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Issue No. 190 | April 24, 2025
I have a friend who barely pays attention to golf. We met last week to talk about writing and books and things we are both working on. “I watched the Masters,” he told me. “And … this is strange … it made me want to go play a game I have almost no interest in.”
There is a bit of magic, a bit of mystery to this game. I think it is probably the most mystical of all the sports, mostly because of how tethered it is to nature and how powerful the pull of nature can oftentimes be.
SMartin wrote about this recently.
To me, golf is an inexhaustible subject.
Bobby Jones
I also find the game and its branches to be almost limitless in their intrigue. They suck me in again and again. When you start a business like this, there is always a fear that you won’t have enough material or content to work with, but the truth is that you almost always have too much, to the point of being overwhelmed.
The best game. I love loving it.
And one of my favorite places I have experienced the game is Erin Hills. I was there for the 2017 U.S. Open, and it is such a wondrous property.
Fun to get around, easy to get lost. It is grand.
This year, the USGA returns with the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally on May 29-June 1. I could not be more excited about this. The U.S. Women’s Open is not only my favorite women’s golf event to tune into every year but also one of my favorite events overall.
This year, the USGA had the second most qualifier entries in the event’s 80-year history, including entries from a 9 year old (!) and a 61 year old (!).
Very normal sport stuff right there.
If you are even remotely in the area of Erin Hills, you should make your way out to the event for a day or two or the entire week.
There are few opportunities better than a women’s major to see greatness up close, to get the kids #involved and to send me all kinds of normal sport-related photos than a women’s major, and especially this women’s major.
You can get tickets right here.
The 15th at sunset. How can you not be romantic about golf?
1. Let’s just get right into it.
I was bouncing around the other day when I saw this clip of Eamon talking about how JT is the best American player of his generation. If you watch the entire thing, it’s actually more defensible than the headline would lead you to believe, but still … JT might not even be the best American player from his generation in his Tuesday money game.
What Eamon is saying is that JT is the best player from his class (Spieth, Berger etc.), which is decidedly not a generation. That begs the question, though, what is a generation? Are Brooks (age 34) and JT (31) in the same generation? What about JT and Rory (35)? JT and Scottie (28)?
We (I) throw the term “generational player” around with absolutely no regard for what it actually means. In my head, though, I think of a generation being 10 years. Generational player = someone who comes along once a decade. Rory is generational. Rahm might be generational. Phil and Tiger were (obviously) generational. I thought Spieth was, too.
So then I guess the JT question depends on when you start his generation. Does every player have his own generation of 10 years, spanning five years on either side of his age? Do you just look at decades (like 2000-2009 and 2010-2019)?
If your span is 10 years like mine is, then five years on either side of JT includes Brooks and Scottie. This seems like a … not unreasonable way to look at things? In Brooks’ case, it would put Rory in his generation but Scottie and Morikawa (28) would not be. I think that’s also fair? Kinda similar to how I don’t think DJ (40) and JT are in the same generation.
Anyway, JT is not the best American player of his generation. Brooks is. And Spieth may still be hanging on. And Bryson has a claim as well. And depending on how you define it, Scottie has probably passed all of them.
Here’s one head-to-head JT comp.
Spieth vs. JT
Whose career would you rather have? Who would trade their career for the other guy’s?
And this — Spieth vs. JT, which, I admit is heading in the wrong direction for Spieth — is the least compelling of the arguments for best American of his generation.
Here’s JT vs. Brooks by the way.
JT vs. Brooks
Aside: How strange has Brooks’ career been? Has anyone ever won 5+ majors and outpaced his PGA Tour total? Andy North (two majors, one PGA Tour win) is a decent comp, I guess, but Brooks is tied with Nelson and Seve!
Here’s the truth: It may end up that JT — who I absolutely ride for — goes down as the best American of his generation, but as it stands right now, I would argue that he’s not even in the top three within his generation. And even if we’re using Eamon’s definition of the same year, I’m not sure he’s even in the top two (Spieth and Bryson)!
2. A version of this gets passed around every year, and every year I get sucked in.
My answers this year …
9 tee to 7 green — par 5
6 tee to 15 green — par 3
14 tee to 12 green — par 4?
