Last newsletter of the year! This is our 140th-ish newsletter, which is insane and would not be possible without all of you reading them! If you’re inclined, a good Christmas present to us would be you subscribing to our YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcast pages, depending on where you get your favorite shows.
Two things before we get to some horrific (and a few decent) predictions for 2025.
1. We got into an argument today in an internal meeting about the metric system vs. the imperial system (I am pro-metric for all kinds of reasons). Anyway, our web guy, Jeff, had a great idea: Whoever wins the Ryder Cup gets to determine which system is used by Europe and the United States until the next Ryder Cup. Way into this.
2. I mentioned this briefly last week, but want to double down today. Wild Spring Dunes — a new project by Dream Golf, which brought you Bandon and Sand Valley — opens next year in east Texas, and it’s going to absolutely crush.
It’s about three hours from Dallas so we got to play it last week, and it is spectacular. My favorite anecdote from our time there is that they dug 40 feet down on site and found only sand. In other words, absolutely perfect for building and growing a world class golf course (and probably several more).
Also, an elite logo.
You can currently become a founding member of the place (which I would recommend if you have the money) or simply book two eight-hole loops for $70 (!!), which is tantamount to stealing.
Who knows how these things will go, but if WSD doesn’t become the Bandon of Texas, I’ll be pretty surprised. Best thing I can say about the place is that I remember every hole. I didn’t love every hole, but I remember every single one.
As you can see from the photos below, the landscape feels less Texas and more Tennessee or North Carolina. Just a stunning place.
Name drops today: Scottie Scheffler,
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Turtlebox, which is back for us as a 2026 sponsor and also fueling the No. 1 player in the world. Not sure how those two entities overlap, but I’m definitely pumped about it.
I mentioned this on a podcast that will come out in a few days, but Turtlebox has powered so many different gatherings for us this year. Golf outings, sure, but also …
Youth baseball practices
Outdoor fire pit nights
Front yard movies
Garden dance parties (Jason)
All of their products are great, but if you’re looking for the best value, I think the Original (Gen 3) is the way to go. A perfect last-minute Christmas gift.
OK, now onto the news.
Way back in newsletter No. 141, I made some 2025 predictions for the golf world. Against my better judgement, I want to hold myself accountable to those predictions now that the year is coming to an end.
Some of them were tough to look back on. Others turned out OK. Either way, I learned a lot in revisiting them and seeing which way the golf world went (or didn’t go) in light of those predix.
So without further ado ….
1. Europe wins Bethpage: Yeah, I don’t love it, but it’s definitely in play.
It gets … much worse.
2. The PIF-PGA Tour deal goes through … and then nothing happens.
The PIF-PGA Tour deal did not go through, but also nothing has happened. Feels like I deserve 0.25 points for this one. And the PIF appears to be doubling (or even tripling) down on its future as it recently approved an increase that ran the LIV investment total to $5 billion (!).
All so a 52-year-old Lee Westwood could be trotted back out there for the Magic Sticks.
I just don’t really get it. It feels post-sportswashing. Almost like the PIF has an agenda that it’s going to prove something to the PGA Tour.
We get it, man. You’re rich. You don’t need to keep telling us.
After seemingly getting close to a deal a year ago, with the Tour’s new leadership installed and very much focused on the Tour, I don’t have much confidence here that anything is ever going to happen.
3. Kyle breaks 80 twice.
Nope. Two reasons, probably related.
1. I didn’t play enough.
2. My chipping got so bad that I started chipping one-handed.
Seems like a good time to mention that if you are a yippy-chip-fixing brand looking to sponsor a newsletter whose writer is desperate to try … really anything, I have some inventory for you in 2026. But for real, if you represent a brand looking to get involved, please reach out.
Here are the scores. I am proud of that 80 at Trinity Forest.
4. PGA Tour buys Golf Channel
Listen, we were taking some swings here.
This one also seems not as close as it did a year ago.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes an Internet Invitational take, one of the great comments I’ve ever seen and (by far) my worst prediction of the year.
Normal Sport is supported by exactly 1,013 crazed individuals. By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• A vote for trusted, independent media.
• The delight of helping us establish Normal Sport.
• 15% off to our pro shop.
• Access to all of our content (like the rest of this post).
Normal Sport is exploratory, sometimes emotional, always entertaining. It also has one of my favorite writers in the biz at its foundation.
Few make the sport feel as fun and as thought provoking.
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!
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.
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 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!
Kyle is a perfect curator of the necessary moments of levity that accent a sport that will drive most of us insane.
Kyle approaches coverage of the game with both conviction and curiosity
It's a treasure trove of the important, the seemingly important, and — importantly! — the unimportant stuff. It's an asset in my inbox.
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.
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.
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.
.svg){kind=spacer}
