Who’s going to carry the blimp?

If this newsletter seems more distracted than some others, there’s a reason for that.

In our house, we have 200 pages to go in the seventh Harry Potter book.

I’ve never read them because I was saving them to read with the kids, and right now the tension, on a scale of 1 to “Rory, Spieth, JT, Rahm and Bryson are tied on the back nine at Augusta on Sunday” is much closer to the latter than it is to the former.

The thing I am constantly struck by: The writing is fine. Nothing spectacular. Nothing most of us couldn’t do. The world building, though? The construction of imaginative places and people and things? Picasso-like. Extraordinary. I can’t get enough.

Onto the hallows news.

But First!

Today’s newsletter is presented by Holderness and Bourne, which did not outfit Gryffindor or Slytherin in their quidditch (at least that I know of) but does outfit us here at Normal Sport in our matches.

And while can’t guarantee that wearing H&B will help you hit magical chips like Cam Davis or charm your driver to go 338 in the air like Rory, you’ll at least look like you know what you’re doing in the process.

OK, now onto the news.

One Thing I Loved

This is maybe a strange place to start given everything that transpired last week, but two quotes stood out to me from Pebble week.

Here’s the first from Scottie Scheffler.

Q. I heard a rumor you might have played Cypress yesterday?
Scheffler: I did.
Q. How did that go?
Scheffler: It was a great day. Meredith and Bennett came out and walked a few holes with us and we had lunch, and it was just a great day really. Weather was beautiful, our group was great, we had a great time. I'm just thankful for the experience. Meredith and I last night were like “Wow, that was just one of our favorite days.” It was awesome.
Scottie Scheffler at Pebble on 28

The second was from Andrew Novak in this very newsletter.

I'm in Pebble Beach right now. I'm literally about to go play Pebble Beach four times this week and get paid to do that. That's actually insane. That's such a crazy thing.
Normal Sport Newsletter No. 151

It would be easy if you’re Andrew Novak to not feel tremendous gratitude at the reality of your life. Even more so — maybe 100x more so — if you’re Scottie Scheffler.

Our lives, no matter how grandiose or wondrous to the 11-year-old version of ourselves, become normalized. Which is how you end up with Ian Poulter hollering about how he has to fly without his nanny in business class.

Scottie is good at a lot of things, but I think being present in the moment and thankful for whatever that moment is, represents the best of him. The best of all of us.

In other words, contentment.

It is so elusive. So slippery. Such a wily mistress.

And yeah, playing Cypress with buddies isn’t exactly the life most of us are living. But given the experiences he has had and his family has had, it would be easier than you and I probably think to bypass the gratitude he spoke about and chalk it up to another day in the life of the best golfer on the planet.

He chooses — and it is very much a choice — not to do that, and I’m appreciative because it reminds me to do the same in my own life.

One (Other) Thing I Loved

All Rory wins are art.

That’s kind of the whole deal.

Remember when Greller used to tell Spieth to paint a picture, and you’re like “hell yeah, brother, paint me something!” And then you look up and this is often what you’d get.

Rory, on the other hand, delivers real Mona Lisas.

Not all Rory events are wins but almost all Rory wins are masterpieces.

What stood out about this one, though, was how unspectacular it was. In a lot of ways, it actually reminded me of when Spieth won Pebble in 2017 and Rory, according to a #source, talked about how problematic Spieth was going to be if he continued hitting the ball like he did that week (and he was).

The exact same thing could be said about Rory right now.

Obviously the 190 ball speed on a line that was designed at SpaceX is going to look great. It always has, and it always will. But the problematic part for the rest of the golf world right now is as follows.

“Ten years ago with a three-shot lead on the 18th hole here would I hit 5-iron off the tee? Probably not,” said Rory on Sunday evening. “Just understanding the scenario and what I needed to do, it was a different case today.”

If Rory is decision-ing his way around places like Pebble, everybody is gonna be looking around like this at a lot of tournaments.

Think about it this way: Is Scottie better than Rory in the following areas?

Driving: No.
Iron play: Shorter irons, yes.
Distance control: Yes.
Short game: Probably?
Putting: No.

What Scottie has done (a lot) better than Rory is course management and emotional control. He self-regulates better than any great player in the world and probably better than any great player of the last 30 years other than Tiger (LKD outlined that perfectly here).

Rory has obviously been thinking about this.

