Issue No. 228 | July 15, 2025 | Read Online

There’s no place like it. It’s a brutal and beautiful golf course, often at the same time.
Darren Clarke on Royal Portrush

Happy Open Championship week. One of the — what? — three best weeks of the golf year. It’s Masters-Open-Ryder Cup for me in some order with everything else a pretty distance 4th-52nd.

Before we get to today’s newsletter, a quick shout out to the R&A YouTube channel this week. They do such a great job, and I love having their live on the range show on in the morning throughout the early part of the week.

It’s also more opportunity for me to pull very normal screenshots like the 2011 champ watching the No. 1 player on earth flush irons and needing to pull out a cigarette to deal with it all.

Or Bryson looking like he’s trying to be Brady’s Z receiver for one of those late 2000s Pats teams.

Even the screenshots go harder this week.

And you know Bryson would be wearing a neck roll.

Today’s newsletter is presented by Seed Golf.

Speaking of things in Ireland that get smoked (!), I’m so proud of our partnership with Seed. They make an amazing golf ball at an amazing price and ship them all over the world right there from Ireland.

Founder Dean Klatt also runs the type of business that I want to be associated with. Here’s what he said when I asked him about his normal sport business moments.

KP: Can you remember a moment in that process where you're looking around? I don't know, maybe on your hands and knees, slicing up golf balls, just like, How did I end up here? How is this the work that I'm doing?
Dean: That happens still on a daily basis. It's just really what you want to do. It's been great. We were talking about kids before we started. The great thing about having an e-commerce or a digital business is a pure flexibility of time.
One of the disadvantages of being the son of a golf pro is Saturday and Sunday at a golf club is the busiest period for them.
My sports, when I was a teenager or whatever, my old man didn't see any of that because he had to work. The advantage of doing what I do was you could be there for the kids and spend the time with them when you wanted to be with them.
Dean Klatt | Normal Sport

Amen to that. And if you’re interested, you can use the code normalsport at checkout on their site for 20 percent off (in most circumstances).

Seed of an idea Irish pub edition

[Jason here] For this week’s illustration I was thinking about why we love coffee golf (obviously). I think it comes down to seeing players take on big bold and creative challenges. Maybe that’s just what draws us to things like 24 hour golf marathons, ambitious films, new businesses, etcetera. That pioneering sprit is what resonated most Dean’s Seed origin story. As if ideas are all around us but it takes some of this mindset to get the ball rolling…

Dean: I can do stuff, too.
Dean Klatt | Normal Sport

OK, now onto the news.

Mea Culpa

A quick mea culpa. I posted this homemade chart for members only in last Friday’s newsletter, and I said that the wins and SG totals (X axis and Y axis, respectively) were since the start of 2025. That was wrong, they’re since the start of 2024.

Scottie has been extraordinary, but not “12 wins in six months” extraordinary.

Thanks to faithful reader Bruno L. for pointing this out.

Here’s that chart. It’s still stunning.

Normal Sport

So many this week, but we have to begin with the ants and the kangaroo.

1. It all kind of sneaked up on me. I was pretty stoked on Sunday for Alcaraz-Sinner and the Scottish, and then out of nowhere the Evian completely stole the show.

Grace Kim finished eagle-birdie-eagle with …

1. A shot from 190 yards to 2 feet in regulation to get into a playoff
2. A hole out from the penalty area and
3. Another eagle to close it out.

Then she hugged an inflatable (?) kangaroo. Don’t want or need the backstory.

This image is plenty.

2. In between all of that madness, there was also an ant situation on Grace’s golf ball. Eagles, birdies, ants and kangaroos. Amazing sport.

3. Gonna tell my kids someday these three guys participated in the 2025 Home Run Derby in Atlanta.

Stat of the Week

Chris Gotterup is currently ranked No. 36 in the world (according to Data Golf). There are only 16 Americans ahead of him. He played great at Oakmont. He won the Scottish. His game fits Bethpage. It’s not like … crazy to think he could be in the running for that 12th spot in September.

Is it?

Members Only

Our 2025 Open Championship fantasy contest is live with $2,500 in prizes available. If you’re a Normal Club member, you’ll see a link below. If you’re not a member, you can sign up to join the Normal Club right here, and you’ll receive a link in your email.

Rock the Vote

I’m intrigued by perceived storylines going in to this Open. Would love to hear everyone’s thoughts. Off the top of my head, these are the primary storylines I’m interested in. But you can always vote “other” here and fill in the gaps.

Idea of the Week

This is a reheat for me, but it’s also a go to. After Aldrich Potgieter opened the Scottish with a 400-yard drive, I wrote the question I’ve been writing for two years now as it relates to the distance debate: Do you want to continue going to St. Andrews for The Open or not?

I don’t really think you can — in an intellectually honest way — want to keep going to St. Andrews and also be against rolling the ball back.

I got a lot of pushback against this idea (of course), and I thought Kyle (other Kyle, not me) summarized all of it nicely with this response.

It is very much not about scoring, but rather about how a golf course plays.

Again, it’s one of the only sports in which you cannot defend the other players, and if nobody is going to aid the golf course in its own defense then it’s tantamount to having all NFL defense played by guys the same size and physical condition as those from the 1970s.

Meme of the Week

This one got me good, and I am going to wear it out over the next 12 months.

When I turn the USB both ways and neither works.

When I’ve done bedtime seven different times.