I stole that last one from Jamie Kennedy because it is brilliant.
My 6 tee to 15 green might be dumb considering how much that green tilts toward the water on 15. You might literally not be able to hold it. I’ll ride for 9 tee to 7 green though. You going to play it down 8 (which is shorter) or up 9 (which provides the better angle)?
You could maybe get me going on 16 tee to 6 green, too. And I like this suggestion from Jake Nichols.
All of this would obviously require clearing some (if not a lot of) trees, but that place is just the best golf playground.
3. How do we feel about Collin Morikawa right now? I thought he was going to win a lot this year and predicted that he would win Player of the Year. Though he still might win some, he almost certainly will not be POY, and his performance to date has made me question some things.
Like, this is a list I expect Corey Conners to be on.
Collin Morikawa is not Corey Conners.
Right?
This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes …
Nick Faldo’s insane Masters record.
xWins at majors since 2020.
A podcast business I’m always compelled by.
If you aren’t yet a Normal Club member, you can sign up right here.
If you are, keep reading!
Welcome to the members-only portion of today’s newsletter. I hope you both enjoy it and find it to be valuable to your golf and/or personal life.
4. I got curious recently so I made this chart pulled from numbers on Data Golf. The x-axis is worldwide wins since 2015. The y-axis is total strokes gained since 2015.
Some takeaways.
• Rory, dang. That’s what generational looks like.
• Finau, dang. He has more SG than Spieth since 2015 and half the wins (and none of the majors). That’s crazy.
• Scottie getting over the 1,000 SG mark in just over half the time period I’m looking at is genuinely LOL stuff. His career started in 2019!
• I’ll go down with S.S. Rahm.
• The third of that JT-Spieth mini triangle is Hideki by the way.
SG isn’t everything, but as I have stated many, many times, it’s difficult to be somebody on paper that is very far away from what your SG is (unless you’re Finau, apparently).
5. Wait … what?
This is in fact true. Nick Faldo’s Wikipedia page when it comes to the Masters is pretty wild. Only 23 starts (because he started calling it for CBS), only three top 10s … but all of them were wins.
Haven’t ever really seen anything like it.
6. This thread from my guys over at Acquired is so fascinating. The audience they’ve built up over 10 years is almost unfathomable and certainly aspirational.
Here are my two big takeaways from the thread.
Having a direct audience relationship absolutely rocks. If we grew on an algorithmic platform where followers != listens, the chart likely wouldn’t compound like this. We have an enormous tailwind from the fact that when we drop a new episode, listeners see it. Podcasts FTW.
Ben Gilbert | Acquired
And …
Covering history turned out to be a smarter decision than we realized. The value of news rapidly approaches zero as days go by. Meanwhile, Acquired's back catalog (older than 6 months) now accounts for 33% of all listens. History is evergreen, and smart people seek it out to better understand the present.
Ben Gilbert | Acquired
Those are two points I’m thinking a lot about.
7. I also pulled these xWins numbers at major since the start of 2020. Remember xWins is just the percent chance you have to win a major based on how many strokes you gained on the field in a given week.
Here’s Data Golf’s handy little chart on it.
At the Masters, Rory gained 4.13 strokes per round on the field — which was almost his exact same number from 2022 when Scottie torched everyone — and received .2 xWins for his efforts. That is, a player who gains 4.13 strokes per round on the field is expected to win a given major 20 percent of the time.
This was not Rory’s highest SG number of the last few years. Not even close, actually.
The last two U.S. Opens have both been higher for him as well as that 2022 Masters. This is why it’s so important to keep showing up at a high level at majors, because you never know how the players around you are going to play.
Anyway, here are the totals for everyone since the beginning of 2020.
What stands out?
• Tommy Fleetwood at 0.0 is a tough, tough scene [for Tron].
• Phil Mickelson and JT at .2 combined — less than Thriston Lawrence on his own! — with two majors is wild stuff. Again, keep hanging around the rim and you’re going to score at some point.
• It does not feel like Spieth and Ludvig have the same xWins over the last six years.
