About Normal Sport

Hey, my name is Kyle Porter, and I have to confess that all of this was a bit of an accident. 

About a week after the 2021 Ryder Cup, I messaged my friend – and now, our illustrator – Jason Page vaguely about the possibility of writing and illustrating a book together about that year in golf.

His response via Whatsapp: Sure! What did you have in mind?

What a question, and what a journey since then. 

We wrote and illustrated not only that first book together in 2021 but two more after that. Somewhere along the way, we realized two things.

1. Most outlets that produce written golf news and insight do so from the perspective of the journalist, not the fan. 
2. There was an opportunity to step in and cover golf with some humor, and to make it personal and human for the fan.

So we doubled down on our writing and illustrating and flipped the books into a newsletter about ridiculous events like giraffes rushing down the fairway at the Magical Kenya Open and how Phil Mickelson’s cape collection could affect the future of men’s professional golf.

And now, for some reason, over 15,000 people read it every single week.

As noted above, most outlets that produce written golf news and insight do so from the perspective of the journalist, not the fan. We wanted to create something different than that. Something that felt like it was written and illustrated by people who are in love with the game. 

We wanted to create written and illustrated golf content that is …

1. Funny
2. Human
3. Personal

We believe this is the full arc of golf fandom. More than just being funny, golf is absurd. It’s also a very human thing to be invested in the game as a fan, even if it is not always covered that way. And finally, almost everyone who follows the game enjoys playing it as well. Golf is the most personal sport in the world.

If the above three things are what we’re trying to do with our content, the following five represent the foundation of our business.

1. Trust: We believe that if we lose your trust in us publishing #takes we actually believe and promoting #products we actually like, nothing else matters.
2. Honesty: We are not trying (and will not try) to trick you into clicking ads or becoming a member. We presume that our readers and followers are smart.
3. Generosity: We have experienced so much of this from friends and colleagues, and we try to give it away as well.
4. Irreverence: We take the work seriously but certainly not ourselves.
5. Care: We want to be in the business of caring about the right things. What are those things? Here are three: The perspective of the fan. The words and images we publish. Being emotionally invested in the game. 

We don’t always know what we’re doing, which is part of the point and most of the fun.

We’re simply internalizing and interpreting golf and trying to build a world that brings about joy in us and perhaps engenders delight in you, our readers.

It’s a cheeky nod to the fact that golf is the strangest game on earth.

A game in which crocodiles traipse the playing field on a semi-regular basis. A game in which if you don’t keep your own statistics (and everyone else’s) correctly, you’re ejected from the event. A game in which pool noodles are used as practice props, and nobody blinks an eye.

We take a few of these oddities and try to juxtapose them with the beauty of the game to create a publication that will hopefully make you chuckle but that may also make you more contemplative.

This is, aspirationally, what we are trying to do.

Golf is uniquely positioned to accomplish all of this.

We’re simply trying to capture those moments.

This is more or less our tagline as well: A ridiculous game made more meaningful.

We deliver fresh golf news 3x/week that is handcrafted with humor and heart. Maybe we’ll do a podcast in the future. Maybe we’ll become Youtube bois at some point. But right now? It’s just the newsletter.

We figure out golf alongside the reader and help interpret it for them. We take convos about golf we have with friends, write them down and share them with you. We try to complete the arc from hilarious to heartfelt in almost every newsletter.

One reader said it better than I could: “I open these emails because of golf, but I'm rarely thinking about just golf when I close them, which I think is a pretty cool testament to what you're doing.”

Here’s what another said: “I feel like I'm reading my buddy's musings that we would have discussed in between Sunday services or during a quick 18 early in the morning or during kiddo nap times.”

That is – I cannot stress this enough – exactly what we are going for.

The newsletter is free to sign up, and it's free to leave. You can join 15,000 other sickos right here. If you want to read our latest newsletter, you can do that here. And if you want to become a member and help fuel this dream alongside us, you can read more about that right here.