Greetings!
We would love to get our Rory/Masters book in some national book stores. If you are a buyer or have connections to one for places like Barnes and Noble, please reach out!
New meme just dropped.
This is me telling my kids to clean the kitchen while my wife and I go on a walk after dinner and returning to Soda Pop playing at level 74 on the TV volume and one counter wiped off.
Name drops today: Juli Inkster, Isaiah Salinda, Caeleb Dressel, the North/South and Firethorn.
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Sap’s Original.
With new sponsors, like Sap's, we like to get to know their products from all sides. Jason started by reading the ingredients. Coconut water powder, shiitake mushrooms, ginseng root, monk fruit …
Monk fruit?! Like grown by monks? Yes, in the 13th century, but now it's the only sweetener of Sap's, and technically a superfood.
Sounds good and tastes good. But how did golfers get their monk fruit before Sap's?
Now we know.
Life before Sap's, Monk Fruit
Sap’s is a hydration drink that has an ingredient stack that actually works together. Electrolytes for hydration. Aminos to help your body recover faster. And adaptogens for stress and balance, which is the part I’m grateful for during the above scenario involving the TV volume at 74 and one counter being cleaned.
Check them out right here.
OK, now onto the news.
1. Praising a golfer for doing media after enduring a collapse of his or her own making is somewhat tantamount to praising a child for going poo poo on the potty.
But I want to echo Jamie Kennedy, who noted that Shane Lowry’s interview was emblematic of why we complain about golfers not talking after defeats.
Raw emotion, disappointment, insightful analysis, regret, humility.
All relatable to fans. And compelling to hear.
Jamie Kennedy
Also, I’m guaranteed to lose it any time a player cites his 4-year-old daughter having never seen him win as the reason he was most disappointed that he didn’t win. Awesome insight and reflection from Lowry that makes him far more endearing than he was three days ago.
2. That was the good. Now for the not so good.
Lowry has (oddly) turned into a not very good closer. This is strange because he doesn’t seem to shy away from big moments (see: Bethpage 2025 or Portrush 2019), but the numbers are the numbers.
Lowry has entered the final round of a tournament in the top three on the leaderboard a total of 14 times since summer of 2019. He has won just one of those tournaments.
Granted, it was the exact one you want to win.
Two things worth mentioning …
This is not a fail-safe way to determine who the most clutch golfers are.
Lowry’s numbers have not been horrific overall.
But an uncomfortable pattern seems to be developing.
There are 100 ways to win a golf tournament.
For example, at that 2019 Open, Lowry built such a big lead that he didn’t really need to gain strokes on the field on Sunday to go on to win. He gained twice as many at the 2022 Honda Classic as he did at the 2019 Open and still lost the Honda. That’s golf. But the entirety of his record tells a story and it’s probably not one he wants it to tell.
For the sake of having some sort of reference point, Rory has entered the final round in the top three 36 times in the same timeframe and gone on to win 14 of them.
Rory is not necessarily an elite closer either (he’s just in position to win a lot), but his numbers are still far better than Lowry’s.
Shane usually doesn’t have the luxury of galloping out in front on Saturday evening and playing stress free — if that’s what we’re calling the way Rory wins events — in the final round, which is why his below average play when in the top three stands out more than it otherwise would (and leads to that 0-for-13 run).
(it should be noted here that he did shoot 65 in the final round at the 2022 BMW PGA to beat out Rory and Rahm).
(it should also be noted that was a 54-hole event because the queen died that week normal sport).
[Jason here with Art Minute] Aside from Kevin's Famous Chili (the finest of art), watching Shane on 16 reminded me of two artworks I keep coming back to.
Fall II (1970) by Bas Jan Ader. The water is always there. Just try not to think about how easy it is to find.
The Mental Hazard (1916) by Clare Briggs. How well does this capture golf — and life? Chef's kiss.
3. The normal sport moment of the week was somehow not Isaiah Salinda stripping down to play a shot out of the water while +9 for the week.
It was Nico Echavarria’s right sleeve being filled up with a girl in a yellow dress holding an umbrella.
Here’s the about page for Morton Salt (cannot believe I am writing that).
