Issue No. 144 | January 16, 2025

As many of you know, we recently introduced a page where, when people sign up to receive the newsletter, they can share the weirdest golf story they have. Earlier this week, we may have gotten one that will never be topped.

Colorways

Today’s newsletter is presented by Holderness and Bourne.

Here’s a weird connection.

I have been into watches recently. Just a casual observer from afar, intrigued by Tom Brady’s outrageous collection and what various golfers are into.

One thing that has stood out to me — a watch idiot — is how specific Rolex is with its colors. It’s clear that there is a preposterous amount of attention given to the colors on a given Rolex. One I noticed recently was this one Scottie was wearing in the PGA Tour documentary Sean Martin made about him.

It’s not quite orange but also not quite red. It’s a color that draws you in.

Details matter, and the same thing I’ve noticed about Rolex (again, from afar) is what I’ve also noticed about Holderness and Bourne. Their attention to color combinations is just a little bit more nuanced and a little bit more obsessed than other places.

Take their new resort collection.

The colors aren’t necessarily unusual, but there is an extra layer of detail to get them to play off each other in a very specific way that, to me, sets H&B apart. I appreciate that about them and have found it to be emblematic of who they are as a company.

[Jason here] As a watch-loving visual artist who works with colors constantly, it’s cool to hear Kyle point out the challenge of outspoken colors working in an aesthetic way. It ain’t easy! And I also love how H&B nailed it in the Resort Collection.

7 Golf-Adjacent Thoughts This Week

1. I wanted to bring back a prediction I made last week in my 10 predictions for 2025 (which we will absolutely revisit in December for giggles).

This particular prediction was behind the paywall (this is the content you’re missing out on, non-members!), but I wanted to bring it in front because I got a thoughtful response from a reader.

Here’s what I wrote.

To be honest, you could follow pro and high-level amateur golf exclusively through newsletters (not podcasts or video, just newsletters) and probably have twice the experience in a tenth of the time as someone who followed every single event as it played out.

Here’s what a reader wrote to me in response.

This is fascinating, but honestly it’s how I followed the NBA for a long time. I would watch some of the playoffs and most of the finals but almost none of the regular season. Instead, I would listen to Zach Lowe and/or Simmons and read Grantland or Daily Thunder or a random article here and there. I felt like I knew more about the NBA than I needed to and certainly more than most of my friends. It was a great way to follow.

This represents a shift that’s been happening for a while now. That shift is that the more ubiquitous broadcasts become, the more need there is for tremendous curators.

2. SGS is a curator. So is the Data Golf newsletter. Normal Sport is a curator most of the time. Most media you follow are probably curators. There are still news breakers, yes, and that is extremely important. But the business model for a news breaker can be difficult, and so most of us have chosen the path of curation.

Why? It’s extremely fun for us (or at least me) but also (hopefully) beneficial for you because you save time and get a more contextualized experience of whatever you’re into.

Most sports outcomes most of the time are not worth the time investment needed. That’s harsh but also more or less true. Perhaps even more so in golf where the “game” is 40+ hours long, and 99 percent of the participants that you might be rooting for end up losing.

The idea of curators is not unique to golf or sports. All industries have curators or tour guides (I guess in our industry, it would be a TOUR GUIDE) that save them time by pointing out what matters and what doesn’t.

Here’s something I believe …

Because content is now everywhere, and as an audience ages and becomes busier with kids, careers etc., the need for a curator increases along this path. This is not a perfect representation of what’s happening, but I think it’s directionally correct and something I believe advertisers should be paying attention to because the inverse will probably become increasingly true for the broadcasts themselves.

Welcome to the members-only portion of this Thursday’s newsletter. Sometimes I forget to remind you what you’re getting for your annual sub so I’ll try to do a better job of that going forward. Hope you enjoy it!

3. [Hard left turn] This explanation from Viktor Hovland of his golf swing and why he’s a bit of a mess right now is honest and humble. Hovland could not be more likable, and — at least in this instance — relatable. The TL;DR of the 90-second video is I didn’t think my golf swing looked pretty on video and I wanted it to look better.

Been there!

4. Here is one I’ve been thinking about a lot this week. I threw it out on Twitter as a fun little exercise, and I wanted to rank the golf events I’m most excited about this week. Here are my top four.

