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Issue No. 122 | October 15, 2024
On a family trip to Colorado last week, my kids begged me to teach them some of the curse words they haven’t yet learned. We have been trying to filter these in over time and help them understand what (and what not) to do with that information. I have no idea if this is the right way to do any of this, but that’s where we’re at.
On the second day of our trip I told the older three what “ass” means and its different definitions and uses. They found, as they always do, all of this very amusing.
That night as we’re putting everybody to bed, one of them looks at me and says, “Dad … [looks around for a second] I am going to kick your ass in mini golf tomorrow.”
The rest of them howled.
My wife and I after he (or she) said this ⬇️
We reprimanded him (or her) and reminded him (or her) that this was actually not the right way to wield this newfound information.
And we couldn’t stop laughing about it the rest of the trip.
Parenting.
He (or she) did in fact kick my ass in mini golf the following day.
Onto the news.
But first. A thank you to this week’s sponsor … the Ryder Cup!
If you enter your info right here, you are eligible to be selected for the opportunity to purchase what will be one of the more insane golf tickets of the last few years.
Because demand outpaces supply, the Ryder Cup randomly selects folks who are then eligible to purchase the tickets. Registration is open until 11:59 ET on Oct. 22 and those selected will be notified on Nov. 4.
There has been, ahem, a nice-sized stir made this week about the cost of Ryder Cup tickets. We can discuss this more later on, but three quick things on the hubbub.
No matter what the market demands for any product (that is scarce) or what you believe a proper price for any product is, you would always rather have the opportunity to purchase that product than not. Economics 101!
The Ryder Cup is the real Super Bowl of golf.
The Ryder Cup supports this newsletter, and I appreciate any way this newsletter can support the Ryder Cup. And you can support both by entering here.
Now, onto the news!
Did not envision being three weeks into this gig and leading the newsletter with … Rob Labritz? But here we are.
Wait, who is Rob Labritz?
Short story: He’s PGA pro who played college golf at Central Connecticut State (sure) and essentially Q-schooled onto the Champions Tour (sure), where he has played for the last three years.
Last weekend, he finished T24 at the SAS Championship (not sure if this event is sponsored by the shoe company or the data and AI solutions institution or neither) to miss the playoffs by $20K.
He was understandably devastated.
“I’m hurting right now.”
@roblabritzgolf finished just short of making the playoffs @SASChampionship.
He was emotional while reflecting on his season and future ahead.
— PGA TOUR Champions (@ChampionsTour)
12:00 AM • Oct 14, 2024
I once read a great line — on a Michigan college football message board (of all places!) — that went something like this: We acknowledge that we have passions and that it is indeed okay to care, to be human.
That’s what this reaction reminded me of. That it is indeed okay to care, and I would add … that it is part of what makes us human.
Recently, there was a great article about A.I. (the opposite of being human) in the New Yorker that a friend and I were discussing last night. The money paragraph happens at the very end of the article.
The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read.
It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning. It reduces the amount of intention in the world.
New Yorker
It reduces the amount of intention in the world.
What a line!
Not to overstate something that happened in October on the Champions Tour, but the public nature of sport — and I would say, especially of golf — communicates a certain amount of intent that we just don’t see as clearly in much of the rest of life. Not that it’s not there, but it’s more difficult to sometimes see in regular life than when a dream is laid bare with the cameras on and the mics hot.
That is part of what captivates us and part of what makes these moments and these events perhaps a little bit more meaningful than they would otherwise seem.
I think Jamie Kennedy found my new favorite Phil stat.
This was really a tweet about Rory, who could surpass Phil in 2026 and put hundreds of weeks on top of his record. And we’ll get to all that.
But let’s appreciate Phil’s run first.
Look at this!
Phil Mickelson OWGR
It is one thing to become a top 20 player in the world. It is another thing to hang out there for a while. And then it is otherworldly to live in that neighborhood for nearly 20 years!
As many of you know by now, one of my corners is that people have no idea how good Erik Van Rooyen is at golf, which means that we completely lose context for how good Phil Mickelson is at golf. EVR is unfathomably good at golf compared to almost everyone you know. The gap between him and the best golfer you have ever played with is a canyon. And EVR is not even in Phil’s universe.
In fact, you could talk me into the fact that putting up 865 consecutive weeks inside the top 20 in the OWGR is more impressive than winning six major championships. One sort of precedes the other, but that’s how much I value the long arc of endurance Phil has displayed.
The thing I love about what this represents is that while popping up and winning or having a great six-month run is enjoyable to follow and fun to root for, the above graph is what we’re all trying to achieve in all ares of life. Consistency at the highest level over a prolonged period of time.
1. On one of the days we were in Colorado, our family went into town for groceries and to walk around. In one of the shops in town, I stumbled into this atrocity. I honestly blame golf. All of it. All of us. The whole thing.
