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Issue No. 195 | May 6, 2025 | Read Online
Hey,
I was reading The Hobbit to my dozing kids on Sunday evening, and I stumbled into this paragraph.
You don’t see the Hobbit referencing hoops or football, do you?
One thing the good folks of Middle Earth may have benefitted from? Putters with feel to counteract the wooden clubbing noted above.
Unfortunately for them, Meridian Putters was not around at that time. Fortunately for you, it is now. And Meridian happens to be presenting today’s newsletter.
Whether you’re playing with rabbit holes or on regulation cups of 4.25 inches, Meridian has a putter to fit your style. My personal favorite that I’ve used to date is the Key West, although I’m keen to get my hands on the Kiawah at some point.
I asked founder, Ryan Duffey, recently why Meridian has not jumped in on the zero-torque putter movement. His answer (which he expounded on here) was 👌👌👌.
We're the putter company that thinks that when Tiger says he likes to hook putts, you don't get that with a torque-less putter. We're in that camp where feel matters, and we're sticking with it.
Ryan Duffey | founder, Meridian Putters
Whether Tiger or Bilbo Baggins is moving the ball, Meridian’s putters are a tremendous addition to anyone’s bag. Thank you, as always, for supporting the businesses that support our business.
Onto the news.
Here is a thing I was thinking about as I watched Scottie Mike Tyson the field on Saturday and Sunday: How good would you be if you could just beat Scottie and Rory?
So I did the math on it, and the answer is that you would be on pace to be the best golfer in history. Over the last 14 months alone, you would have won 21 events worldwide, including three majors, two Players and a gold medal.
All you have to do is beat two guys. Just two. Not 155. Two.
One of Scottie or Rory (and often both) have played 34 individual tournaments since March 1, 2024. Here’s where you would have finished if you beat both of them (or the only one who was in the event).
2025
Nelson: 🏆️
Harbour Town: 7th
Masters: 🏆️
Houston: 🏆️
Players: 🏆️
API: 10th
Genesis: 2nd
Phoenix: 24th 😬
Pebble: 🏆️
Dubai: 3rd
Fall 2024
Hero: 🏆️
DP World: 🏆️
Abu Dhabi: 2nd
Dunhill: 24th 😬
BMW PGA: 🏆️
Irish Open: 🏆️
Summer 2024
Tour Championship: 🏆️
BMW: 10th
Memphis: 3rd
Olympics: 🥇
Open: 6th
Scottish: 3rd
Travelers: 🏆️
U.S. Open: 🏆️
Memorial: 🏆️
Canada: 3rd
Spring 2024
Colonial: 🏆️
PGA: 7th
Quail: 🏆️
Harbour Town: 🏆️
Masters: 🏆️
Houston: 🏆️
Players: 🏆️
API: 🏆️
That’s 21/34 wins, 32/34 top 10s and 27/34 top fives.
Not to go full Brooks, but all you have to do is beat two guys.
• I had a couple of leftover thoughts from the weekend (perhaps an event we should start calling the Half Nelson given how bad the field is).
• I wrote on Sunday that one of the most impressive things about Scottie is that he can win at 35 under or 3 under. It’s harder than people think to change gears like that, and I think the primary reason he’s able to do it is because of his humility, his acceptance of whatever you put in front of him (I got deep on this at the Masters this year). Ego is easy to buy into as the No. 1 player in the world and difficult to overcome on the golf course. Scottie avoids it altogether.
• I got a text from someone who has faced Scottie in various formats, and he noted that Scottie holds both things — a sociopathic competitiveness and the truth that none of this actually matters — in both hands at the same time.
That’s impossible, but he somehow does it.
• Poor EVR. He shot the following and didn’t even come close to being in contention on Sunday.
66
67
65
63
Because Scottie did this.
His true SG number is a bit lower (because the Half Nelson field is pretty stinky), but regardless, anything over 20 is nuts, and this is well over 20.
• I genuinely think tournaments like this should change the par of their course to, like, 67 (shout out Bryson). It doesn’t really change anything, but it does keep the silliness at bay a little bit, and it affects the way people think about your tournament, course and setup.
• I’ve long been a proponent of changing par for the sake of people’s emotional reaction to a tournament. For example: One player broke 280 at the Masters last year. Eight broke 280 at Pinehurst. Which one do you think most people considered the tougher test? Some of that is fair, but a lot of it is because the USGA manipulates the score to par to affect emotions.
• I don’t know why I’m talking Pinehurst and ANGC re: the Nelson.
• I always love when Scottie is caught off guard by his own emotion like he was when he got choked up when talking about what it meant to win this tournament.