1. Dubai — Tough to beat Rory, Rahm, Hovland and Fleetwood in Dubai
2. TGL — Seriously!
3. YouTube content — Not totally sure what yet, but I’ll probably watch at least bits and pieces of the Horvat/Tiger video or maybe Horvat/Rory and catch up on some NLU/Fried Egg videos.
4. AmEx — 🫠 

I had an epiphany last week that I don’t have to care as much about the PGA Tour anymore now that I’m not at CBS Sports. This is freeing to me. And it’s not to say that I don’t care about the PGA Tour at all (I do!), but if my job is as a curator, then I care more about the first three things because I think they (probably?) matter more — or are at least more interesting — within the golf universe.

Here’s what I wrote about this idea last week.

This dovetails perfectly with the idea of curation.

5. Some TGL takes I can’t keep in.

• You can’t reduce the shot clock enough on full shots for me. You want to make it 30 seconds? Sure. You want to talk me into 25? I’ll listen. You think I’ll walk over 20? I won’t.

Short area? I think 35-40 seconds is great. But tee to green, you can take it as low as you want.

• It’s unfortunate that the first two weeks have been blowouts because it’s difficult to evaluate how competitive the league actually is. Here’s what I would say: In the same way people want to redefine LeBron’s legacy after every possession he participates in, we probably don’t need to make any sweeping proclamations about TGL after … 30 holes.

• I do think I’m on board with the wonky holes idea. How wonky. Super Mario-like pipes wonky. This wonky ⬇️.

• I also believe — like most other people — that the lifeblood of the league is actually its competitiveness and not necessarily its entertainment. I actually think it needs to be treated with more seriousness than I originally thought? Sahith brought the right mixture of serious and fun to Tuesday night. He also played great. Six guys like that, and you have something.

• The best part of TGL is the reaction to what the ball does. Whether it’s on the screen or on the green, every single shot has a reaction, which I think is awesome.

• I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something really cool in there. Obviously, as someone who is helping out with TGL as a writer, I want it to succeed, but as I’ve thought about and tried to divorce myself from that reality, I still genuinely feel like there’s something terrific about TGL.

I find myself more excited about it than the PGA Tour, and my kids think it’s incredible. I’m extremely hopeful about where I think it can go.

• When you consider long term obstacles TGL might face, one of them is the stakes. Why do I care about what they’re playing for (a trophy that changes colors)? 

But I think that’s the wrong question to ask. Nobody cares about what Good Good and Foreplay are playing for on YouTube. The Tourist Sauce stakes could not be lower.

And yet, we watch those YouTube videos because the format — what Joseph LaMagna calls the game board — and the degree to which the personalities care work together in a way that makes you say, I know this isn’t the Masters but I genuinely care about the outcome.

I do think TGL has the ability to do that, partly because the format is good and also because I’ve been surprised at how much most of the players have cared about winning the matches over the first two weeks. That aspect specifically has convinced me of TGL’s staying power.

• TGL has produced some pretty epic golf twitter nights over the first two weeks. That’s not a metric that moves a lot of capital around, but it’s definitely not nothing.

• This tweet is art.

6. I watched this earlier in the week and thought it was great. It showed off just how intense matches will be late if they’re close. I also enjoyed listening in on the strategy of how they were trying to play different holes.

This is half-baked, but you could also talk me into creator teams being allowed into TGL. NLU, Good Good, Normal Sport (!) whatever. That sounds insane, but it would be so freaking compelling. YouTube golf meets pro golf.

7. I learned a lot from my Q&A with Sean Martin last week, and this part particularly stood out to me. I asked Sean about what he still loves about his job.

He said he just loves thinking and talking about golf.

The tie that binds you and I to Tiger Woods is not something I’ve ever really considered, but it’s unquestionably true. I want to break 80 twice this year. Phil wants to shave a quarter of a stroke off his scoring average every week.

Golf is alluring because it feels like — more than any other sport — you are in control of the outcome. Gosh, that reality is so intoxicating, and it truly is a tie that binds all of us who play, watch, follow and participate in the game.

One of my theories at Normal Sport is that golf should be covered differently from most sports because it’s so personal. We all know what it feels like to shoot a good score. We all know what it feels like to get better, which is a feeling I suspect is — in some strange way — not that much different than what Tiger feels like when he shoots a lower score than he did last time out. Truly a tie that binds.

This is something Sean is implicitly getting at here that leapt off the page at me when I first read it.

Thank you also for reading until the end.

You’re a sicko for reading a golf newsletter that is 2,433 words long.

Also, we still have a few Normal Sport journals left if you want to snag one!