Greetings fellow mini-games-addicted dads (and moms),
Here is your daily dosage of golf connections.
Hope you enjoy and that nobody gets it on the first (or second) try.
Name drops today: Caleb Williams, Trevor Lawrence, Steve Kerr, Rachel McAdams, Roger Federer, Tadej Pogacar, Mondo Duplantis and probably a few golfers in there somewhere as well.
Today’s newsletter is presented by OMNI and our ongoing giveaway, which includes a four-night stay at one of their locations and free entry into their Generation Cup*, which is already underway at 12 locations nationally with seven options for the rest of 2026 and into 2027 (you can see those options here).
Three things I remember from my experience playing in the Gen Cup in Frisco a few years ago.
1. Seeing one of the dudes from Dude Perfect playing with a member of his wife’s family. My then-10-year-old was beside himself.
2. My then-10-year-old outdriving me on multiple holes and chirping about it even though he was starting 125 yards ahead of me on some of them.
3. Driving home at dusk and asking him a question only to find him passed out in the front seat after a long and wonderful day.
[Jason here] Memorable trips are made up of these somewhat random moments Kyle noted above. But it’s the small details that make you feel at home enough to appreciate the good stuff. OMNI is great at those details. And although we don’t think they offer breakfast balls in bed, we also wouldn’t put it past them.
You can enter the giveaway at the link below.
*Generation Cup team entry will be subject to availability and that this team entry is for qualifier events only, not for the national championship.
And now, onto the news.
1. We dropped a QB-golfer comps pod on Tuesday that I hope becomes an annual tradition. Joseph LaMagna joined me and Hayden, and we went through all 32 QBs in the NFL and comped each of them to a golfer.
Mistakes were made (mostly by me). The two of mine that got the most pushback were Tua-Zalatoris and Caleb-Bryson.
I stand by both, and I stand by the fact that Caleb is in fact performative. I don’t even know that I mean that derogatorily. He’s a good character and an excellent player, but he can definitely be odd at times. Maybe I more so mean that drama seems to follow him around. Sounds a lot like Bryson as well.
And on the Tua-Zalatoris argument. I think Tua has been better than people think and Zalatoris has been a bit worse (albeit still very good). Tua finished second in Heisman voting, got NFL MVP votes one year and was upper echelon for 2+ years. Very good, not amazing.
Zalatoris? Wonderful amateur campaign headlined by a U.S. Junior Am win. As a pro, he’s had some great major championship success but just one PGA Tour win and the same career SG (roughly) as Sungjae Im and Daniel Berger. Not exactly the Drew Brees of golf.
Both careers have been completely derailed by injuries, although JLM’s argument was that Tua’s was derailed by him just flat out sucking and that Zalatoris has never been the laughingstock of the league like Tua is right now. For sure, but what if Tua is the laughingstock of the league because he’s playing through so many concussions and injuries and Zalatoris is just sitting out (which is what Tua should be doing)?
Regardless, the back and forth in the pod was awesome, and there were some great, great comps. My three favorites that were not my own …
• Trevor Lawrence-Joaquin Niemann
• Jalen Hurts-Wyndham Clark
• Justin Herbert-Ludvig Aberg
Also, Hayden almost ended LaMagna with his Spieth comp.
You can listen right here: Spotify | Apple.
2. I went on the Bible Caddie Podcast recently to talk to Webb, Ben Crane and William Kane. It was as much fun as I’ve had as a guest on a pod recently, and we got steep on a ton of golf and a ton of spiritual things as well.
Ben was amused by my ridiculous fascination with determining who the best golfer from every continent is, and we generally just had the best time talking ball and life. Hope you guys enjoy it. Spotify link here, Apple here and YouTube below.
3. The U.S. announced its Ryder Cup qualification requirements this week, and there are some changes.
1. Points are awarded on finishes, not money.
2. Points don’t start until January 2027.
The U.S. qualifying is pretty similar to Europe’s now, only weighted slightly differently. Example: The U.S. weights a regular PGA Tour victory (Valspar) at half of a major championship victory. Europe weights it at 40 percent. The U.S. weights a signature PGA Tour win at 75 percent of a major while Europe weights it at 60 percent.
The best change is the timing. Previously, a player could theoretically win the Players and Masters 18 months before the Ryder Cup and be carried to an auto spot based on those finishes, even though no reasonable person would say that a finish 18 months prior would have any bearing on a team event in September of a given year.
Small tweaks here, to be sure, but they are encouraging. I refuse to invest myself in the idea that the U.S. is going full-scale change like it needs to do for this event, but I do want to acknowledge when even tiny smart decisions are made by an organization I’ve been incredibly critical of over the years.
