Greetings!
Happy Thanksgiving week.
I believe my hottest calendar-related take is that the ~35 days between Thanksgiving and New Year’s should be a month-long holiday. A lot of Europeans do this late summer every year, and most Americans who are working during this period are doing so at 60 percent capacity or effort anyway.
We might as well just go all the way and come back refreshed starting Jan. 1.
I know this is why you subscribe to a professional golf newsletter.
And don’t even get me started on the Julian calendar.
Name drops today: Pine Dunes, CJ Chilvers, Bryson, Rory, Rose, Webb Simpson, Ezra Klein, Raising Cane’s, Emily Sundberg and many more.
Today’s gratitude is sponsored by Meridian Putters, which — starting on Wednesday at 5 p.m. — is having their biggest sale of the year: 35 percent off in-stock putters.
I grabbed a new Okatie putter last week in their blind draw sale, but if I was getting a new one this time around for 35 percent off, I would go with the Key West.
It’s so money (and at a price that isn’t exorbitant).
I think about the conversation I had with Meridian founder, Ryan Duffey, earlier this year on how and why he started his putter company.
I don't understand how we've all just come to accept, “Well, a good putter must be 550 bucks.” More than a driver in some cases. People just seem to accept it. From my perspective, I was like, “Man, there's a whole world in here where we can do this at a reasonable price.”
Ryan Duffey
I’m confident that there’s no place you can get a better putter at Meridian’s prices (and that’s before the 35 percent off, which runs from 5 p.m. on Wednesday through next Monday).
OK, now onto the news.
1. An increasing love for golf. I went on a golf trip to Pine Dunes last weekend, and despite living and breathing golf for the majority of my waking professional hours, my love for the game has only expanded.
Probably many of you feel this way given that you’re subscribed to a golf newsletter with a sheep-monkey meme logo, but it’s worth pausing and reflecting on.
Because to love something or to be truly into something is to be willing to be hurt by it. This sounds silly and ridiculous about a game or a hobby, and maybe it is. But it’s also worthy of celebration because it’s very much not how everyone views the world.
2. Short books. One of my soapboxes (other than the November-January holiday time) is that all books should be about half their length (including my own!). If you’re a non-fiction book over 300 pages, I have a lot of questions. Again, speaking to myself here as Normal Sport 2 was (ridiculously!) 466 pages long.
The best short book I’ve read recently is CJ Chilvers’ 72-page book, Principles for Newsletters. I realize this title sounds almost stunningly boring. But I can guarantee you that anyone who is a content creator can take away something that will change the trajectory of their professional work life.
An example …
Principle No. 33: Only one person is opening this email. You are not a broadcaster. Crowds are not gathering around a single screen to read your email. Write to one reader.
CJ Chilvers | Principles for Newsletter
3. Sports Connections. This one is a bit silly, I suppose, but I have really enjoyed the NYT’s Connections: Sports Edition.
I find it to be challenging, enjoyable and the right amount of how long I want to be challenged in the morning when I’m gearing up for work or at night when I’m winding down for bed. I don’t need or want to spend 40 minutes on a crossword puzzle, but most online games go too far the other direction and are completely brainless.
Connections (both sports and non-) is, in my opinion, the perfect game.
My results from yesterday. Tough scene for the U.S. Open.
4. These two absolutely insane charts from the final round at the Masters.
First, Data Golf’s chances of winning chart, in which Bryson was the favorite at 3:20 p.m. but never again, and Rory took his chances from 96 percent at 5:36 p.m. to 30 percent just 18 minutes later after playing 13 and 14 in 3 over.
Somehow that still doesn’t fully capture how wild the swings felt that afternoon.
Rory = Green, Rose = Red, Bryson = Yellow, Ludvig = Gray
This one is somehow maybe even crazier. A combined 12 pars (and 26 not pars!) across 38 total holes for Rory and Rose on Sunday. If anyone tries to tell you the Tiger 2019 Masters was better, just show them these two charts.
The video evidence, by the way, has been posted on Masters.com if you need something to watch stress out about over Thanksgiving.
5. Scottie’s self-reflection. I know Scottie doesn’t do it for a lot of people. But I have to say that there are only really three major championship pressers that are can’t-miss for me right now: Phil, Rory and Scottie with Bryson and Hovland a distant T4.
Scottie is not electric on or off the course like some of his contemporaries. So I don’t find him to be interesting in the same way I find Phil or Rory to be interesting. What is fascinating to me, though, is how someone that good is also this at odds with himself.
I find his achievement-worldview combination to be perhaps the most fascinating in all of sports. It’s one thing when a third string middle infielders says, You know, there’s more to life than this and I’m not defined or fulfilled by what I do, and it’s very much another thing when the third or fourth best golfer of the last 40 years says it.
I wrote a lot about that here, and it’s one of my big takeaways from 2025.
6. That I get to cover two of what will eventually be the 10 greatest golfers of all time.
I need to make this list at some point, but right now I have Rory as the 13th greatest golfer of all time, and I would put Scottie in the top 25 (Scottie vs. Brooks was a pretty interesting debate before 2025 happened).
And they both just had top 30 seasons since 1983, according to Data Golf. DG had Scottie’s 2025 as the 10th-best season in the last 42 years and Rory’s as the 29th. Obviously this is in a vacuum without taking into account the context of winning the slam in the most unimaginable way possible at ANGC.
Rory now has six top 50 seasons since 1983, and Scottie has four (although all four of Scottie’s are also top 20 seasons).
No matter how you want to look at it, it has become clear that we’re dealing with two all-time greats. Nine combined major championships and 48 combined PGA Tour wins is roughly Walter Hagen’s career, and Scottie isn’t even 30 yet.