“There's impulses that I have on the golf course that it looks like Scottie doesn't have and I have to rein those in and I have to try to be a little more disciplined about it, and that's what I'm trying to do.”
“It's the strategy … I'm a big admirer of Scottie's for a lot of different reasons, but every time I play with him and I watch how he plays and how disciplined he is, it's a really cool thing to watch. And I've alluded to it this week, but honestly, just trying to take a little bit of a leaf out of his book.”
Rory after winning Pebble

With apologies to Bryson, every course Rory plays is a par 68. And yeah, there are times to open it up and let it rip and times to shut it down and coast, and the interaction between those two is part of what makes the sport great and complicated at the pro level.

Young Rory had to keep his foot on the gas because he wasn’t the complete player he is now. That’s why there was volatility. That’s why he sometimes won majors by seven. Middle Age Rory has options because he’s more complete. And optionality can be paralyzing if you don’t know how to harness it. Rory obviously spent the offseason thinking about how to harness it and how Scottie does this.

And in the same way Rory saw Spieth as a real problem after Pebble in 2017, I think this version of Rory is a real problem for everyone else in 2025.

The real test, though, is not when the swing looks and feels like liquid as it did last week. The real test is when things are moving quickly and you neck one into No. 2 at ANGC and have to get up and down over that front right bunker to curb a tailspin.

Where are the emotions at then? What’s the course management like then?

The Mona Lisas aren’t going anywhere, but Spieth used to win (somehow!) with paintings like the one in Greller’s glasses above. Scottie does, too. He hit a shank in the final round at East Lake last year. A real shank!

But he self-regulated and course corrected.

That’s the last level for this version of Rory.

One that could unlock so much.

Stat of the Week

The Data Golf career evolution tool is fascinating.

Here’s a look at Rory, Scottie and Phil.

One thing that stands out to me is that despite the fact that Scottie has been on a Tiger-like heater for three consecutive years, Rory still wins more often percentage-wise in twice as many career starts.

That is truly insane and emblematic of the crazy consistent career Rory has put together. It’s 2-3 wins a year worldwide for 15 straight years. It just doesn’t happen, and unfortunately for him much of the golf world is caught in this “mAJoRs aRe aLl tHaT matTeR” vortex. That’s a fair conversation, but it diminishes everything else.

Normal Sport

1. A couple of things here. The first is that it is hilarious and perfect that there was temporary immovable object relief in a digital golf competition. Normal sport.

The second — and perhaps even more amusing to me — is that Shane’s phone autocorrects “sim” to “SIM” because, presumably, he used to text about the SIM driver.

2. Here’s a real exchange that happened early in the week.

Q. Can we see the scar?
Scheffler: No. I've got a little piece of tape on it so you can't see it anyways. Sorry. Right there, it's right there. It's, what do you call it, it's nude.
Q. You're on a roll.
Scheffler: She said it.

Normal stuff.

3. If you haven’t heard or seen it, the NLU pod with Joe Mayo is like a fever dream. I have been listening to a lot fewer golf pods and shows these days so that I don’t cross-contaminate my own #takes, but I could not turn this one off.

This tweet got me good.

4. The Pebble participants always provide me some amusement. LeBron passes to the CEO of Kia who’s posting up, and he kicks it out to Nike’s head of North American marketing. Just a bizarre and very golf thing.

Also of note: The amateurs in Rory’s group had caddies who have collectively won six majors. The pros in Rory’s group — before Ludvig WD — had caddies who have collectively won zero majors.

5. Speaking of! Imagine Adam Silver getting shots up against Devin Booker and KD! Or Roger Goodell running routes against the Saints.

That led to these terrific tweets.

Corrupt Golf Media

👉️ This interview with Seth Waugh, man. It is so good. Must read stuff. Mostly around his affinity for the opportunity that comes with disruption and his theory on the four dividends. Also on this …

I'm surprised [the PGA Tour-PIF deal has] taken as long as it has. It's complicated, but I've done a lot of complicated things that haven't taken this long. That part of it is sort of indefensible.
I think there will be a deal for a couple fundamental reasons. You and I have had this conversation, but LIV is a failed economic experiment. Disruption needs one of two things, hopefully both: you need a better product or you need better pricing. No way you can say they're a superior product and they have no pricing because there's no economics. It's not sustainable.
I don’t care how much money you have, burning it doesn’t feel very good.
Seth Waugh

👉️ This is one of the great tweets of our time.

👉️ I don’t understand this shot. I don’t understand the spin Cam Davis was able to get on the ball.