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Issue No. 176 | March 29, 2025
No Q&A today, but I wanted to let you in on a bit of what’s been going on here at Normal Sport, including a handful of big-ish Masters announcements.
We’ll keep it short (well, my version of short).
1. The first Masters announcement (and one we will be talking about a lot over the next few weeks!) is that we are planning a Masters contest for our readers — pick eight players for your team, lowest score wins — with $4,000 in total prizes to the top teams.
This contest will be free to enter if you’re a paid member of Normal Sport.
Oh, and here’s another cool thing. If you’re a paid member, you will have a free entry into all four of our major championship contests this year, all with a decent amount of money at stake (similar to the above) and not an egregious number of competitors.
Given the following …
These four contests will be free for our paid members and …
A lot of our content during major weeks will be paywalled.
… Masters week would probably be the best timing we’ve ever had to become a paid member of Normal Sport.
I will send out the more contest rules on Monday, including the platform we’ll be using.
2. The second Masters tidbit is that we will be giving away a ton of goodies from our sponsors during that week. Precision Pro, Seed Golf, Turtlebox and OGIO are all on board, and we will do a giveaway nearly every day of the tournament for anyone who is subscribed to this newsletter (not just paid members).
We did this last year, and it was a blast.
Any expansion of our readership (free or paid) is a massive benefit to us, and Masters week is a great excuse to tell a friend about “that weird newsletter that talks about Jock Hutchison and pro golfers belly crawling into forests to recover $6 objects.”
3. The third is that I am headed to Augusta to cover the event for Normal Sport. I was genuinely stoked to find out that ANGC credentialed me for my first non-CBS Masters since 2012, when my wife and I went as fans and I didn’t have any kids. 🥴
I’ll be there Monday to Monday, getting in the mix, riling up Brooks in the press room and sending out newsletters every day. Couldn’t be more excited. A testament to what we’re building here, maybe, but also a credit to ANGC for taking a bit of a chance on a brand new publication. I’m very grateful to them for that.
It’s the one place in sports — maybe the only place in sports — that just has not gotten old. Every time, it feels new again. Like the first time but somehow also better than the first time.
Magic.
A few more notes below …
Today’s newsletter is presented by Garmin, home of the Approach Z30. The Approach Z30 is Garmin’s take on the laser range finder, and for my fellow Garmin device wearers, offers a great sync up with their watches.
The Z30 provides distance to the pin and the PlaysLike Distance feature from up to 400 yards away (roughly 1.1 Brysons) with 6x magnification.
Speaking of 6x magnification, that’s what JT and Spieth looked like they needed here.
When paired with your compatible Garmin device, you’ll also get distance to the front and back of the green relative to the pin. And with the range relay feature, you’ll see the ranged distance to the pin on your paired Garmin smartwatch, handheld or the Garmin Golf™ smartphone app.
It’s the front/back distance that I really love. The other night I was hitting balls with some friends, and somebody there asked me about my Garmin S70 watch. First thing I went to was the front/back numbers and how helpful that is.
I don’t think I’m good enough to be a, “Give me one yard!” guy. But front/back provides a nice 20-30 yard range for me to try and land a shot.
My watch paired with the Approach Z30 is a terrific duo of easy-to-use game improvement products.
OK, now the rest of my notes!
1. We have officially named our group of paid members the Normal Club. I have found that it’s not always great to be cheeky with stuff like that (we messed around with names like Normie Club, Norman’s Army etc.), and Normal Club is both straightforward but also amusing in its own way.
2. We call everyone else a subscriber. You subscribe to the Normal Sport newsletter. You pay to be a member of the Normal Club.
As always, thank you to all of you for what you do online.
3. One thing I have been thinking a lot about of late is the length of the newsletter. We have semi been toying around with the idea of a blog on our site where I could get some thoughts out during the week. A blog could also provide readers a place to congregate and comment on posts throughout the week.
The newsletter would remain — though it would be shorter and more scannable — and contain original material as well as some links to stuff I write on the blog throughout the week.
I don’t know. Might be a dumb idea. Might not be anything we ever do.
Just something I’m considering. Sometimes it feels like we’re running a blog disguised as a newsletter. Would love feedback on this and/or sites and blogs where you hang out and comment during your online time …
4. We will be updating and refreshing the site a bit over the next few weeks. We want it to become a bit more of a destination for people, and we have some cool Masters content planned. If you see anything unusual in terms of how things look on the site, let us know. Very much building the plane as we fly it!
5. We labored to get a big merch order in stock before the Masters, but it’s unfortunately not going to be here until after. It’s coming, though, and we’re excited to unveil it. Remember, paid members get first look at all new merch drops.
We did get our tees, which are sweet.
We’ll start stocking up the store just after the Masters.
6. Why am I pushing paid membership so hard? It’s just so important to our business model. I’ve said this before, but if we had 5,000 paying members and just a couple of sponsors, I would love that ratio.
Our business is broken into five parts.
Partners (sponsors)
People (members)
Products (books etc.)
Packages (merch)
Places (events)
The one I am most concerned about and obsessed with is the second one, our people. Other folks on our team take ownership of the other verticals, but the one I think about the most is creating the best reading experience in all of golf for you, the reader.
How do we add so much value for our members that membership is not just worth $82 but $182 or a LIV-like $820 per year? These are fun considerations for me, and represent most of what I think about when it comes to the business of Normal Sport.
OK, onto a few recent Q&As …
In lieu of a Q&A today, here are a few recent Q&As we’ve done and some of my notes and thoughts on them.
My mom: I don’t think I’ve ever received as much feedback on a piece as I did on that one. I also have never had as many people start a sentence with “Your mom …”
Matt Considine: I love NewClub, and Matt has become a terrific thought partner in the world of golf entrepreneurship. His Q&A was the tip of the iceberg in terms of what I’ve gleaned from him as a thinker and innovator.
Cody McBride: I think Cody is really good at knowing himself (and giving good insight there) as well as understanding the way NLU works.
Jeff Marsh: One of my favorite things about these Q&As is how friendship often develops out of them as has been the case with Jeff.
Jon Sherman: Jon has basically forged a path I am trying to now walk by running a tiny media operation. And he’s done it for a decade, which is encouraging to me.
Dean Klatt: Dean founded one of our biggest partners in 2025, Seed Golf. He’s extremely smart when it comes to entrepreneurship in golf, and his “come what may” attitude is infectious.
Thank you for reading until the end.
You’re a sicko for reading a golf newsletter that is 1,487 words long. With the Masters just two weeks away and our big contest forthcoming, it is truly the perfect time to jump into the Normal Club!
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