Issue No. 254 | September 24, 2025 | Read Online
A thank you to Meridian for sending us to New York for boots on the ground coverage and for giving away two putters that you can win right here!
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Greetings from beautiful Bethpage Black.
We have yet to purchase one of these questionable visors, but I caught Jason eyeing them earlier in the day. Let’s get on with a few thoughts from Wednesday at the Ryder Cup.
But first!
Thank you to Ship Sticks for sponsoring today’s newsletter.
Going from Texas —> New York is always a good reminder of why to use Ship Sticks to handle your gear on golf trips.
Skip airport stress and costly airline fees with complimentary insurance, real-time tracking, dedicated support, and on-time delivery.
Just schedule your shipment, attach your label, and Ship Sticks handles the rest, delivering your gear directly to your destination.
It is truly shocking just how much more convenient it is, especially in spots where it’s difficult to maneuver, like, uh, the JFK Airport.
Check them out right here. Normal Sport readers get 20 percent off their first purchase.
OK, now onto the news.
And most of them are even about golf.
1. Jason Page from Bethpage: Well … I’m not in my Amsterdam studio anymore.
Last week, I visited Kyle in Dallas and we recorded a pod (to be released over the next month or so) where he talked about the smell of these events. The Ryder Cup media center where I’m writing this smells like an airport with a hint of sour pasta sauce, in case you were wondering.
We’ve got two media desks sandwiched between the Fried Egg and No Laying Up guys and behind the CBS Sports media desks. Somehow, our respective golf writing and illustration journeys that led to Bethpage are all around us.
In two hours I’ve met so many of the faces behind the work that I’ve enjoyed for years and even some that I’ve illustrated for Normal Sport.
As I type this, Joseph LaMagna is standing next to me talking about ripping off a golf-world-melting tweet about Europe from the laptop Kyle left open. This is my first time illustrating a live golf event. The golf hasn’t even started and it’s already thrilling to be in the mix. It’s also reassuring to hear that no one from the golf media really knows what the next few days will hold.
2. [It’s Kyle again, I took the keyboard back from Jason …]
I made a Bryson-Justin Rose comp on Tuesday that was … not well received! My point was that if JT is our Ian Poulter (and he is), then maybe Bryson is our Justin Rose — a former U.S. Open champ who infuriates opponents with his tremendous play in team events. And if you think Justin Rose isn’t both theatrical and infuriating to play against, then you definitely did not watch the 2012 Ryder Cup.
The pearl clutching was immense and immediate.
Rose himself even weighed in before deleting the tweet a few moments later.
This was in no way a person comp between Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau — who don’t seem to be much of anything alike. It was simply a Ryder Cup one.
But boy, the European journalists and fans can’t be bothered otherwise. It is definitely Aggrieved Euro Media SZN. It’s also not even the right comp because Rose isn’t as boisterous and as brazen as Bryson often is (although he’s often fairly dramatic!).
The right comp may infuriate them all even more. Because the right comp is Bryson’s partner in the final round of the 2025 Masters.
Screaming, gesticulating theatrics during team events? ✅
Able to control the entire event with a single shot or hole? ✅
An emotional spark plug when his team needs it most? ✅
Rory reading this.
That’s right: Bryson might be our Rory at this event. And if you think that’s taking things too far then you’re probably forgetting how good and likable and galvanizing Bryson was at Whistling Straits, even at a time when most of the golf world hated him.
3. Speaking of galvanizing! After yesterday, we are at 999 Normal Club members. Don’t let us get hot and get to 1,000 this week! We may never look back. More info on why our membership is incredibly important to everything we do here.
4. After seeing some of the choices this week, I find myself longing for a time when the uniforms actually slapped like these babies from 1993.
[Jason here] There’s a non-zero chance that our inside the ropes pass gets revoked when Kyle goes full Costanza feeling the team uniforms.
The newsletter will continue below for Normal Club members (if you just joined, you can sign into our site and read the rest here). It includes some thoughts and takes on ….
The crowds so far at Bethpage.
Those two motivational videos from each side.
How this event could (and hopefully will) end.
Normal Sport is supported by exactly 999 crazed individuals. By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• A vote for trusted, independent media.
• The delight of helping us establish Normal Sport.
• Access to all of our content (like the rest of this newsletter).
Welcome to the members-only portion of today’s newsletter. I hope you both enjoy it and find it to be valuable to your golf and/or personal life.