2. I did not envision [checks notes] Reince Priebus comparing Kamala Harris going on The View to … Rory losing to Bryson at the U.S. Open. What a sentence!
3. It’s the hook ‘em that does it for me here.
4. The Michael Kim situation last week in Utah was reminiscent of Reed at Torrey in 2021!
Here’s the Reed quote from Normal Sport 1.
What a sport!
5. One that I’ve been thinking about a bit after watching match play events for the last month or so is that in golf you are not allowed to touch your own ball at any point without permission from your opponent but you are absolutely allowed to touch your opponent’s ball (when it’s on the green) whether he/she gives you permission. That is … odd.
Normal Sport: Come for the golf, stay for the surefire investment tips.
For the launch of Normal Sport as a business, we built this little thank you page for anyone who signs up for the newsletter. There’s a Jordan Spieth GIF easter egg in there, yes, but it has also been a surprisingly wonderful way to connect with readers and have a two-way conversation (I try to reply to them all!).
On that page we ask folks what the weirdest thing they’ve ever seen on a golf course is. Basically stuff that would make you say this …
What I didn’t envision — but probably should have — is that some of the stories are incredible. We’re going to run a few of them in the newsletter, mostly because I have to share them with someone (anyone) and my wife is tired of me reading them out loud to her.
Here’s the first one.
Played with a guy who was a butcher. His ball hit and killed a goose during the round — around the 5th hole or so. He tied, by the neck, the bloody goose to his push cart and dragged it for the rest of the round so he could butcher the goose for the family Sunday dinner.
Paul Gambell
Things that do not happen at your pickup basketball league!
Me reading that one …
Your green fee today will include 18 holes of walking but the goose is free of charge as long as we don’t have to gut and clean it for your kids.
Lucas Glover: “I don't know. I still don't know how any of this works. I'm here because I didn't play good the regular part of the year. I think I got three or four weeks off now and show back up in Bermuda. All the math and -- I don't know, you need [to be] a Nobel math scholar to figure it all out.”
A resounding affirmation of the business!
“A real marker of wealth is how many problems you can solve simply by texting a guy.” -Jeremy Giffon
As someone who just launched a business, I feel destitute.
👉️ Baylor golf coach, Mike McGraw, had me on his podcast this week to talk about our mutual love for golf, how media has evolved over the years and what I’m trying to do with Normal Sport. Mike asked great questions, and we had a wonderful conversation, the type of conversation that, for me, can be clarifying as I try and figure out exactly what I am trying to do with Normal Sport. You can listen to it right here.
👉️ I think this news about Twitter payouts is … good?
👉️ Most clicked on Tuesday: Phil impression
👉️ Most clicked on Friday: Ryder Cup tickets
• This was great.
• I think it’s the Augusta license plate that does it for me.
If you missed my Q&A with Jamie Kennedy, formerly of the European Tour and now at Golf Digest, you should go back and read it. Jamie is brilliant, and I specifically loved this part of the back and forth.
KP: How do you generate ideas? You have so many great ones that make me say, "I wish I'd thought of that!" What is your process for it?
Jamie: … I'm extremely fortunate that my work is my passion. I don't have to switch my work brain on or off. I'm always thinking about golf, Tour golf, golf courses, stats etc. You know that meme with the wife lying next to her husband, wondering if he's thinking about another woman when actually he's thinking about the best opening holes in golf or Scottie Scheffler's new putting setup, well that's me.
I always carry a small notebook with me wherever I am and it's full of ideas, thoughts, quotes, or stuff I've seen that I think would apply well to golf. I'm a sports addict so I'm constantly watching football or NFL or tennis or snooker even and thinking to myself, how could we apply what I saw or read into golf. Most of what I work on or pitch is based loosely on something I've seen elsewhere in media or sport.
Normal Sport
One thing that I try and tell folks who are getting into the online game of content creation for a living is to find friction in your consumption habits. Reading difficult things is difficult, but if you only read or consume the easy ones, you never find the friction necessary to spark your own ideas.
A Jamie tweet or a Spieth quote or a passage from the MVP Machine might give me five ideas for things I want to write or explore in the future. Not all of them lead somewhere, but without that friction I am not smart enough to just conjure stuff out of thin air.
I also personally find it best when these pieces of friction happen outside the golf world rather than inside it because when they come from outside the golf world they often engender unique angles or thoughts I would have never gotten from my insulated golf world.
One of the 10 most accomplished golfers in the world over the last 2-3 years is now sponsored by a burrito company. So yeah, a sport familiar with v normal ad partnerships. If you're a burrito company, or if you're interested in getting your business or product in front of 15,000+ sicko golf fans, you can check out the Normal Sport media kit and fill out our partnership form right here.
Thanks for reading until the end.
You’re a sicko, and I’m grateful for it.
But please do send this to one friend who you think will understand any of it.