• It also does not feel like Bill Horschel and Vik Hovland have the same xWins over the last six years.
• Patrick Cantlay, almost as uninvolved as Tommy!
• Rahm at 0.8 is stunning to me. I thought it would be close to 2.0.
• Cam Smith and Wyndham have 1.2 combined and 1.0 of that was at the 2022 Open and 2023 U.S. Open respectively. [whispers] Rory could easily be at seven.
• I have said this over and over and over again, but it’s very difficult to be someone other than what your xWins number says you are at the majors. Maybe for a short period of time, but if you pull the lens back, Phil’s total xWins number is pretty close to his actual major total of six. Example: He got 1.0 xWins at the 2016 Open and 0 actual wins so that one and the Kiawah one cancel each other out.
• Poor Justin Rose.
• Matthew Wolff over almost everybody, huh.
Lastly, here are a couple of lingering Masters thoughts I’ve been thinking …
8. With one more PGA Tour win (I feel confident this will probably happen!), Rory will join the five major/30 PGA Tour win club. Current members.
Sarazen
Watson
Mickelson
Hagen
Nelson
Palmer
Hogan
Nicklaus
Snead
Tiger
🫢🫢🫢
The 40/6 club is very much in play.
Mickelson
Hagen
Palmer
Hogan
Nicklaus
Tiger
😮💨😮💨😮💨
And the 50/7 which is probably (?) a bridge too far.
Palmer
Hogan
Nicklaus
Snead
Tiger
😲😲😲
It would take something close to DJ’s entire career starting at age 35. He can’t do that … right?
9. Augusta National is the perfect major championship golf course. I’m not smart enough to know why this is the case, but it is, without question, the case.
Here’s one I thought about on Sunday: Bryson has a nice look into 11, but he’s down big and has to rip at that pin. Water, blouses. See you at Quail. But you can easily have a putt at four. Or I guess if you’re Rory, you can hook one up there and scare the water and considering sprinting up to hit it before it rolled down the bank in the most important round of your life and then have an easy look at four.
But ANGC is incredible because it always dangles hope. Sure, you could finish 4-3-3-3-4-3, but if you take on all those shots, you might also finish 4-5-7-5-4-5. Who can say.
In the same way the Ryder Cup is the perfect event because it convinces you you’re in it until the very end, Augusta National is the perfect major course because it convinces you could conceivably do something that everyone knows you probably won’t.
10. One bummer about being out on the golf course at the Masters is that you miss some all-time Golf Twitter moments. This 1-2-3 combo from Soly is one I’ll remember for a long time. Just slayed me when I saw it after the round.
Hits the drive …
Pulls a club …
Hits the shot …
Shot, chaser, chaser.
We really got it all that Sunday. The moon. I still can’t really believe it.
Thank you for reading until the end.
You’re a complete and total sicko for reading a newsletter about a single round of golf that is 2,434 words (!!) long, and we are more grateful for your support of this business than Bryson is of what elevation does to his numbers.
Issue No. 190 | April 24, 2025
I have a friend who barely pays attention to golf. We met last week to talk about writing and books and things we are both working on. “I watched the Masters,” he told me. “And … this is strange … it made me want to go play a game I have almost no interest in.”
There is a bit of magic, a bit of mystery to this game. I think it is probably the most mystical of all the sports, mostly because of how tethered it is to nature and how powerful the pull of nature can oftentimes be.
SMartin wrote about this recently.
To me, golf is an inexhaustible subject.
Bobby Jones
I also find the game and its branches to be almost limitless in their intrigue. They suck me in again and again. When you start a business like this, there is always a fear that you won’t have enough material or content to work with, but the truth is that you almost always have too much, to the point of being overwhelmed.
The best game. I love loving it.
And one of my favorite places I have experienced the game is Erin Hills. I was there for the 2017 U.S. Open, and it is such a wondrous property.
Fun to get around, easy to get lost. It is grand.
This year, the USGA returns with the U.S. Women’s Open presented by Ally on May 29-June 1. I could not be more excited about this. The U.S. Women’s Open is not only my favorite women’s golf event to tune into every year but also one of my favorite events overall.
