that's the one thing that surprised me about this whole experience is how much I care and how much I want to win because obviously it's something new, like you said. We didn't know what to expect.
Shane Lowry last week
This is … not everything. But if you don’t have this, then I’m not sure you have anything. It is foundational, and again it dovetails with my “it’s kinda nice that we don’t hear about how much money they’re playing for” theory from a few weeks ago.
It’s a good start to a league that has a lot of optionality for the future, and I think we will legitimately see some high-level clashes in the playoffs with teams trying to win. This works as an alternate golf league because we so rarely see our version of a seven-game LeBron-KD series.
It’s just very rare for stars to go head to head at tournaments because of the way things work out, and so to get a version of that in a competitive environment is very cool (even though nobody would say it’s as cool as it happening at a major).
7. Many are saying that Dylan is the last great designer. Oh, and there’s Junior (who is decidedly not from Washington).
8. One question I have been sitting with for a while is as follows: What can the PGA Tour do to bring about more humanity? I have been asked a version of this often recently on podcasts, especially following my YouTube-PGA Tour rant.
It’s not something I have thought about deeply enough, which is on me. Too much Monday morning QB and not enough real solutions and thoughtfulness toward the problem.
My rote answer to this question has been to regurgitate something Sean Zak suggested recently, which is to have players break down their rounds after they’re over and package it all up into 2- or 3-minute videos and play it on the broadcast, especially for the stars.
I think this is a good idea and takes us closer to them than most other things.
But the foundation goes much deeper than that. And what is foundational for professional golf is that it has to mean something to the players. The Tour has — as I have been preaching — an inventory problem, in that there has traditionally been too many rounds, too many events.
And the Tour recently kind of stumbled into a solution of having PGA and PGB tours. The PGB tour is the Mexico Open and Honda Classic. It means something to West Dillon QB Joe Highsmith to win the Honda. And while that’s not going to bring legions of fans into the story, as long as you maintain the hierarchy between PGB and PGA Tours, it can still be good from a narrative perspective.
When you create some scarcity with the top events then it really does mean something for guys to win Bay Hill or Pebble. So I actually think, somewhat humorously, that baking humanity into your league begins with the not-very-humane act of logistical work, scheduling. This is perhaps counterintuitive, but I think it’s important and I think we see how important it is at, for example, the major championships.
To draw this out to its extreme: What if the PGA Tour only hosted one event a year? What if it only hosted the Players, and that’s it? Suddenly, a great event would be absolutely epic. Scarcity creates value, and value brings about desire. And desire, more than almost anything in sports, shines a light on our humanity.
Thank you for reading until the end.
You’re a complete and total sicko for reading a golf newsletter that is 2,212 words long.
Here’s to our next 540.
Issue No. 165 | March 6, 2025
Hello,
On Wednesday, we drew for our Ireland trip giveaway, presented by Seed Golf and Experience Ireland Golf and Travel.
Normie Club member, Trevor H. won the goods.
He was pretty pumped, which you do love to see.
THIS IS INSANE!!! I can't believe I won this! Holy cow. What a rush!
This newsletter and your journey has been such an inspiration to me and my own career journey as a part time freelancer.
I look forward to reading this newsletter every time it hits my inbox, not just for the golf, but just to see if there are any insights into this crazy journey you’re on and you never disappoint.
I appreciate your vulnerability and I’m glad I get a chance to support your work, truly. It’s crazy how this came kind of full circle and now I get to go play golf in Ireland.
Trevor H.
Enjoy Ireland, Trevor. We’re thrilled for you. And for everyone else, this definitely won’t be the last giveaway we’ll do this year!
Today’s newsletter is presented by Garmin, which has partnered with us for the 2025 season. This is a thrill for me as the partnership started last year at the PGA Championship (I believe on the Scottie arrest day) when they saw me on TV and reached out and said, We need to get you a new watch.
They did, and that turned into a few giveaways and now an official partnership.
What I didn’t realize is that in addition to their vast assortment of watches and GPS devices, Garmin has also gotten into the golf simulator game. Their Approach R50 allows you to play year-round and is the premium golf launch monitor with a built-in simulator, so you can play virtual rounds directly from the R50.
Performing in front of a screen and this act actually helping you improve your game is a very Normal Sport thing. Imagine trying to pitch this in football or basketball. And Garmin’s setup is premium at a more affordable price point.
We’re stoked to be with them this year and excited about the products they have to come!
OK, onto the news.
1. If you missed it at the end of last week, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler were denied exemptions into Bay Hill this week in favor of … Rafa Campos, Min Woo Lee, Justin Rose and Mackenzie Hughes. This is … whatever, but the explanation from Sam Saunders — who helps decide these things at Bay Hill — was absurd.
