Greetings!
My friend, Garrett, sent this over to me.
Given how much AI has dominated the social conversation of late, this mini essay on human-to-human interaction is one of the best things I’ve read all year.
Name drops today: High King of Content, Scott O’Neil, Savannah Bananas, Hogan, Francesco and The Mink.
This newsletter is presented by our friends at Experience Ireland Golf and Travel.
[Jason here with more stories from last year's Links Challenge]
Everyone knows that golf in Ireland is spectacular. It truly is every bit as impressive and approachable as NLU's Tourist Sauce Season 4 and our friend Jamie Kennedy's first-round-at-Carne recap make it out to be. The best.
But what really surprised and delighted me at last year's Link's Challenge run by EIGT were the shenanigans in between the golf. Nights at places like McDonnells Bar and Undertakers in Belmullet, where the bar tender is also the town… undertaker.
Normal sport.
The putting contests, the extra holes before sunset, the extra rounds set up by new golf friends (shout to Tim and Joe from Fescue and Dunes) just before catching a flight. That's the magic of an EIGT trip. Hard to describe or predict remotely, but sure to happen once you're there.
I could go on and on (I promise we will record a pod about this trip at some point). For now, all I can say is, if you have any seed of an Ireland trip idea, GO!
And let Tom Kennedy from EIGT make that happen for you.
You can also click here to grab one of the last spots for July event at Carne Golf Links and Enniscrone Golf Links.
OK, now onto the news.
1. Rory turned 37 this week, and people had some absolute takes on this little chart I tweeted out (see below).
It shows where Tiger, Rory and Phil all stood from a career standpoint on their 37th birthdays. It does not include European Tour numbers because Data Golf doesn’t have them built in to its career evolution tool. It is simply PGA Tour + major championships.
I think this reader kinda nailed it.
2. Let’s get to a couple of them.
• Rory is pretty objectively just better than Phil in almost every way. Fewer events, twice the majors and — most surprisingly to me — about three strokes better per tournament played. All of that is … mildly surprising to me, especially the SG numbers.
• Phil’s superpower is — as has been said innumerable times — his longevity. He was rarely great like Rory or off the charts like Tiger. But “very good” over a long enough window of time also gets the job done.
• Here’s a fun one in terms of career SG/round according to the Data Golf career evolution tool.
Fleetwood: 1.45
Phil: 1.40
Brooks: 1.30
Staring at those numbers …
• Tiger’s winning percentage being better than Rory and Phil’s combined is something else. Like, significantly better! As one reader (that I can’t track down) put it: Brooks’ career represents the gap between Tiger and Phil + Rory. That’s insane.
• I think Tiger’s top five percentage being north of 50 percent is just as insane (possibly more so). Over half the time he finished in the top five of a tournament? And it’s not like he was teeing it up at Myrtle Beach.
• If Rory continues on even half or 25 percent of the trajectory he’s been on, he will unseat Phil as the 10th or 11th best player of all time (maybe he already has?). The real question is …
3. What is the ceiling? I posited on Twitter that 45 PGA Tour wins (he has 30) and nine major championships (he has six) is the absolute ceiling.
The major number got more pushback than the PGA Tour number, mostly because he seemingly won’t play enough on the PGA Tour to get beyond (or maybe even close to) 45 wins.
I thought this comment on his major ceiling was instructive.
Hayden also pushed back on these numbers on our podcast. He ran the ceiling to 10 or 11 (send help) and called nine a 75th percentile outcome.
Here are some facts.
Players who have 45 PGA Tour wins and nine majors
Tiger
Jack
Hogan
Players who have 45 PGA Tour wins and 10+ majors
Tiger
Jack
Is … Rory McIlroy going to end up as one of the five best golfers who has ever lived?
I mean, that’s on the table, right? And with the post-Masters fog seemingly lifted way earlier this year, I’m excited for how all of this could change even in the next few months.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,034 of them) and includes thoughts on [gestures at the circus that is LIV Golf].
By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• Access to 100 percent of our content this week.
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• A free digital copy of our Rory book.
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Kyle is a perfect curator of the necessary moments of levity that accent a sport that will drive most of us insane.
It's a treasure trove of the important, the seemingly important, and — importantly! — the unimportant stuff. It's an asset in my inbox.
I’ve always enjoyed your love for golf. So often I see favoritism showed to golfers in the social media world, but I enjoy reading you telling a situation how it is regardless of the person.
The way Kyle has been able to mold a silly Twitter joke (normal sport) into a must-read newsletter on the weekly happenings in our silly game gives a great look into why he's one of the smartest people in golf.
Kyle is one of the best in the golf world at finding and synthesizing the absurd, the thoughtful and the fun things that make being a golf fan worthwhile.
There’s been no one else in golf that has tickled my funny bone as often as Kyle Porter does. He’s been instrumental in ushering in a new era of golf coverage and it’s been a pleasure to be along for the ride in that.
Few make the sport feel as fun and as thought provoking.
Kyle sees golf in a way that no one else does—and we're all fortunate to get to share in that view through Normal Sport!
Normal Sport is exploratory, sometimes emotional, always entertaining. It also has one of my favorite writers in the biz at its foundation.
Kyle approaches coverage of the game with both conviction and curiosity
Kyle is the best columnist in sports. That he has channeled those talents through strokes gained and Spieth memes is a blessing to golf.
Kyle's content is a product of a sick sense of humour, a clear passion for golf and unquestionable dedication to hard work. That's not normal!
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