Issue No. 221 | June 24, 2025 | Read Online

As you read this, I am headed down to Houston to cover … one man’s attempt at setting the record for most holes played in 24 hours. Normal stuff.

Kyle Cokinos is going for ~900 holes over 24 hours (from 6 p.m. on Monday to 6 pm. on Tuesday). It all seems insane until you realize that it’s going to be 100 miles of running, and then it seems unfathomable.

You can watch his attempt live right here.

The entire thing will be sponsored by a fellow Normal Sport sponsor, Turtlebox, and I’ll be there for the easy part, asking him insane questions at the end of 24 hours of running.

His cause is a great one.

More to come on this later in the week.

Today’s newsletter is presented by Seed Golf.

I am for sure going to toss a few Seed balls Kyle’s way as he finishes up on Tuesday evening. If you’re unfamiliar with Seed, they are a new-ish golf ball company out of Ireland that is beginning to make inroads here in the United States.

Their pitch? A great golf ball at a more palatable price.

I’ll let founder Dean Klatt, who grew up in Australia before taking his talents to Ireland, take it from here.

I think the other thing we see, like I was saying before, growing up in the back of a pro shop, golf was really an interesting game in Australia in the sense that, or it certainly was back when I was a kid, that it was very egalitarian. It was open to everybody.
It wasn't like the country club kids or any that type of stuff. It was something that was available to everybody on any budget, whether you were from a taxi driver all the way through to someone that might run multinational companies.
I always really like that about the game.
Dean Klatt

Seed Golf is a company that makes a great product that is also easy to love and even easier to support. You can check out their golf balls right here, and you can use the code NORMALSPORT for 20 percent off at checkout.

As always, we appreciate you supporting the companies that are supporting our business.

OK, now onto the news.

Grace

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but in light of the tussle between golfers and golf media so far this year, it does feel like it needs to be said: I thought Tommy Fleetwood — devastated, destroyed, despairing Tommy Fleetwood — speaking on camera minutes after Keegan Bradley stomped on his heart was the epitome of grace.

I wrote this on Sunday, and immediately the subtweet accusations rolled in. It’s not a subtweet of anyone specifically as much as it is a commentary on Fleetwood’s congenial disposition and good-naturedness. You probably wouldn’t actually want to have a beer with a lot of guys on the Tour.

With Tommy, you’d want to have two.

Here’s what players (and mostly their agents) get wrong when it comes to stuff like this: People don’t fall in love with success. They fall in love with people. And the full texture of a person involves wins, losses, joys, failures and everything in between.

It includes anger.

I haven't been in this situation for a while. I think, you know, when it sort of calms down -- I'm upset now, I'm angry -- when it calms down, look at the things that I did well, look at the things that I can learn from.
Tommy Fleetwood

Perhaps it comes down to what your goals are as a player. Do you care if Joe Golf Fan likes you? Do you not care about that? Do you want the general public on your side? Do you thrive when they’re not?

I’m operating under the assumption that most humans want most other humans to love them and root for them most (or all) of the time. I know that is how I operate, and I presume it is how almost everyone operates.

Two things on this interview.

It passes the Dad Test: I guarantee you my dad, if he saw the interview, now likes Tommy Fleetwood more because of the interview.
It pleases the influencers: I’m not mega invested in Tommy. I like him. We did an interview in 2017 when he was a rookie at TPC Sawgrass, and he was fantastic. So good. But I’m not living and dying with every shot. But I sure as hell am impressed by him facing questions when it would be so easy to dip out and head for the hills. And because of that, I’m writing about him, which has some level of influence (however small) over the general golf public.

Players don’t owe the media anything.

But they do owe fans their livelihood — literally if nobody watched or went to events, players wouldn’t make any money. And so to speak like this after your intestines were shown on national television is a tiny way to pay back that debt. And doing so embodies an uncommon grace that I think Tommy Fleetwood is about and a humility that I, like many, hope is rewarded a hundredfold at Royal Portrush three weeks from now.

Tron knows class.

Reader Quote of the Week

I loved this from reader Mark H. this week.

