Issue No. 151 | February 1, 2025

Poor Andrew Novak.

Last week’s third place finisher at Torrey caught a massive stray from me in the tweet I wrote 3,000 words about on Thursday.

Here’s what I said in the original.

Novak’s response was quite amusing.

We had a great DM exchange after this public interaction, and I asked him if I could talk to him about his story in golf. So we did the Q&A you’re about to read.

Novak’s backstory is cool, and we touched on the original tweet and how the Tour could be better. I appreciated not only his response but also the way he thinks about pro golf and, the gratitude he has for the game.

He’s also been playing quite well.

In addition to his solo third at Torrey, he’s in the top 10 going into the weekend at Pebble. Data Golf and the OWGR have him in the top 90 in the world.

I’m a fan now after our chat, and I think you will be, too.

But first!

Thank you to Meridian for presenting today’s newsletter.

Meridian recently earned gold from the 2025 Golf Digest hot list on both its blade series and mallet series, which was both a great delight and a genuine surprise to its team.

Why was it a surprise?

Because when you have your head down on making the best product you can possibly make, you’re often caught off guard by whatever the end result of that product is. It’s a process I respect about Meridian and want to emulate at Normal Sport.

What does earning gold from the Digest hot list mean?

You can read more about that here, but the TL;DR is that clubs are graded on performance, innovation and look/sound/feel. Gold means you earned a score of 93 to 100, and Meridian’s blade and mallet series were both in that range this year.

And as Meridian's founder Ryan Duffey just pointed out, the average Hot List blade gold putter this year is $410. Meridian putters start at $249. It’s just one more reason, among many, why we love having them as a partner.

OK, onto the Q&A.

I edited this interview down because it was, like, 6,000 words and ain’t nobody got time for that no matter the subject. I pulled out the more interesting things we talked about, kept them in context and published them below.

KP: When do you remember falling in love with golf?

Novak: That's a really good question. I had a different introduction to golf than most people. Golf to me as a kid was just hitting a plastic ball in the backyard. Nobody in my family played golf so my dad [took] plastic flower pots that you can get from like Ace Hardware, and he literally buried them in the yard.

[We] took [those little gas line flags] and stuck them in [the flower pots]. And I literally I would go out in the backyard for hours and just create holes in the backyard.

All I’d do [as a kid] is hit a plastic ball with the wedge around. I didn't play golf competitively at all until I was like 12, 13 years old. I would say my introduction and love came from just having fun hitting shots in the backyard

KP: How did you transition from that into playing competitively?

Novak: I was super late into to it. I played all the other sports. My dad was a college basketball player, my mom was a college soccer player so I did the other stuff. Basketball was probably my favorite to play, but seventh grade was also the first time I saw somebody dunk. That was pretty eye-opening.

In South Carolina, seventh grade was the first year you could actually try out for the high school teams for sports. So I think my mom said something to me about there being tryouts. I didn't play golf at all, but I had clubs at time, and I played a couple of times a year. And so I was like, “Yeah, why not? I'll give it a go.” And I went out there. Obviously, I got cut because I couldn't break 100.

But I did enjoy it because … You truly were just competing. I think it was only nine holes each day, but it was perfect. I loved it. And from then, I was like, “Man, that was fun.” I mean, I was terrible, but I wanted to try and get better. It was something I wanted to start working at.

I got with a coach and started working at it and did that for a full year and loved it. I mean, I caught the bug. Tried out again in eighth grade and got cut again. So it didn't work out immediately, but I was hooked from then. I loved it. We had a good group I had some buddies that were at the course then, too. So I was playing with them every day, working at it. That's how I got started.

KP: When was the first time you remember thinking like, Oh, I think I can actually be good at some level?

Novak: Good is so relative. I can think back to when I was young and I broke 80 the first time, and I thought I was good. And then two weeks ago, I just finished second to last in Palm Springs. I was not thinking I was very good after that. So it's super relative.

But I think compared to my competition, I guess in junior golf, I played really well in a junior event called the Bobby Chapman, and it just skyrocketed my junior ranking and AJGA ranking to the point where all of a sudden I was getting into top junior tournaments, which I had not played any at all before.

And so I actually got to play against some of the names that I'd seen, like Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler, playing in invitationals against them. They were beating me, but I think being able to play in those, I realized, Okay, I can actually somewhat hang. There's not massive gaps.

KP: How did you end up at Wofford?

Novak: They were my only offer. My recruitment was very weird. By the time I graduated, I think I was ranked top 50 on Golfweek. I might have been top 40 on AJGA. But I only had one offer because pretty much everybody was full. Everybody recruits so far out. And I got into golf so late. I'm not trying to take shots at coaches. I mean, I was not a very good golfer my sophomore year of high school. But junior year, senior year, when my progression happened, pretty much everywhere was full. South Carolina was full. Clemson was full. They had their guys. Notre Dame offered me for a day and then rescinded it.

It was very interesting being in the Rolex Tournament of Champions and playing with a guy going to A&M and playing with a guy going to Duke. They're like, “Where are you going?” And I'm having to explain where the school is, beating them by three or four shots. I'm so glad I went to Wofford, though. It really was great.

KP: What was the biggest advantage to being introduced to golf a little bit later?

Novak: I thought about that a few times. I think a lot of the issues you see with guys that started young is just like burnout. I'm not meaning to take shots at parents or anything, but a lot of it is parent-driven, just pushing their kids too hard or something.