5. You can’t summarize the ethos of an entire decades-old multifaceted organization made up of hundreds and hundreds of people in a less-than-10-minute video, but both the United States and Europe came pretty close this week at Bethpage.
The U.S. went first with a poignant (if a bit forced) moment on the opening tee where they received a solo, personalized rendition of the national anthem followed by a heartwarming story from a member of the FDNY whose family experienced tragedy during 9/11.
I thought the whole thing was very cool, and I loved that Keegan said he’d been thinking about it for a year. His line of, “This week, this is the course we grew up on” induced some chills, too.
And I applaud the U.S. — and specifically Keegan — for working toward this. Building culture takes a long time. He seems intent on casting good vision and following through. This seems like not too much to ask but [gestures at the last two decades’ of American captains].
Keegan is a try-hard. This is a compliment. As someone who is also personally in that camp, I appreciate how hard he tries, how much he cares and how little he’s concerned with showing how much it means.
All of that is more difficult to do than he makes it seem. And while the overall vibe of the scene comes off as just a little bit rigid — especially compared to Europe’s opera performance from Italy — it makes me even more in on a Keegan captaincy that I was already ecstatic about.
6. Then, unfortunately, the U.S. got absolutely pummeled by what the Europeans put out. I had chills for, well, pretty much the entire time.
It’s just not a fair fight.
They got all the living Euros who have won an away Ryder Cup and scripted together a motivational video that will have you questioning your passport status. It’s insane. But it’s insane because it’s believable. Because you believe that they believe all of it.
This part specifically, players chanting, “Seve! Seve! Seve!” in the locker room at Medinah as Sergio and Jose Maria embraced, just lit me up. Whew.
All of it reminded me of this quote from Justin Rose in 2023.
Well, I was just thinking there before you asked that question, we are united by a culture and we are united by a generation of players that have come before us. This is our time. Luke has been very clear on that message, this is our time to shine, not because this is our stage, we are just taking care of it because of the amazing role models that we've had before us that have shown us how to do it.
There's a really strong culture on the European Team. A good pairing on the European Team doesn't mean playing with your best mate. You know, it means about representing something bigger than yourself, and I feel like that's, for me, what being a European Ryder Cup player is all about.
Justin Rose
The video is still quite manufactured, players are delivering lines and so on. But because of what undergirds it — that quote from Rose — it’s very easy to buy into.
7. The lessons from Rome remain.
The Euros preach that it’s not about self. It’s about forgetting self to honor history, to carry the legacy that came before them. The Americans preach that it is about self, at least more so than the Euros. The line, “Go out there and play like you have the country on your back because you do” was prominently featured in the video above.
I don’t love it. I do accept it. I think it’s just the way things are. Perhaps this is cultural, perhaps it is just how the two organizations operate. I don’t totally know.
Regardless, I think both teams are walking forward the best way they know how, and the Americans are doing so with at least some meaningfulness that maybe hasn’t been there in quite the same way before. Add it all up, and this week does feel like an all-time clash. Maybe even one that ends in a way it hasn’t in a long, long time.
8. I have a take that’s been percolating for a bit that I want to hold off on but need to test run here with our paid members before I get it out into the wild: I’m curious about just how good the crowds here will be.
I was out for a bit on Wednesday morning with the three American groups, and while the stands were full, the people weren’t exactly raucous.
At least one American player agreed with me.
I'll be honest, I think it's kind of tame so far, Tuesday and Wednesday. I know tomorrow is going to be pretty bad but I hope Friday is just absolute chaos. I'm all for it. I think it feeds into who we are and the American players and the American Team. We want it. Like we want to use that to our advantage.
Collin Morikawa
Again, it’s Wednesday, but I have experienced both an extraordinary crowd (Hazeltine) and tepid-and-borderline-weak one (Whistling Straits). I’m interested to see where New York falls on that spectrum.
Not making a judgement. Don’t put it in the papers that I declared the New York crowds weak! I’m simply gently broaching the topic two days before the event begins.
We are also curious to see where drives land [on crowds] on the 1st hole.
9. Like I said in the tweet below, I don’t think either Rory-Bryson or Rory-Scottie is on the table in terms of deciding the event late on Sunday … but could you imagine either of those?
The first: A climax of the last two (five?) years of clashing between the sport’s greatest carnival barker (perhaps ever) and one of the great main events in history. Bryson, whirling and bellowing in all his American-themed bluster. Rory, delivering blow after blow, taking on an entire country while trying to make good on a called shot in Rome.