I'd always wanted to see Oakmont — I'm a golf architecture nerd.
So when U.S. Open tickets became available for purchase, I got Monday practice round tickets and turned it into a guys' road trip weekend with my three sons (two college-age, one 11-year-old).
We have a side quest goal of seeing all of the MLB ballparks, so we drove from our home in Delaware to Cleveland on Saturday to see a Guardians game, then down to Pittsburgh to watch our beloved Phillies stink up the joint on Sunday (amazing ballpark, though), and then on to Oakmont Monday.
We were in awe of the grand view of the ridges above the PA Turnpike. We had an absolute blast. But as we walked around, I started to think … How do I explain this to my friends?
My boys and I drove six hours away to walk several miles up- and downhill, buy ridiculously overpriced merchandise, and watch people practice golf on a course that will never allow me through its clubhouse doors. And we would do it again in a heartbeat.
Mark H.

I believe the phrase I’m supposed to say here is … normal sport.

Also, Mark’s email inspired me to develop some better side quests of my own with my kids. Speaking of this (!) I am looking for a CWS ticket connection for 2026 to take my own 11-year-old. If you have one or know of one, please reach out!

New Gear

We just dropped six new Normal Sport pieces from Holderness and Bourne. Our first (but hopefully not last!) drop from our friends over at H&B. As a reminder, Normal Club members get first rip at purchasing new gear, and you can purchase any of it as long as you’re signed in on normalsport.com.

Here’s a look at the stuff.

Take of the Week

I’m not sure if this landed very well last week, but I have a Ryder Cup take I’m kind of stress testing at the moment. Here it is.

One thing I've been thinking about as it relates to the Ryder Cup. We sometimes overvalue the best player from smaller countries and we definitely undervalue the 15th or 20th best player from bigger countries.
Example: Keith Mitchell -- who is not sniffing the U.S. team right now -- has been better at golf over the last six months than Hovland and Ludvig. This will shock some people, but it's objectively true.
Because Hovland is the best player from Norway and Ludvig is the best player from Sweden, I think we artificially inflate how good they're playing at all times. That's not to say that Mitchell is better than those guys. He's not. Probably not even close. But it is to say that it probably leads to an undervaluation of the U.S. team as a whole.
There is a reason that the U.S. is a healthy favorite at Bethpage, and though the names aren't necessarily sexy all the way through, the golf has been better than most people think.
Me

As has been pointed out, Hovland and Ludvig are considered better players because they’re better players, not because of the countries they’re from. This is the point of testing the takes! To sharpen them and try to make them better.

My overall point is this: U.S. players are undervalued, and I think the team as a whole is a little understated because the J.T. Postons and Denny McCarthys of the world are undervalued and underrated.

Here’s a stat: If Denny McCarthy was from Madrid instead of Maryland, he would be among the 12 best Europeans in terms of strokes gained over the last 12 months.

And … we don’t even think about him at all.

There is definitely a Big Country Bias going on in that equation, even if I can’t pinpoint it exactly. And all of it is to say that I’ve talked myself into the U.S. rolling at Bethpage.

The names that will be on its team don’t look great on paper, but then you start looking more closely at the golf they’re actually playing, and I think the home course advantage will be too much for Europe to overcome.

Remind me of this when Jon Rahm is screaming Jay-Z’s New York State of Mind on Sunday evening while Thomas Detry does jell-o shots out of Francesco Molinari’s belly button.

Beth Page: Season 1, Episode 10: It’s The Hope That Kills You

Take of the Week II

I will discuss this more on Thursday when I look at a few thoughts on Keegan as playing captain, but one of my favorite things about the Ryder Cup is that there’s just enough data and information to make cogent arguments but not quite enough that you can come to any real conclusions.

So if you believe that Europe wins more often than it should because it pricks a Zach Johnson voodoo doll in the third week of every month, who’s to say you’re wrong?

Or if you think that yeah Justin Thomas’ SG numbers in Rome were bad but he was also playing with The Anchor, who am I to argue? It’s a total BYOF (bring your own facts) party and a perfect storm for any and all debate.

This is (one very small part of) why I love it.

It is undeniable now, though, that the U.S. faces a conundrum highlighted by the below exchange between me and Soly.

Keegan is now ninth in points on the U.S. side, and the path to get into the top six is not impossible. But given how few events are left and how bad he is at Opens (zero top 10s ever), I wouldn’t really say it’s wide open. He’s probably going to be stuck in that 8-15 range.

How big of a conundrum you believe all of this actually is says a lot about how much weight you place on the captain’s job to put everyone in position to succeed. Or perhaps it says a lot about how much you believe a crowd juiced on having Keegan as a playing captain would contribute to a potential U.S. victory.

Keegan has become a beloved figure of sorts (which I did not see coming!), and a bit of a touchstone for this Ryder Cup. That is fascinating, and it has gotten to the point that I think the benefits of having him as a player might actually outweigh the negatives of having a playing captain.