Rory could join the insane 40-6 club with 40 PGA Tour wins and six majors. Members:
Jack
Tiger
Hagen
Hogan
Watson
Snead
Palmer
Mickelson
And Scottie is probably hunting at least that if not the 50-7 club. Members:
Jack
Tiger
Hogan
Snead
Palmer
It’s not 2011 anymore.
And to cover these two thoughtful all-timers in their primes as they hoover up four of the five biggest tournaments and reflect on what all of it means to them is an honor.
7. Friends in golf media that I learn from. I would be a fool to pretend to be the smartest person in the room when it comes to golf. And as I was thinking through what I’m thankful for, my friends in golf media — people like Andy, SMartin, Joel Beall, LKD, Soly and so many others — came to mind.
I listen to, read, and ask questions of all of them constantly.
Here’s a good example of what I mean when I say I learn from them.
In our recent podcast, LKD changed my mind about how Rory plays majors. Before that pod, I would have said that Rory takes too many chances at major championships However, as LKD theorized here, he believes Rory actually didn’t take enough chances at majors in the past.
As I thought through what he said, I realized he was probably right and now the way I think about, write about and talk about Rory will be slightly different than before because of a smart media friend who presented a compelling case.
I am really grateful for these people because 1. I like them and enjoy their company and 2. I think they often make me so much better at my job.
[Jason here] Golf media friends have always felt somewhat distant to me, living in Amsterdam and working across the pond. So I’m thankful that this year I finally got to put some faces to the folks I’ve collaborated with, illustrated for this newsletter and enjoyed the work of over the past seven years.
And at The Ryder Cup no less!
It was special to get in touch with the kind and curious minds of golf media. Like sitting next to Soly in the media center while he talked shop with KP and the Data Golf boys. Does it get any better than that for a golf sicko?
I’m very grateful to be able to make work like Keegan x Karl Havoc (see below), and for your support that lets us dive into it. And I’m pumped for more live tournaments next year.
8. Luke Donald. Who knew? I have grown to appreciate and even admire the leader that he has seemingly been for the European Ryder Cup team.
An excellent player in his time and someone who always seemed prepared and ready for any situation. But I would not have pegged him as a Mike Vrabel-esque leader of men. He’s almost certainly going to go for the three-peat at Adare, which is a bit of a risk to his legacy, though given the U.S. struggles in Europe, probably not much of one.
And after he touches off his Tom Emanski-like back-to-back-to-back victories there, his place in the pantheon will have far more weight from his Ryder Cup captaincy than from being just one of 25 golfers in the last 40 years to become No. 1 in the world.
9. Twitter. My love-hate relationship with the everything app continues. On one hand, you get some of the best content ever created …
On the other hand, you get this ...
And I’m not sure there’s a great way to get one without the other. The obvious response is, don’t read the comments, stupid, to which I would say the comments are where a lot of the gold is found.
I am grateful, of course, that Twitter can still be a place for amazing discourse. A place to learn and to get a better view of the bigger picture. Take this question, for example.
It led to some predictable, some zany and some wonderful answers.
This newsletter is the best network I could possibly have, but Twitter is a nice second. I disagree with a lot of what Elon has done to the place and how much of it functions now compared to how it used to. But it is also an invaluable resource for writing this newsletter, following golf and thinking in a way that hopefully adds value to your golf fandom, entrepreneurial endeavors or personal worldview.
One aside here: I recently read this from Emily Sundberg, who writes a cool media newsletter called Feed Me, and it made me desirous of a thriving Normal Sport comments section (which we’re working on!).
The Feed Me comment section is my favorite corner of the internet and I would be nowhere without my curious, affable, smart readers. People with radically different beliefs can, in fact, coexist in comment sections.
Emily Sundberg | Feed Me
10. Not an ad, and they didn’t ask me to do this, but I am very thankful for our partnership with Turtlebox and also for their products. Two use cases.
We use it at every baseball practice I coach. Crank up the Forrest Frank and get to work on the pitching machine. It’s money.
We had an outdoor Friendsgiving on Sunday night, and somebody brought the Grande edition, which played a starring role.
We don’t partner with brands that we don’t like, but even among a group of companies that I have a high affinity for, Turtlebox still stands out, especially at this time of year when I’m taking their stuff out on the course to play during Fall Golf SZN.
11. The How I Write podcast. As a creative, it has been such a gift to me to have this podcast. These episodes in particular have stood out.
They are probably more interesting to me because I’m a writer, but if you think at all for your job, all of them are must listen given the clarity of thought and action everyone involved operates with. Great, great stuff.
12. Obsessives. I identified with David Senra here when he said he’s obsessed with people who are obsessed. That’s exactly how I feel. Is it normal sport as hell when Augusta National puts out a press release of grass lengths (!) every second week in April? Yes. Do I love how obsessed they (along with other people in golf) are with all of this? Also yes.
To take it back to Scottie, I love how confounded he is about how obsessed he is with golf. I identify with it! Not with playing like him, of course, but with thinking about and considering it from every angle. I find it fascinating. And as you know, maybe the actual golf least of all.
Here’s what Scottie said at ANGC in 2024.
I was sitting around with my buddies this morning, I was a bit overwhelmed, I told them, I wish I didn't want to win as badly as did I or as badly as I do. I think it would make the mornings easier.
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie is unable to reconcile reality with what he thinks reality should probably be. In other words, he’s obsessed. Obsessed in a different way than Todd Graves is obsessed with the fast food chicken supply chain. But obsessed nonetheless.
And I’m obsessed with his obsession (not to mention my own). Thank you for reading my weekly journal about all of this. It is a wonderful job, and I’m also thankful for it.
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