Issue No. 252 | September 19, 2025 | Read Online
There were many delights this week during our first ever Normal Sport annual meeting. Jason — whose work you often see but whose voice you rarely physically hear — flew over from Amsterdam for a gathering of the four of us who run this business ahead of next week’s Ryder Cup.
We had more fun than I think you’re supposed to have while working, but my favorite moment — as is often the case — happened during one of the small pauses between planning, thinking, talking and dreaming about the future.
Thank you to the sponsor of today’s newsletter and the folks who will be presenting next week’s Ryder Cup coverage, Meridian Putters.
We have some fun content planned with Meridian next week at Bethpage as everyone chooses up sides and gets themselves in a lather over VR headsets, foursomes pairings and which team has been more historically disrespected.
No matter how high the quality of the golf actually is, though, it will be difficult for it to match the quality of Meridian’s product.
Jason and I actually had a conversation on Friday on the way to the airport in which he remarked about some products Meridian recently sent us: “I know I shouldn’t still be as excited about the quality of Meridian’s work as I am, but they just do such great work.”
I concur. And we hope you do as well.
OK, now onto the news.
Soly and I taped a show this week about our favorite Ryder Cup moments since we’ve been covering golf — which you can watch below — and we both confessed to having literal dreams about the event. This is bizarre (and perhaps even borderline loser) behavior, but we will get to that in a moment.
First, I need to confess something else. Something a lot of people maybe don’t know (?). And that confession is that I have partnered with someone — Jason Page — in the golf content world (and in this business) with someone I had until this week only met in real life one time.
I was reminded of that on Tuesday as I busied myself with preparing for our first annual meeting here in Dallas. There were (fleeting) thoughts of, Wait … do I even like this person I am now tethered to professionally within this newsletter and this company?
Spoiler: I do.
The best and most important part of planning and debating and wrestling your business to the ground during a two- or three-day stretch like this has nothing to do with the business itself.
Did Jason, David (business and sales), Jeff (tech, branding) and I spend time dissecting the past and dreaming about the future? Absolutely! Did we highlight 2026 sponsors we would love to work with? Of course. Did we give feedback about our current content load and the new show we just launched? Yep.
David, Kyle, Jason and Jeff
But the real value is underneath all of that in the trust that is built with people whose faces you almost only ever see on a boxed screen the size of a Playing Through commercial. The real value of gathering together like this is an emanating energy and momentum that cannot be manufactured by a thousand Zooms.
Our two through lines for the week …
1. Do we love what we’re doing, and does that consistently show up in the work?
2. Are we fulfilling our mission by bringing about meaning to our golf-following audience (i.e. you)?
Almost everything we talked about revolved around those two concepts.
We ended things on Thursday evening with a paid members-only meetup at a local brewery. People (mostly friends) actually showed up. The eye test was discussed at length. We had a wonderful time.
Thank you, Oak Highlands Brewery
On some days — and definitely the last three — it feels like all of this might actually somehow work. There is certainly joy to be found in that. Thank you, dear reader, for being along for that ride.
As for my favorite moment of the week. As noted above, it came when I least expected it. On Thursday evening at my house, I overheard Jason (the best artist I know) talking to my 12-year-old daughter (my favorite artist I know) about their respective crafts. Discussing worlds they’re working on and what they’re learning about how to tell stories and how they’re experimenting with different methods of drawing and creating.
I have to admit, it brought me tremendous joy to hear someone encourage my daughter in that specific way. And it is emblematic of who I have found Jason to be and what we both (what we all) want from this business. For it to be personal. For it to be accessible. For it to make you laugh and bring you joy. For it to engender some meaning and some wonder in a world that often feels devoid of it.
Those are the figurative dreams.
And now here are the literal ones.
Soly and I talked about our 10 favorite moments (five each) since we’ve been paying close attention to the Ryder Cup. We are both amused and obsessed with this stuff. I’m not sure if anyone else is, but even if you aren’t, we would still have discussions like this because it makes our jobs a ton of fun.
Soly isn’t long on time these days — running No Laying Up, dad to three kids, stressing over the Reds’ fake playoff run — so I appreciated him joining me for Episode No. 3 of The Normal Sport Show.
I hope you enjoy.
Also, if you haven’t subscribed to the show, I would love for you to at any (or all!) of the following places.
Thank you for reading our handcrafted, algorithm-free newsletter about golf. We put everything we have into every newsletter we write, which is why they are frequently 1,065 words long like this one. Everything you read and consume was created from scratch by two humans who are absolutely obsessed with the game.
If you ever want to support our business, you can buy merch here or become a Normal Club member at the link below (some news coming on that front next week on our march to 1,000 members).
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