4. Here are the two best things you’re going to read on LIV’s bankruptcy: The Athletic and Golf.com. I have a lot of thoughts on all of this, here are just a few.
• The amount of money LIV spent is even crazier when you see it typed out than when you hear someone talk about it. I’m not sure why, but seeing $5 billion on a screen or on paper is staggering.
• The PIF ejected, then lent LIV $495 million and now stands as its biggest creditor. This is hilarious and sad. After all of this, LIV owing the PIF before it owes anyone else is almost a perfect ending to this shell game.
• What started as an exercise in exploring Phil Mickelson’s curiosity around NFTs has is ending with a golf league owing the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees nearly $2 million, which it cannot pay until Adrian Meronk is paid the over $4 million he’s owed first. Normal sport.
• Here’s Gabby on what is required of LIV to get that new $300 million from BC Partners for LIV 2.0 in 2027.
LIV needs signatures from 50% of the players who have claims and those signatures have to amount to 66.7% of the total dollar value of all the player claims. So, basically, LIV can't just sign a bunch of low-value players. Without signing several players of high value — like a DeChambeau or Rahm — LIV might not be able to get to that 66.7% figure..
Gabby Herzig | The Athletic
It sound like this may not get off the ground given the writing on the wall with Rahm, who will leave. If Bryson bolts, it’s all over.
• I guess ultimately my question is … why are we still trying to make this happen? Why does LIV 2.0 need to exist? What is the point of it?
I suppose there’s room for a European-Tour-but-kinda-more-global Tour, but this seems like a lot of trouble to go to and a mountain of work just to continue pushing a thing forward that so few people actually even want.
5. College football is back, and if golf ever goes away, CFB immediately takes the mantle as the most normal sport imaginable. The defense would like to first present as evidence this tweet about Baton Rouge on Saturday evening.
6. And of course, the Michigan fiasco is another piece of evidence in what is becoming an airtight case for CFB as a golf equal when it comes to absurdity. These tweets absolutely lit me up. I am in the middle of the middle of who they were intended for.
7. And finally, for your final golf-CFB crossover post of the week … here is Michigan defending itself.
8. Steve Kerr tells a story here about Federer that is incredible. Probably the best thing I’ve seen all week. Shoutout to David Hardy for sending it over to me.
Here’s the transcript after Kerr talks about how Draymond once asked Federer how he remained great.
Roger Federer says, “I get up every morning and I make breakfast for my kids. Then I take them to school and drop them off. Then I go practice tennis for about two hours, and I’ve figured out a really good routine where I don’t destroy my body, but I can get all the work in I need.
“Then I go have lunch with my wife. In the evening, we cook dinner together. The kids are all home from school. We ask them about school. There’s so much joy in the house. We put them to bed, and then I put my head on the pillow and go, ‘Man, that was just a great day.’ And I’ve been doing that for 20 years.”Steve Kerr
There are two lessons here.
1. I am reminded of the all time Djokovic quote: “I like hitting the tennis ball.” You cannot be that good for this long like those two or like Rory, Rose, and Adam Scott unless you enjoy — like truly and deeply enjoy — hitting the ball. It’s such a simple thing, but the simplest things are often the easiest to complicate and also the most elusive.
2. Federer was a billionaire (tragically, it appears he no longer is). And yet, the most aspirational part of his life — the part everyone is actually after — is the peacefulness of the day he described above.
We don’t always realize or acknowledge this, but other billionaires would pay, well, maybe billions to have the peace that comes with enjoying a craft and then cooking with your wife and delighting in your kids' days. What a good gift and what a thing to aim for.
[Jason footnote] I almost never have anything to contribute when Kyle starts talking tennis. But this week, Uniqlo put out a promo of Federer meeting one of my design heroes here in Amsterdam, Karel Martens.
He's the old man who never grew up. And in the same way that Federer loves hitting the ball, Karel loves playing with ink and paper in his studio. The peacefulness Kyle describes and the humbleness that comes with it is captured a simple moment when Federer greets him with "What an honor to meet you." Game recognize game.
Thank you for supporting Normal Sport. As always, we remain an algorithm-free establishment, and we enjoy hitting the ball typing the words and drawing the illustrations. Don’t forget to go enter our OMNI giveaway!
Greetings fellow mini-games-addicted dads (and moms),
Here is your daily dosage of golf connections.
Hope you enjoy and that nobody gets it on the first (or second) try.