Still today, we are widely recognized for our iconic Morton Salt Girl who has remained the face of our brand for over a century. And our products remain staples in the hearts and homes of millions of Americans.
That’s because we’re a company with vision, drive and a big heart.
Morton Salt
It echos the press release (!) for the Echavarria-Morton partnership.
GSE is proud to announce Nico Echavarria has partnered with Morton Salt for the 2026 PGA Tour season! Morton Salt has been the quintessential American brand for over a century and their values represent those of Nico’s on tour; vision, drive, and a big heart.
To be honest, I actually think there should be more weird partnerships like this. More Ritz (Juli Inkster), 5Hour Energy (Jim Furyk) and Tabasco (Woody Austin) on hats and shirts. It gets your brand so much amusing publicity (like me writing this in an email to 17,000 golf fans or us sponsoring another golf writer trying to complete a ridiculous backyard challenge) compared to playing it safe.
I don’t know how much Nico Echavarria’s right sleeve costs, but I’m guessing Morton has received a significant ROI (maybe even from this email alone!).
And since we’re doing this, if you personally find yourself under-salted, you can always pick up some Sap’s Original right here. More electrolytes than two of their big-name competitors! Use the code NORMALSPORT at checkout for a discount.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes thoughts on …
How AI will never win a major (or a gold medal).
Some fake news regarding Rory’s putting.
Why the Players has always been a major championship.
Welcome to the members-only portion of today’s newsletter.
Make sure you get your daily dose of monk fruit.
4. Speaking of the Honda Classic, Shane Bacon tweeted this video out on Sunday. It’s my siren song. Impossible for me to watch fewer than five times.
Everything about it rules. The way he cuts the shot in. The way his feet are pointed 50 yards to the left. The tiny landing area. The way it reacts on the green like he chipped it. The broadcast reaction. Rory gritting his teeth. And so on.
All the gifts. Can’t believe he’s still doing things like this 12 years later. Can’t believe he’s somehow a better golfer now than he was back then.
5. This from Brett McCracken on how AI can never win an Olympic medal is excellent.
In the dawning AI age, distinctly embodied phenomena will increasingly stand out as displays that can’t be artificially reproduced, even by the most sophisticated LLMs. I expect that as movies, music, and other written works become more and more AI-rendered or AI-enhanced, athletic competitions and live sporting events will become dearer to us as refreshingly unenhanced displays of purely human prowess.
Maybe physical sports will become the last human art form.
What literature and poetry have been to the humanities up until now, perhaps athletics will be for the humanities in the age of AI: a genre where the pain and glory of human existence is hashed out, not on a canvas or a page but on a field or in an arena.
Brett McCracken | TGC
And of course I thought of Rory’s Masters win when I read this part.
You can’t script sports according to statistical probability or data analysis. And if you could, they’d lose their appeal. What resonates with us in life is what defies engineerability, as contemporary German sociologist Hartmut Rosa argues. You can’t manufacture resonance. It’s only possible when you release yourself to be touched or affected—perhaps the word is graced—in ways you didn’t plan or control but receive.
In his short book The Uncontrollability of the World, Rosa says …
It is only in encountering the uncontrollable that we really experience the world. Only then do we feel touched, moved, alive. A world that is fully known, in which everything has been planned and mastered, would be a dead world.
Brett McCracken | TGC
Excellent idea and terrific writing by Brett. I find the Olympics does the same thing to me that it clearly did to him. It stirs something in me that nothing else can. It’s why I wrote almost the entire Friday newsletter about that hockey game and why I was once so moved by Caeleb Dressel’s Tokyo performance that I wrote about a lengthy piece about the cost of his (and many other) dreams.
6. This from Joel Beall on the National Links Trust situation in D.C. is worth your time. The entire thing is a bit infuriating if you believe — like I believe — that affordable, municipal golf is more desirable than another overpriced club.
Also, this from POTUS got a big SMH from me. I just don’t understand why the distance debate is so polarizing when it seems painfully easy and better for the game to be on the pro-rollback side of things.
The ambition extends beyond hosting and naming. Trump has spent years quietly waging war against the USGA and R&A's proposed golf-ball rollback, convinced that restricting driving distance would damage the game at every level.