When the external monitor just won’t stay connected.

Things of that nature.

This one was pretty good, too.

You want … bandanas?

Lastly, not a meme, but we need to have a conversation about Spieth’s fingers at some point. It looks like he’s been working in the coal mines of West Virginia for the last 35 years!

Wimbledon Thoughts

I watched a lot (some may say too much) Wimbledon over the past two weeks. I said this last week, but the three week stretch of Wimbledon + Scottish Open + Open Championship is unparalleled.

And of course, I have some thoughts.

• I was glad Sinner won on Sunday, although I find it very strange that he only won because a large Bulgarian man got pectoral cramps a week ago. Normal sport stuff. And another reason I will always argue that winning golf slams is tougher for superstars than winning tennis slams.

In golf, if Thomas Detry WDs — even if he’s leading the tournament — it’s easy to tell yourself that this affects almost nobody. In tennis, if Grigor Dimitrov WDs while up 2-0 against Jannik Sinner, it literally changes Carlos Alcaraz’s career.

• One quote I loved from Sinner after he beat Alcaraz: “I am thankful for the player you are.” Again, this was the guy who had just destroyed his world in Paris, and Sinner is thankful for the player he is. Why?

Because he knows what Fed and Nadal and Djokovic knew, which is that even though the other guy is going to steal some slams from you, he is also going to take your game to a place it could never reach without him, which will win you some slams you never would have had without the existence of that competition.

• Speaking of Djokovic, his loss to Sinner was as difficult to watch as it was inevitable. His quote reflected his current reality.

I reach the final stages, I reach the semis of every slam this year, but I have to play Sinner or Alcaraz. These guys are fit, young, sharp. I feel like I'm going into the match with tank half empty. It's just not possible to win a match like that.
Novak Djokovic

That’s sobering from the guy who was always the fittest, youngest and sharpest against the guys I loved.

I also enjoyed this essay on Novak in the Times. Don’t agree with all of it, but I liked reading it.

• Alcaraz is a certified sicko, by the way. Between this video and the following quote, he may need as much help as the rest of us.

• I enjoyed reading Iga Swiatek on reading.

I always have a book or the Kindle in my pocket. I read during tournaments but of course I read the most when I have time off and I'm in a park or on a beach.
I feel when I don't have time to read, it's time for me to chill out a little bit more.
Not being able to take the time to read is a sign that I'm doing too much. I feel like it really clears my mind.
Iga Swiatek

• Claire is out here trying to start agronomy wars.

• Lastly, the most difficult piece to preserve as a pro in any sport -- but maybe especially individual ones like tennis and golf -- is joy.

Everything works against it. Which is what makes watching Alcaraz, who somehow has all of the gifts and all of the joy, such a complete delight.

There is some Rory in there. Some Spieth. Some “I can’t believe I get to do this, and I can’t believe how good I am at it.” His eyes always seem just a few lumens brighter. Sinner is a machine, and a very destructive one at that. Alcaraz is meticulous, sure, but he’s also a tornado of delight.

Together, they make wonderful theater.

The 30-5 Club

For the first time since the 2013 Open Championship — when Phil Mickelson entered the 30-5 club (30 PGA Tour wins, including five major championships) — the club’s door was open for someone to walk through on Sunday afternoon.

Rory was trying to win his 30th PGA Tour event to go with the five majors he now has. The 30-5 club is pretty nuts.

Tiger
Jack
Snead
Hogan
Hagen
Palmer
Nelson
Watson
Sarazen
Mickelson
Rory … the next time he wins a Tour event.

As I’ve written before, the 40-6 club is where Rory’s long-term vision should be.

Tiger
Jack
Snead
Hogan
Hagen
Palmer
Mickelson
Rory …?

Nobody cares about these club. They are arbitrary, completely made up by me. And they are unfair to global players like Seve and Gary Player.

But they do help contextualize greatness. I think sometimes we think about Rory as one of the better players of this era. But here’s the reality, which was written by a reader who emailed me last week.

JT and Spieth combined are 29 wins and five majors. Those majors: two PGAs, one of the rest. This is the exact number of wins and majors composition of … Rory.
Julian S.

When you put it like that …

Corrupt Golf Media

👉️ Gabby’s story here on the public nature of Royal Portrush (and all non-American golf) is excellent. We just have it all wrong over here.

👉️ It’s difficult to write an original Rory McIlroy story. This one by Paolo Uggetti on how he almost went to East Tennessee State is incredible though. Mike Holder apparently had his mom on the phone, and Rory ghosted him. Tough scene for my Pokes.

👉️ Always watch/read/listen to the Fried Egg.

🔥 Take

Phil chose to start his Open Championship week with violence.

And here’s the quiet part out loud.

Because the truth here is that Phil (and everyone) knows what an unsustainable business model looks like. The Tour probably had room to grow 10 or 20 percent bigger in terms of revenue but didn’t do it out of either laziness or ineptitude. But the financial world LIV is existing in is completely ludicrous.

You know it, I know it and Phil knows it … but he also doesn’t care about it because the individual reward for his willingness to join LIV is financially incomprehensible.

The future be completely damned.

How is This App Free?

Some real bangers this week.

• This made me laugh.

• This one absolutely lit me up. I literally howled.

• This got me too.

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 2,305 words long like this one.

While we do use digital tools that help us find information, everything you read and consumed was created from scratch by two humans who are absolutely obsessed with the game.

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