This year, the USGA had the second most qualifier entries in the event’s 80-year history, including entries from a 9 year old (!) and a 61 year old (!).
Very normal sport stuff right there.
If you are even remotely in the area of Erin Hills, you should make your way out to the event for a day or two or the entire week.
There are few opportunities better than a women’s major to see greatness up close, to get the kids #involved and to send me all kinds of normal sport-related photos than a women’s major, and especially this women’s major.
You can get tickets right here.
The 15th at sunset. How can you not be romantic about golf?
1. Let’s just get right into it.
I was bouncing around the other day when I saw this clip of Eamon talking about how JT is the best American player of his generation. If you watch the entire thing, it’s actually more defensible than the headline would lead you to believe, but still … JT might not even be the best American player from his generation in his Tuesday money game.
What Eamon is saying is that JT is the best player from his class (Spieth, Berger etc.), which is decidedly not a generation. That begs the question, though, what is a generation? Are Brooks (age 34) and JT (31) in the same generation? What about JT and Rory (35)? JT and Scottie (28)?
We (I) throw the term “generational player” around with absolutely no regard for what it actually means. In my head, though, I think of a generation being 10 years. Generational player = someone who comes along once a decade. Rory is generational. Rahm might be generational. Phil and Tiger were (obviously) generational. I thought Spieth was, too.
So then I guess the JT question depends on when you start his generation. Does every player have his own generation of 10 years, spanning five years on either side of his age? Do you just look at decades (like 2000-2009 and 2010-2019)?
If your span is 10 years like mine is, then five years on either side of JT includes Brooks and Scottie. This seems like a … not unreasonable way to look at things? In Brooks’ case, it would put Rory in his generation but Scottie and Morikawa (28) would not be. I think that’s also fair? Kinda similar to how I don’t think DJ (40) and JT are in the same generation.
Anyway, JT is not the best American player of his generation. Brooks is. And Spieth may still be hanging on. And Bryson has a claim as well. And depending on how you define it, Scottie has probably passed all of them.
Here’s one head-to-head JT comp.
Spieth vs. JT
Whose career would you rather have? Who would trade their career for the other guy’s?
And this — Spieth vs. JT, which, I admit is heading in the wrong direction for Spieth — is the least compelling of the arguments for best American of his generation.
Here’s JT vs. Brooks by the way.
JT vs. Brooks
Aside: How strange has Brooks’ career been? Has anyone ever won 5+ majors and outpaced his PGA Tour total? Andy North (two majors, one PGA Tour win) is a decent comp, I guess, but Brooks is tied with Nelson and Seve!
Here’s the truth: It may end up that JT — who I absolutely ride for — goes down as the best American of his generation, but as it stands right now, I would argue that he’s not even in the top three within his generation. And even if we’re using Eamon’s definition of the same year, I’m not sure he’s even in the top two (Spieth and Bryson)!
2. A version of this gets passed around every year, and every year I get sucked in.
My answers this year …
9 tee to 7 green — par 5
6 tee to 15 green — par 3
14 tee to 12 green — par 4?
I stole that last one from Jamie Kennedy because it is brilliant.
My 6 tee to 15 green might be dumb considering how much that green tilts toward the water on 15. You might literally not be able to hold it. I’ll ride for 9 tee to 7 green though. You going to play it down 8 (which is shorter) or up 9 (which provides the better angle)?
You could maybe get me going on 16 tee to 6 green, too. And I like this suggestion from Jake Nichols.
All of this would obviously require clearing some (if not a lot of) trees, but that place is just the best golf playground.
3. How do we feel about Collin Morikawa right now? I thought he was going to win a lot this year and predicted that he would win Player of the Year. Though he still might win some, he almost certainly will not be POY, and his performance to date has made me question some things.
Like, this is a list I expect Corey Conners to be on.
Collin Morikawa is not Corey Conners.
Right?
This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes …
Nick Faldo’s insane Masters record.
xWins at majors since 2020.
A podcast business I’m always compelled by.
If you aren’t yet a Normal Club member, you can sign up right here.
If you are, keep reading!
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• Our very best stuff during the majors.
• First access to future merch drops.
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