Issue No. 262 | October 15, 2025 | Read Online
Greetings!
I am on a mini getaway with the family this week so our content will be short and sweet.
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OK, now onto the news.
I got this excellent reader email last week that I wanted to respond to.
The U.S. has a turnover problem. It’s tough to have “trust” when the roster changes and more specifically the top dogs change so much every two years.
U.S. golf always has new talent coming in that can easily break into the 12 and with the points all it takes is a couple big wins over two years. There’s less Euros playing the PGA tour, and Donald made a comment about them tweaking point systems to get results they want from the DP Tour events they know their guys play.
Kurt S.
I would like to pause here and highlight what I believe Kurt is saying, “The U.S. is too good individually, which is why it’s not as good at the team level,” which I obviously appreciate and am amused by.
Back to Kurt.
It’s like USA basketball when we were losing. Those international teams that were beating us then had continuity because they didn’t have enough new fresh talent to break them up. Argentina, Spain, Australia. Currently feels like Rory, Rahm, Fleetwood have been that forever. Before felt like years of Sergio, Rose, Westy, Fleetwood, and so on.
I have no data to back this up but the lack of sustaining consistent success in golf, specially U.S. golf, I think is a problem for Ryder Cups.
Kurt S.
While the “we’re just too good” angle is amusing, I actually do think there’s something to this. If you believe that team golf is different than individual golf — and I don’t know how anyone could say otherwise with a straight face at this point — then you probably also believe that a more familiar, unified team is better than not having one.
Following that logic, it makes sense that Europe is better, which is both 1. A testament to their top stars staying great for a long time (Brooks, DJ, Spieth have all fallen off) and 2. The depth of the American side resulting in more turnover, like Kurt pointed out.
At the very least it’s worth consideration as one of the 1,000 theories about why the U.S. has not been as good as Europe in this event.
1. This got me pretty good.
Rorie Macolroy (!!)
Daniel Burger
Max Holma
Kinjin (??) Bradley
Shawn Lowery
Bryson Deshambo
John Ram
This is a very Away With Words question, but I do wonder how many people have a name where you could take one letter out of the last name and put it in the first name and reasonably pronounce it the same way.
Jon Rahm
John Ram
[Jason here] I’ve often wondered what’s the longest name you could make by combining golfer names. Three is my max.
Catriona Matthew Jordan Spieth
Paul Casey Martin Laird
It is for sure the offseason.
Offseason at LIV HQ. Also: Is Rahm’s Ryder Cup future in jeopardy?
2. This delighted me. And the video of the poor rules official walking both players through the 14 steps necessary to handle such a situation is somehow even better.
3. These were taken a week apart.
Golf rules.
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I like this take and think it’s probably true.
Hovland and Bob Mac were trying to hold off Russ Henley and the best player on the planet. A win for the U.S. in the last Saturday morning match would have made it 7.5-4.5 and given the U.S. some momentum going to the afternoon.
Hovland hit his shot on the 17th to 90 feet while Scheffler left Henley a makable birdie. The U.S. made par, and Bob left Hovland 12 feet to keep a 1 UP lead going to 18. Middle-middle for a half point, and they split the 18th as well to win 1 UP and 8.5-3.5 overall.
There were a lot of moments in which I thought, “Oh, that’s it. Vince Carter Dot GIF.” This one was probably, at least in retrospect, the denouement.
I’m not going to get 5,000 words down on the Cat’s most recent surgery, but I did have a few thoughts.
1. (This one is depressing) but do we think the number of Tiger back surgeries will eventually surpass the number of Tiger majors?
2. One of the things I have enjoyed most about leaving a more mainstream outlet is not having to have immediate Tiger takes. While I care about him a lot in the broader context of golf history, I stopped caring about his place within the current competitive golf landscape several years ago. It just doesn’t interest me all that much because he hasn’t truly been competitive since before COVID. And so to be able to take several days to consider what my take is going to be is quite nice.
3. The entire situation is extremely sad from a human perspective. I have always wondered how many majors Tiger would trade for anonymity. Now I wonder how many he would trade to have his health back. The phrase “the cost of these dreams” comes to mind. It wasn’t a price he ever anticipated, of course, but I’m guessing it was far greater than he ever wanted to pay.
I read part of this Josh Kushner profile, and his conversation with Rick Rubin here was extremely compelling and encouraging. Here’s what Rubin told him.
My advice to you and your team is to just be yourselves, Rubin explained. Because if you do what you think the rest of the world wants, one of two things will happen. You might be right, but if you are, you won’t really know why; and if you’re wrong, you’ll be angry at yourself for deviating from what is true to your core.So just be yourself, and either you’ll be right, and it’ll feel really good; or you’ll be wrong. But at least you’ll still be yourself.
Colossus
I’m not sure I’ve ever heard better business advice — especially as it relates to the content creation world — than just be yourself, and either you’ll be right, and it’ll feel really good; or you’ll be wrong. But at least you’ll still be yourself.
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