Name drops today: Caleb Williams, Trevor Lawrence, Steve Kerr, Rachel McAdams, Roger Federer, Tadej Pogacar, Mondo Duplantis and probably a few golfers in there somewhere as well.
Today’s newsletter is presented by OMNI and our ongoing giveaway, which includes a four-night stay at one of their locations and free entry into their Generation Cup*, which is already underway at 12 locations nationally with seven options for the rest of 2026 and into 2027 (you can see those options here).
Three things I remember from my experience playing in the Gen Cup in Frisco a few years ago.
1. Seeing one of the dudes from Dude Perfect playing with a member of his wife’s family. My then-10-year-old was beside himself.
2. My then-10-year-old outdriving me on multiple holes and chirping about it even though he was starting 125 yards ahead of me on some of them.
3. Driving home at dusk and asking him a question only to find him passed out in the front seat after a long and wonderful day.
[Jason here] Memorable trips are made up of these somewhat random moments Kyle noted above. But it’s the small details that make you feel at home enough to appreciate the good stuff. OMNI is great at those details. And although we don’t think they offer breakfast balls in bed, we also wouldn’t put it past them.
You can enter the giveaway at the link below.
*Generation Cup team entry will be subject to availability and that this team entry is for qualifier events only, not for the national championship.
And now, onto the news.
1. We dropped a QB-golfer comps pod on Tuesday that I hope becomes an annual tradition. Joseph LaMagna joined me and Hayden, and we went through all 32 QBs in the NFL and comped each of them to a golfer.
Mistakes were made (mostly by me). The two of mine that got the most pushback were Tua-Zalatoris and Caleb-Bryson.
I stand by both, and I stand by the fact that Caleb is in fact performative. I don’t even know that I mean that derogatorily. He’s a good character and an excellent player, but he can definitely be odd at times. Maybe I more so mean that drama seems to follow him around. Sounds a lot like Bryson as well.
And on the Tua-Zalatoris argument. I think Tua has been better than people think and Zalatoris has been a bit worse (albeit still very good). Tua finished second in Heisman voting, got NFL MVP votes one year and was upper echelon for 2+ years. Very good, not amazing.
Zalatoris? Wonderful amateur campaign headlined by a U.S. Junior Am win. As a pro, he’s had some great major championship success but just one PGA Tour win and the same career SG (roughly) as Sungjae Im and Daniel Berger. Not exactly the Drew Brees of golf.
Both careers have been completely derailed by injuries, although JLM’s argument was that Tua’s was derailed by him just flat out sucking and that Zalatoris has never been the laughingstock of the league like Tua is right now. For sure, but what if Tua is the laughingstock of the league because he’s playing through so many concussions and injuries and Zalatoris is just sitting out (which is what Tua should be doing)?
Regardless, the back and forth in the pod was awesome, and there were some great, great comps. My three favorites that were not my own …
• Trevor Lawrence-Joaquin Niemann
• Jalen Hurts-Wyndham Clark
• Justin Herbert-Ludvig Aberg
Also, Hayden almost ended LaMagna with his Spieth comp.
You can listen right here: Spotify | Apple.
2. I went on the Bible Caddie Podcast recently to talk to Webb, Ben Crane and William Kane. It was as much fun as I’ve had as a guest on a pod recently, and we got steep on a ton of golf and a ton of spiritual things as well.
Ben was amused by my ridiculous fascination with determining who the best golfer from every continent is, and we generally just had the best time talking ball and life. Hope you guys enjoy it. Spotify link here, Apple here and YouTube below.
3. The U.S. announced its Ryder Cup qualification requirements this week, and there are some changes.
1. Points are awarded on finishes, not money.
2. Points don’t start until January 2027.
The U.S. qualifying is pretty similar to Europe’s now, only weighted slightly differently. Example: The U.S. weights a regular PGA Tour victory (Valspar) at half of a major championship victory. Europe weights it at 40 percent. The U.S. weights a signature PGA Tour win at 75 percent of a major while Europe weights it at 60 percent.
The best change is the timing. Previously, a player could theoretically win the Players and Masters 18 months before the Ryder Cup and be carried to an auto spot based on those finishes, even though no reasonable person would say that a finish 18 months prior would have any bearing on a team event in September of a given year.
Small tweaks here, to be sure, but they are encouraging. I refuse to invest myself in the idea that the U.S. is going full-scale change like it needs to do for this event, but I do want to acknowledge when even tiny smart decisions are made by an organization I’ve been incredibly critical of over the years.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,056 of them) and includes notes on LIV’s bankruptcy, how CFB is threatening golf as the normal-est sport and an amazing Steve Kerr story about Roger Federer.
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