He’s a psycho competitor, as noted above. But he’ll have moments — not as many as someone like Rory, but far more than Tiger ever had — where he remembers his own humanity and remembers what it was like to be 16 and play in this tournament with his sister on the bag and remembers that he was dating Meredith at that time and remembers that he’ll never be that kid again. And those moments upend him.
This happens probably 3-4 times a year. You can say Scottie is boring and not a character and not a personality, but that sliver is what I’m going for.
It’s more than most greats give, and I love seeing it in him.
EVR gave an answer I didn’t expect on Sunday after getting absolutely torched by Scottie. Here’s the full exchange.
Q. Just with the process of the Aon Swing 5 and getting into this event, I know you played the signature event at Pebble Beach, and that was via the FedEx poll. The process of getting in this way, how is your perspective on that?
ERIK VAN ROOYEN: How honest do you want me to be? I hate it (laughter).
I strongly believe that the strongest fields are the ones with the most players in them. The guys on the PGA Tour are so good. It's so deep.
I get that you've got the Scotties of the world, the Rorys of the world, and people want to see them, it's entertaining.
Like the PGA Championship coming up, for example, I think it's the strongest field in the game, similar to The Players. I love competing, so selfishly I want to compete against those guys.
Again, really proud of playing my way into it.
EVR | 2025 Byron Nelson
I don’t really disagree with this. I’ve said it before, but if you want to settle on 100-120 for elevated events, that’s a full Phil thumbs up from me.
I think what’s even crazier, though, is that Spieth and Rickie both got another sponsor exemption into this week’s elevated event in Philly. Again, it happened again!
And then this where Keith Mitchell fell out but got in anyway.
Like, it’s a meritocracy … but also … it’s kinda not.
Scottie answering the question, “what was your favorite memory of this tournament as a kid"?” with “probably playing in it” had me rolling.
Q. Is there a favorite memory that stands out as a kid?
SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER: Favorite memory, I'm not really sure. I have difficulty remembering specific instances, but I definitely remember coming out and sitting on the driving range a lot. …
“I think the lasting memory I have as a kid was just being able to play in the tournament and what it meant to me at the time. It really inspired me to come out here and try to do this for a living even more.”
😂😂😂
Tell us about your experience of attending this tournament as a wide-eyed young man!
Well, I remember teeing it up with Sergio...
LKD has some lowkey awesome takes, and I loved this one he had recently about how eyeballing should be a skill.
Bryson would wither. Might end up just starting a traveling barnstorming tour where he gathers Grant Horvat and friends and does trick shots against them at local driving ranges. [Jason here: Bradley Klein had a solid article digging into the concept of eyeballing distances back in 2006!]
Some good ones at TPC Craig Ranch last weekend.
1. Probably not a good sign for my infirmary usage that I thought this was a GCQuad.
2. Ah this one made me laugh pretty hard. What a strange, strange thing to see in the middle of a sporting event.
• Imagine this happening in the NFL.
👉️ I got some good feedback on the interview I did with Joel Beall last week. If you haven’t read it, you can do so right here. One of my favorites, and I learned a ton in the process.
👉️ This video showing off Old Barnwell is great. One of my favorite courses I’ve played over the last two years.
👉️ Mike Lorenzo-Vera talking about Tiger’s helicopter finish in Mexico is awesome. MLV might need his own pod now that he’s retired.
👉️ This on empty nesting was interesting and nice. My wife sent it to me, and it made me feel differently about both the present and the future.
I was watching Warriors-Rockets late on Sunday, a game I had been really looking forward to for some reason. I’m not really a fan of either team, but I do love watching Steph and I thoroughly enjoy the Warriors when they’re really cooking. I think it’s such a delight to bear witness to greatness in any genre, category or industry.
It got me thinking about whether I had that — whether you had that — in golf.
I think mine is probably Morikawa. I don’t think I’ll ever love it like I do with other guys, but he can just look so effortless and easy and simple and repeatable. I don’t necessarily think he provides those “holy S” Steph moments, but when he’s sautéing something up, whew, it’s really fun and great and must see stuff.
You can see other answers right here.
I’ve been on an Austin Kleon kick of late. He wrote a great book that everyone should read called Steal Like an Artist, and he blogs and writes almost daily. Aspirational stuff. Anyway, I stumbled into something he wrote recently, and I loved it.
Pointing at things and saying, “Whoa.”
There are probably better ways to describe what I do and what I’m trying to do. There are also much, much worse ones.
Speaking of that! Thank you for reading a golf newsletter that is 1,852 words long.
We are sustained in part (in large part) by readers who are fans that decide to join the Normal Club. If you’re interested in supporting us by becoming a member (or perhaps gifting a membership) you can do so below. We will have loads of PGA Championship content in your inboxes (with much of it behind the paywall) starting next week.