Campos got in because he wrote a “passionate letter” and then Saunders said this.
“Rickie's one of my friends but it has to be non-biased. You try to make sponsor exemptions to be objective and not subjective. And I think that's what our team did quite well.”
Golfweek
Unless the criteria was literally a writing contest (which, to be clear, I am into!), then awarding an exemption to someone based on a letter is the opposite of objective!
Anyway, that brings us to Jordy S., who sarcastically said last week that he should have played better injured golf last year to qualify for Bay Hill.
This is whiny, which is surprising from Spieth (off the course edition) and also uncharacteristic. I find him to be someone who is reasonable and thoughtful about most things. It was also ridiculous, considering he’s coming off of back to back exemptions into Pebble and Torrey!
People were … upset that I called this out.
This is understandable. Everybody wants to see Spieth, me most of all.
2. But this isn’t really about Spieth. It’s about decision making and a league that has credited itself for being “a true competitive meritocracy” (Jay Monahan at the 2024 Players).
Incredibly, this situation somehow represents the worst of both worlds.
It is broadly not great to have sponsor exemptions when you are touting yourself — in the face of a rival league — as a “true competitive meritocracy.” It is also specifically not good to, if you do have those exemptions in place, use them on people who are not Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.
In a lot of ways, I appreciate Saunders’ nod to Campos (don’t call it “objective” though!), but his dedication to growing the game (or whatever) comes at the expense of attention on the Tour.
I believe this is called an inability to get out of your own way.
The bottom line: Blow it all up. The PGA Tour rules and regulations read like a piece of computer code constructed in the 1980s that just kept getting added onto instead of iterated and refreshed. There should 100 percent be pathways for Luke Clanton and Gordon Sargent to play their way onto the Tour. They absolutely should not be subjective like sponsor exemptions.
Part of the thrill of the Tour at the highest level is the reality that Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler can in fact fall out of the top 50 or 70 or whatever number.
Jordy?! The three major guy?! Heir Jordan? Yeah, he was ranked 67th last year. Forgot how to hit his irons.
If you’re not going the route of guaranteed contracts, then stuff like that should absolutely be part of your league’s story.
At some point, the Tour needs to decide whether it wants to actually be a meritocracy or just kind of tantamount to one. Binary. “Did you do it or not do it.” Not “Did you do it or not do it OR do you have 300 made cuts in your career ok you can be in too.”
I know which route is more compelling.
I also know which one the players who run the league are going to choose.
3. Why does any of this matter? It doesn’t, other than that it highlights how messy and sometimes confusing the PGA Tour is. And how what is best for business is not necessarily best for the long term health of the organization (this a consistent theme).
To be clear, I enjoy the drama! But it’s such a unique (and possibly odd) way for any league to operate. Imagine the NBA exempting G-league teams that it deems worthy into portions of the regular season! How many exemptions would Bronny’s team get?! The Blockie of minor league hoops!
4. One of my favorite writers, Charlie Warzel, put together an awesome piece for The Golfer’s Journal about the walk from the 18th green to scoring at ANGC. He was kind to quote me in it, but this was my favorite part.
But the truly revealing sequence comes near the end of the walk, not long after he crosses the first fairway. Having made the first part with Charlie by his side, Woods, riding on a weapons-grade level of endorphins few humans have probably ever experienced, picks up his pace. Charlie fades to the background, and suddenly Woods is by himself, marching with a smile as wide as Augusta’s roomiest fairway.
To watch Woods in this moment is to understand his singularity, his awesome otherness. Here he is, surrounded on all sides by people positively losing their minds, and yet Woods may as well be on Mars. He has done the unthinkable, defied all the odds and made more history. The world is watching, but no one, not even those closest to him, can keep up.
Tiger Woods is the center of the universe. He is also, ultimately, alone.
Charlie Warzel | Golfer’s Journal
What’s the saying, the smaller the ball, the better the writing? I think that applies here. Warzel has so many gifts, and I love getting to experience them. I’m told TGJ unlocked that article for Normal Sport readers today, which was very kind. You should go read it!
This post will continue for Normal Sport members below, and includes …
An amusing Sergio Garcia-Hank Haney mistake.
What Ken Griffey Jr. has to do with the Honda Classic.
How golf can lean into its humanity.
For the record, these were the best shoes of my childhood no notes no questions at this time pls.
Let’s get it.
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• The satisfaction of helping us establish our business.
• Access to the entirety of our Thursday newsletters (like this one).
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By clicking below to join the Normie Club, you will have a front row seat to what we’re building. Like a Spieth round, it won’t always be pretty, but — unlike a Reed round — we promise it will always be honest and earnest.