His administration has worked backchannels throughout the industry to kill the initiative.
Joel Beall | Golf Digest
Make America Hit Long Irons Into Par 4s Again!
7. I got a great email from my friend Robbie Vogel with a link to something he wrote six years ago about how the Players being a major is a question of “when” not “if.”
His broad point is that which events are considered majors has changed a lot over the years. At one point in time when the Masters started, there were eight events that either claimed or would go on to claim major status.
We not only see this but we’ve heard it change over time, too.
Jack Nicklaus won his second U.S. Amateur in 1961, and that one counted… until it didn’t. He counted it as a major during the early years of his career, but has since said that it felt “borderline” at the time, and it obviously doesn’t count as a major in retrospect.
Robbie Vogel
And while the big four haven’t changed since the Western Open was no longer considered a major, there is a ton of precedent here for shoehorning the Players in, either now or in the future.
I’m still anti-the Players is a major, but I do sort of agree that this is just going to happen at some point and will be a nauseating talking point over the next two weeks.
8. This is a very normal sport note in a recent Bob Harig column.
Identifying trees on a map of an old nursery is legitimately probably more intellectually stimulating than a handful of events early in the season.
Very normal stuff.
9. It absolutely infuriates me when people say things like this …
Not because people should know better — it’s certainly difficult to tell based on a handful of shots on a weekly broadcast — but because you can literally look it up!
Since the start of 2020, Rory is No. 21 in the world in putting (of the top 150 players in the world currently). His last seven years have all been positive SG putting. He is maybe not the best putter in the world, but he’s very, very solid.
But instead, people just say, Well I saw him miss this six-and-a-half footer on the third hole at Riviera must be terrible. You know what percentage of a player’s shots you actually see (much less remember?) a tiny, tiny number.
Even for someone like Rory, who is on TV all the time. Data is bad for a lot of things, but it’s actually very good for something like this.
10. I loved this take.
That is not to say that those organizations are hosting their events out of the goodness of their hearts, but I do think a clean presentation also happens to be the best business choice for entities like the Olympics and the Masters.
The more the media world goes in one direction — toward gambling and AI and all this dystopian stuff to squeeze just a little more juice out — the more events like the Masters and the Olympics will stand out.
And the more they stand out, the more valuable they will be. It’s the way to consider your business in the long term and not just the P/L of 2026 or 2027.
It also reminds me of this gem.
Thank you for reading our ridiculous golf newsletter that is sometimes (but often barely) about golf. Every edition is handcrafted by me (Kyle) and Jason. No AI, no algorithm, no machines (other than the ones we’re typing and drawing on).
We appreciate your support of it.
Greetings!
We would love to get our Rory/Masters book in some national book stores. If you are a buyer or have connections to one for places like Barnes and Noble, please reach out!
New meme just dropped.
This is me telling my kids to clean the kitchen while my wife and I go on a walk after dinner and returning to Soda Pop playing at level 74 on the TV volume and one counter wiped off.
Name drops today: Juli Inkster, Isaiah Salinda, Caeleb Dressel, the North/South and Firethorn.
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Sap’s Original.
With new sponsors, like Sap's, we like to get to know their products from all sides. Jason started by reading the ingredients. Coconut water powder, shiitake mushrooms, ginseng root, monk fruit …
Monk fruit?! Like grown by monks? Yes, in the 13th century, but now it's the only sweetener of Sap's, and technically a superfood.
Sounds good and tastes good. But how did golfers get their monk fruit before Sap's?
Now we know.
Life before Sap's, Monk Fruit
Sap’s is a hydration drink that has an ingredient stack that actually works together. Electrolytes for hydration. Aminos to help your body recover faster. And adaptogens for stress and balance, which is the part I’m grateful for during the above scenario involving the TV volume at 74 and one counter being cleaned.
Check them out right here.
OK, now onto the news.
1. Praising a golfer for doing media after enduring a collapse of his or her own making is somewhat tantamount to praising a child for going poo poo on the potty.
But I want to echo Jamie Kennedy, who noted that Shane Lowry’s interview was emblematic of why we complain about golfers not talking after defeats.
Raw emotion, disappointment, insightful analysis, regret, humility.
