Issue No. 240 | August 19, 2025 | Read Online

Of course the weekend after I declared August a terrible golf month, we got like nine legitimately amazing moments from around the world. Of course.

Here’s a good email I got from a reader over the weekend.

Mini mea culpa there from me because I agree and heard this sentiment from others as well. The U.S. Am sucked me in last week and made me (slightly) reevaluate my take that August stinks as a golf month.

At the very least the U.S. Ams elevate it to a decent month to follow golf, if not a very good one.

We will get to more on the U.S. Am shortly, but first … today’s newsletter is presented by Meridian Putters.

Not only are they masters of milling, but they’re also great at sharing the behind the scenes moments that make their company tick. Like this beautiful short neck Charleston that they just teased on Instagram.

Instagram post by @meridianputters

They’re constantly tinkering, playing, perfecting their craft.

That’s one of many reasons why we love sharing their work with you.

OK, now onto the news.

Winner, Winner

A few weeks Holderness and Bourne ran a giveaway for Normal Sport readers of $500 of Ryder Cup merch. Our winner was Tyler Y.

Thanks Tyler, and congrats on the gear. It truly is the best.

One Thing I Loved

I coach a 12U tournament baseball team here in Dallas. One of the things I say to our kids more often than they would prefer is that baseball will never be more fun than it is right now. Playing with your friends from the neighborhood when you don’t have any responsibilities other than showing up on time and remembering to bring your helmet.

I tell them ridiculous — but true — things like, Some of you may play in college eventually and even if that happens or even in the almost-impossible event that one of you plays professionally, baseball will never be more fun than it is right now.

I don’t know if they believe what I’m saying, but I think they believe that I believe what I’m saying. And someday they may look back on my very dad-like soliloquies and think, Oh, wow, that was definitely true.

That preamble is nothing more than a veiled reference to the run Niall Shiels Donegan went on at Olympic last week. Did he win? No. Did it matter? Also no. Not even close.

If you missed it, Shiels Donegan — son of golf writer, Lawrence Donegan — shot 73-70 over the first two days of the event, after which he …

• Got into match play by getting through a 20-for-17 playoff.

• Then won the last two holes to beat Ian Poulter’s son 1UP in R1.

• Then won two of the last four holes to win 1UP again in R2.

• Then won two of the last four holes to win 1UP against No. 1 seed Preston Stout.

• Then won two of the last three holes to win 1UP in 19 holes in the quarters.

• And finally fell in the semifinals 1UP despite winning 16 and 17 to tie the match.

All of it while competing within shouting distance of the place he grew up with a monstrous hometown crowd following him to prove it.

This has to be one of the greatest post-round interviews in U.S. Amateur history.

See you tomorrow, Niall!

— USGA (@USGA)
1:05 AM • Aug 15, 2025

There wasn’t really one singular moment. Only a week full of them that Donegan will cherish far more than the Masters bid he missed out on or the Havemeyer he failed to hold. Because golf — wherever it takes Donegan — will never be more fun than it was last week. Better? Maybe? More accomplished? Perhaps. But more fun? Outside of maybe team events like the Walker Cup team he’s on or a Ryder Cup team in the future, no, it will never be more fun than Olympic was.

It is difficult to understand this when you’re that age.

Or rather, it’s difficult to believe it when you’re that age (or maybe any age).

Because no matter what industry you’re in, you are forced to hope that the future will be better. If not, why would you keep going? That is a tricky balance. To trust that the future can and will be better than it has been but also to somehow understand that what you just experienced — the stuff of dreams — is as fun as it will ever be.

Donegan seemed to walk the line well. Here’s what he said after his Round of 16 win.

It was a show. The whole thing. One we joyously got to witness.

One he will never forget.

Normal Sport

If someone had told you at the beginning of the year that the words “creatine snowball” would be introduced to the golf lexicon, what would the odds have been in a heads-up matchup that the following players would be involved.

Bryson DeChambeau vs. Ben Griffin

Seriously, what would the odds have been? Probably something like Bryson (-2000) vs Griffin (+500), right? And yet, here we are.

This is Griffin explaining why he started 7-6-4 on Sunday.

Go … on.

This story of course drew in the creatine truthers (of whom there are apparently many). I have no experience here, but buddy who needs the juice supplements provide when you can just listen to Ben Griffin describe what it’s like to overdose on them.

The whole thing was extraordinary and would have been even more so if Griffin would have had to withdraw like he said he was considering. Because then it would have affected the FedEx Cup, and there’s a scenario in which Michael Kim — instead of finishing 31st in the FedEx Cup — would have gotten to play for $40 million next week because Ben Griffin inhaled too much creatine on the first hole at Caves Valley.