Golf, you have to just want it. You have to go out to the course, you have to be by yourself and you have to work at it. And if you don't have the motivation to do that because you don't love the game, then it's not going to happen.

KP: Do you remember the first time when you thought, Hey, I think I can maybe do this professionally?

Novak: Honestly, it was probably senior year of college, maybe junior year of college. I really hadn't considered it. It wasn't even just me beating people in tournaments or playing well. It literally was just like, “Man, this degree I'm getting, I really don't enjoy any of this stuff.”

Ed. note: Lol. Also … same. 

I think I was like, “Man, I'm not too terrible with this golf thing, I guess.”

KP: What was the most compelling path to the PGA tour to you at that time?

Novak: I don't know if I really thought about it like that. I just wanted somewhere to play. So my senior year of college, I told my professors I was going for a job interview. I flew all the way up to Canada and did Mackenzie Tour Q school for four days.

KP: I mean, it’s a job interview …

Novak: Yeah, I thought it was valid. They didn't ask too many questions. But yeah, I flew up there, did that, and I got status out there.

KP: I think people hear professional golf and they think it's this glamorous life. You've been in it. I've been around it. And it's not. I'm curious about what the hardest part about traveling is for you.

Novak: The travel is tough, but really, professional golf, it's a pretty good life still. It's pretty awesome, actually. It really is. I know some people get burned out [on] the hotel rooms and the airplanes, but every time I even start going down that way, all I have to do is think about if I had a real job or something.

At the end of the day, I'm still playing golf. Yeah, I'm missing my wife a bit and traveling a bit, but she could also come out and travel with me at times. Other jobs, people have to travel, too, but they might be doing a desk job or something.

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. Sometimes, yes, it does get a little frustrating, but it's hard to be too frustrated with it for long periods of time because really, at the end of the day, this is my dream that I'm living out.

KP: Do you find yourself out on the course thinking, “I can't believe this is my job”?

Novak: Yes. I'm on 18 in the final round [at Torrey], and I specifically had this thought of I remember in 10th or 11th grade just refreshing the computer at school because it was Thursday, and Tiger was off to a pretty good start. I remember refreshing and watching him because he was playing well. I kept refreshing his shot tracker and stuff. It was 10 years later, and I'm literally playing it with a chance to win. That's so crazy to me.

KP: When do you find the most joy in golf?

Novak: I think when I'm playing free, there are moments in tournaments where it just starts coming easy You get in a zen mode and it just gets fun. Obviously, I'm very competitive. Winning, I haven't done much of it, but whether it could be winning small battles, even just matches at home, beating my buddies, pulling shots off, making putts, chipping in. Especially chipping it. There's nothing better than chipping in on somebody at home in a match. ... It's a pretty cool feeling when things go right on the golf course.

KP: We'll end with this since this is the genesis of why we had this interview. You play Torrey, come up short, almost win. You get on Twitter and see my tweet just taking shots at you and Sam Stevens …

Novak: It's funny. I jokingly put that out. I actually agree with your statement a little bit, especially in the sense of the YouTube golf world. I do think that — especially with the pace that we were playing at — I can see how people are like, “Look, I'd rather go watch a 30 minute video on YouTube than five or six hours of this.

At the end of the day, it's all just the golf medium. Maybe the Tour might not like this — I would like eyes on [us on the PGA Tour] — but if people are watching golf and enjoying what they're watching and it's encouraging them to play, I don't really care necessarily what they're watching. I just want the game to grow. People can take in their golf however they want.

I think YouTube golf is very different from professional golf or a live sport. They are post-commentary, put-together production. We're just different. I love YouTube golf, but I think we will continue to be separate. I hope that people enjoy both. I think there are things that they do that we don't necessarily do well on the entertainment side. There are things that we do on the golf course that, frankly, they can't do.

I mean, Wesley Bryan probably could do. But most of the guys can't really do. So I think it's a little unfair to compare the two to each other, but I just hope that both sides work together a little bit to help grow the game, because I think both sides bring great things to the table.

KP: think I think my whole point in that is golf is so unique, right? You don't have amateurs playing football and baseball on YouTube. It doesn't happen, but golf is so accessible that it can happen. And I think as an entertainment product, it's something that all professional golf tours have to really consider of, Man, this is a fairly new thing over the last 10 years or maybe even less, five years.

I don't know if it's a threat, but it's something that I think really has to be considered as all these tours think about, Where is our product and where is our organization going into the future?

Novak: Yeah. Bottom line, the PGA Tour product could be better, too. Again, it just could be. Whether that's the broadcast, whether that's player engagement, it could be better. So yeah, I think that there are steps that the Tour can take to improving and whether that's getting into the YouTube side, I don't know.

KP: Is there any [specific] YouTube golf channel that you watch?

Novak: I do like the content. I find it enjoyable. I just I don't watch a ton. I would say Wesley and the Bryan Bros ... I love Wesley. I love Wesley because how he is in the videos is literally how he is in real life. That is just him. He's an insane human being, but he's super talented super funny and he's just entertaining.

Yeah, I like those guys.

Thank you for reading until the end.

You’re a sicko for reading a golf newsletter that’s 2,557 words long.

I’m grateful for it.

And thank you to Andrew Novak for being willing to chat and share his story. I enjoyed hearing it and am intrigued to watch him play Pebble this weekend.