All relatable to fans. And compelling to hear.
Jamie Kennedy
Also, I’m guaranteed to lose it any time a player cites his 4-year-old daughter having never seen him win as the reason he was most disappointed that he didn’t win. Awesome insight and reflection from Lowry that makes him far more endearing than he was three days ago.
2. That was the good. Now for the not so good.
Lowry has (oddly) turned into a not very good closer. This is strange because he doesn’t seem to shy away from big moments (see: Bethpage 2025 or Portrush 2019), but the numbers are the numbers.
Lowry has entered the final round of a tournament in the top three on the leaderboard a total of 14 times since summer of 2019. He has won just one of those tournaments.
Granted, it was the exact one you want to win.
Two things worth mentioning …
This is not a fail-safe way to determine who the most clutch golfers are.
Lowry’s numbers have not been horrific overall.
But an uncomfortable pattern seems to be developing.
There are 100 ways to win a golf tournament.
For example, at that 2019 Open, Lowry built such a big lead that he didn’t really need to gain strokes on the field on Sunday to go on to win. He gained twice as many at the 2022 Honda Classic as he did at the 2019 Open and still lost the Honda. That’s golf. But the entirety of his record tells a story and it’s probably not one he wants it to tell.
For the sake of having some sort of reference point, Rory has entered the final round in the top three 36 times in the same timeframe and gone on to win 14 of them.
Rory is not necessarily an elite closer either (he’s just in position to win a lot), but his numbers are still far better than Lowry’s.
Shane usually doesn’t have the luxury of galloping out in front on Saturday evening and playing stress free — if that’s what we’re calling the way Rory wins events — in the final round, which is why his below average play when in the top three stands out more than it otherwise would (and leads to that 0-for-13 run).
(it should be noted here that he did shoot 65 in the final round at the 2022 BMW PGA to beat out Rory and Rahm).
(it should also be noted that was a 54-hole event because the queen died that week normal sport).
[Jason here with Art Minute] Aside from Kevin's Famous Chili (the finest of art), watching Shane on 16 reminded me of two artworks I keep coming back to.
Fall II (1970) by Bas Jan Ader. The water is always there. Just try not to think about how easy it is to find.
The Mental Hazard (1916) by Clare Briggs. How well does this capture golf — and life? Chef's kiss.
3. The normal sport moment of the week was somehow not Isaiah Salinda stripping down to play a shot out of the water while +9 for the week.
It was Nico Echavarria’s right sleeve being filled up with a girl in a yellow dress holding an umbrella.
Here’s the about page for Morton Salt (cannot believe I am writing that).
Still today, we are widely recognized for our iconic Morton Salt Girl who has remained the face of our brand for over a century. And our products remain staples in the hearts and homes of millions of Americans.
That’s because we’re a company with vision, drive and a big heart.
Morton Salt
It echos the press release (!) for the Echavarria-Morton partnership.
GSE is proud to announce Nico Echavarria has partnered with Morton Salt for the 2026 PGA Tour season! Morton Salt has been the quintessential American brand for over a century and their values represent those of Nico’s on tour; vision, drive, and a big heart.
To be honest, I actually think there should be more weird partnerships like this. More Ritz (Juli Inkster), 5Hour Energy (Jim Furyk) and Tabasco (Woody Austin) on hats and shirts. It gets your brand so much amusing publicity (like me writing this in an email to 17,000 golf fans or us sponsoring another golf writer trying to complete a ridiculous backyard challenge) compared to playing it safe.
I don’t know how much Nico Echavarria’s right sleeve costs, but I’m guessing Morton has received a significant ROI (maybe even from this email alone!).
And since we’re doing this, if you personally find yourself under-salted, you can always pick up some Sap’s Original right here. More electrolytes than two of their big-name competitors! Use the code NORMALSPORT at checkout for a discount.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members and includes thoughts on …
How AI will never win a major (or a gold medal).
Some fake news regarding Rory’s putting.
Why the Players has always been a major championship.
Normal Sport is supported by exactly 1,013 individuals who may or may not have sufficient salt in their lives.
By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• The delight of helping us establish Normal Sport.
• 15% off to our pro shop.
• Access to all of our content (like the rest of this post).
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