Very normal sport.

Stat of the Week

Since the Players Championship ended, Scottie Scheffler has played 13 events, including all four major championships. Across those events, he has “lost” over the course of four days just 34 times (or three times per event). Here are the 29 golfers who have defeated him at least once in that window.

Min Woo
Rory (2x)
Rose (3x)
Reed
JT
Novak
Berger
Mav
Hughes
Harman
Griffin
Schmid
Cauley
Spaun (2x)
Bob
Hovland
Young
Hatton
Ortiz
Keegan
Henley
Fleetwood (2x)
English
Day
Gotterup
Penge
Hojgaard
Fitz
Straka

Rory got him at the Masters and Scottish. Rose at the Masters, Scottish and Memphis, Spaun at Oakmont and Memphis and Fleetwood at the RBC and Travelers.

A non-exhaustive list of golfers who have not beaten Scottie over four days since the Players ended.

Rahm (No. 2 in the world on Data Golf)
Bryson (No. 6)
Xander (No. 8)
Ludvig (No. 11)
Sam Burns (No. 15)
Hideki (No. 19)
Cantlay (No. 22)
Morikawa (No. 27)

This is stunning. He has lost to an average of 2.61 players per event for the last five months. On average, he finishes third at 13 of the best golf tournaments of the year. I may run out of superlatives for him and this run, but I won’t go down without a fight.

Brooks Koepka once said that there are only 35 people to compete with in one tournament. Scottie's version is that he hasn’t lost to 35 golfers … since March!  

Also, I read this tweet as his 14th win in 133 starts but it’s actually his 14th win in thirty-three starts.

A recount actually has it at 14 in his last 34, which is a .410 winning percentage, better than 21 NFL, MLB and NBA teams. Sick.

Rock the Vote

I threw out this poll on Sunday during the BMW, and thought the results were pretty interesting.

Rickie is not a serious choice (at least not for me), but he served as a bit of a control for the experiment. I am shocked that anyone would vote for him over either Morikawa or McNealy, but I shouldn’t be. He’s a brand name and people love him. Doesn’t mean he should be on the team.

Anyway, the more interesting matchup here is Morikawa-McNealy, and I honestly think I would lean McNealy right now (subject to change in five days), which would make my team the following 12.

Scottie
Bryson
Xander
Henley
Spaun
English
Griffin
JT
Burns
McNealy
Young
Cantlay

I’m probably being a prisoner of the moment, but I also think McNealy brings some capital-J juice that Morikawa doesn’t have right now. I’m guessing the actual players on the team would disagree with me, and yes I have concerns about his driving and yes, Soly’s point that you shouldn’t take a hot hand because the Ryder Cup is a month after the Tour Championship ends is valid. But he is who I would select in that spot.

Data Golf Corner

I wrote about this for paid members last week, but it needs a refresh since every Scottie win now moves him several spots up the list.

Here are the 15 best seasons since 1983 based on wins (not strokes gained, but wins) with each win weighted by the strength of field.

Here’s what’s crazy. Scottie has won two majors this year and lost to 29 humans over the last five months, and it’s probably not his best season OF THE LAST TWO YEARS.

With three events to go, he officially has a chance to catch Spieth’s 2015, Vijay in 2004 and Tiger in 2002. For example, let’s say he wins the Tour Championship, finishes fourth at Napa and second at the Hero.

Last year, that sequence would have netted him ~19 DG points, which would put him right at Spieth in 2015, which is only one of the great seasons of the last 25 years.

History isn’t always exciting when it’s happening, but that doesn’t mean it’s not historic.

Take of the Week

Soly and I got going on the Euro Boys Club a week ago, and the bit continued to the point that many unsuspecting Europeans are walking right into our carefully laid trap.

You hate to see it.

But also you really don’t.

Corrupt Golf Media

👉️ Good call out by Jamie Kennedy here on Bob Mac doing media after Scottie vaporized him on Sunday. One thing agents (and some players) don’t understand is that texture is important to fandom, and sadness and anger can lead to texture. It’s a good thing, even if it doesn’t seem like it in the moment.

👉️ I can say with Dion Waiters levels of confidence that I would be an absolute problem if the shopping cart return championships ever make their way to the United States.

👉️ This thread on making a great interview show is fire. I agree with almost all of it, and this part stood out to me.

👉️ Working through The Only Rule Is It Has to Work right now, and it’s awesome. A look at how two baseball writers took over an independent minor league team and tried to Moneyball their way to a championship.

Wait until Soly and I get out hands on the Ryder Cup!

How is This App Free?

Some real bangers this week.

• The Pentagon is excellent.

• Also, this got me good.

• I think I’m into this.

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 2,483 words long like this one.

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