Like I said, though, you can kind of make it whatever you want it to be.

More coming on Thursday.

Normal Sport

Some good ones this week.

1. Just a man trying not to fall down the side of a hill lined with bark, sticks and wiregrass, all while a referee looks on with an intensity normally reserved for Bill Belichick speaking with the media.

He made 3. Of course.

2. Where else does the time of the game get changed the morning of the event, and this whole series legitimately affects the outcome?

3. This is something I think about a lot, too. You just won the Western Conference Finals in a seven game knock-down-drag-out war that challenged your emotions, your mind and your body. Your reward? Not champagne, but rather a middle-of-the-season game against the Raptors.

Strange stuff.

The New Not Commish

Don’t call him the commissioner, but the Tour has a new guy at the helm. I could not more highly recommend this reporting by James Colgan on new PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp, who joins the Tour from the very top of the NFL.

Also, I (shockingly!) have some thoughts.

1. You will be stunned to know that I enjoyed this quote from his presser in Connecticut.

(You won’t).

I have four children. Three of my boys love to play. I really love being out there with them. There's very few times when you get four hours with your kids, and I don't know if they like it because they get lots of questions.
Brian Rolapp

This is innocuous and has absolutely nothing to do with his ability to be the CEO of the PGA Tour. However, I am naturally attracted to people who ask lots of questions. Curiosity in leadership is mega underrated, and that’s a good first sign.

2. Speaking of good first signs! The whole transcript is refreshing. Though he uses the term “blank sheet of paper” quite a bit, it’s mostly low on corporatese and high on real human talk. You know how you can speak with someone and just understand that they know ball and are a real person within 5-10 minutes?

That’s how Rolapp comes off.

I’m not saying we’re entering a golden era of communication, but the way he talks is refreshing. Watch him below. First question to Gabby. “Hi Gabby!”

I don’t know. I’m probably being dumb here, but his whole aura is equal parts authoritative but also extremely human. Jay, for whatever his successes have been (and they have been there!), has never come off as someone who carries both of those qualities simultaneously.

3. Two points about his skillset stand out, and they are related.

Rolapp was asked last week about the importance of media reach for the league. He said at the NFL, they focused intently on competition.

One is you sort of relentlessly focus on the game, getting the competition right, getting the highest level of competition is extremely important. That's something we obsessed about.
Brian Rolapp

This is something that Joseph LaMagna has been banging the drum about. Competition, competition, competition. It’s something I’ve been yelling about implicitly as well, with my frustration over all the sponsor exemptions and the lack of a clear hierarchy when it comes to how the Tour operates.

It’s hard, though. It’s a conundrum for the Tour because with the NFL, you have very clear paths, but running the Tour is like running the NFL if the NFL was operating without a Super Bowl and without the AFC and NFC Championships as well. That’s extremely difficult and the biggest challenge he will be faced with when it comes to competition.

4. Also, this stood out big time in the Colgan article.

The NFL’s true media genius, they noted, is driven by the ethos of “reach” — or the practice of maximizing the total number of people consuming a game. More than any other trait, the NFL’s gift for placing its most significant games in position to be watched by the largest possible audiences is responsible for its ironclad grip on American sports culture.
Rather than squeeze every last dollar out of its media-rights negotiations, the league has made a conscious effort to address the reach of its audience first — and, in an ironic twist, the league has made more money for it. Rolapp is one of the authors of the playbook.
James Colgan | Golf.com

The counter here is that the Tour is already reaching a lot of people. And the counter to my counter is that Rolapp, according to one person, “thinks about reach not just in terms of getting on a TV channel with a big audience, but in terms of pulling all the levers to maximize consequence and significance and engagement so audience reach increases by extension.”

Read it again. He’s basically saying “we’re going to make gameplay so good, you can’t ignore it.” That seems so far beyond where we’ve been and where we currently are.

And buddy, it’s refreshing.

But will Rolapp push the limits of Shot Tracer Fan Impact technology?

How is this App Free?

Some gems this week.

• An oldie but a goodie here.

• I don’t know why exactly, but this got me good.

• This also made me laugh (see J.J. Spaun/Scottie notes above).

• New meme just dropped.

… Speaking of problems Rolapp will have to fight during his time as CEO.

Thank you for reading a golf newsletter that is 2,914 words long. We are sustained in part (in large part) by readers who are fans that decide to join the Normal Club.

Pledge your fealty

Your cart

Uncommon Grace