Would it reach that level Rory and Reed reached in 2016? I’m doubtful, but it would unquestionably be tremendous theater.
I think Rory-Scheffler is the real dream, though.
Two titans who won three of the four majors this year squaring off in a 13.5-13.5 match after 12 straight years of blowouts on either side? Two guys who will almost certainly (?) go down among the 15 best in history. Unequivocally, the two best golfers in the post-Tiger era dueling for the greatest event in golf.
Two legends who have been broken down into tearful exits by this horrible and wonderful week.
Yeah … that would rule.
10. The gala photos … Mrs. Normal had some (probably-not-for-the-newsletter) takes.
via Golf.com
My takes are not as searing, but here they are.
• I’m fine with the open collars and whatever the shoes are that the U.S. players are wearing, but I also think it’s a tough look when going up against the Euros in wingtips and ties.
• Best comment I saw (that is also a low-key deep cut): Europe showing that ties win this week.
• I don’t really understand how Ludvig is this good looking and has that good of a swing?
• Seriously, though, has Cam Young ever (ever!) smiled?
• Viktor — as always — rules. Zoom in on the photo above, or just look at this screenshot from the players only photo.
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 2,271 words long like this one.
While we do use digital tools that help us find information, everything you read and consume was created from scratch by two humans who are absolutely obsessed with the game.
If you ever want to support our business, you can buy merch here or send this link to the Normal Club to a friend.
Issue No. 254 | September 24, 2025 | Read Online
A thank you to Meridian for sending us to New York for boots on the ground coverage and for giving away two putters that you can win right here!
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. — Greetings from beautiful Bethpage Black.
We have yet to purchase one of these questionable visors, but I caught Jason eyeing them earlier in the day. Let’s get on with a few thoughts from Wednesday at the Ryder Cup.
But first!
Thank you to Ship Sticks for sponsoring today’s newsletter.
Going from Texas —> New York is always a good reminder of why to use Ship Sticks to handle your gear on golf trips.
Skip airport stress and costly airline fees with complimentary insurance, real-time tracking, dedicated support, and on-time delivery.
Just schedule your shipment, attach your label, and Ship Sticks handles the rest, delivering your gear directly to your destination.
It is truly shocking just how much more convenient it is, especially in spots where it’s difficult to maneuver, like, uh, the JFK Airport.
Check them out right here. Normal Sport readers get 20 percent off their first purchase.
OK, now onto the news.
And most of them are even about golf.
1. Jason Page from Bethpage: Well … I’m not in my Amsterdam studio anymore.
Last week, I visited Kyle in Dallas and we recorded a pod (to be released over the next month or so) where he talked about the smell of these events. The Ryder Cup media center where I’m writing this smells like an airport with a hint of sour pasta sauce, in case you were wondering.
We’ve got two media desks sandwiched between the Fried Egg and No Laying Up guys and behind the CBS Sports media desks. Somehow, our respective golf writing and illustration journeys that led to Bethpage are all around us.
In two hours I’ve met so many of the faces behind the work that I’ve enjoyed for years and even some that I’ve illustrated for Normal Sport.
As I type this, Joseph LaMagna is standing next to me talking about ripping off a golf-world-melting tweet about Europe from the laptop Kyle left open. This is my first time illustrating a live golf event. The golf hasn’t even started and it’s already thrilling to be in the mix. It’s also reassuring to hear that no one from the golf media really knows what the next few days will hold.
2. [It’s Kyle again, I took the keyboard back from Jason …]
I made a Bryson-Justin Rose comp on Tuesday that was … not well received! My point was that if JT is our Ian Poulter (and he is), then maybe Bryson is our Justin Rose — a former U.S. Open champ who infuriates opponents with his tremendous play in team events. And if you think Justin Rose isn’t both theatrical and infuriating to play against, then you definitely did not watch the 2012 Ryder Cup.
The pearl clutching was immense and immediate.
Rose himself even weighed in before deleting the tweet a few moments later.
This was in no way a person comp between Justin Rose and Bryson DeChambeau — who don’t seem to be much of anything alike. It was simply a Ryder Cup one.
But boy, the European journalists and fans can’t be bothered otherwise. It is definitely Aggrieved Euro Media SZN. It’s also not even the right comp because Rose isn’t as boisterous and as brazen as Bryson often is (although he’s often fairly dramatic!).
The right comp may infuriate them all even more. Because the right comp is Bryson’s partner in the final round of the 2025 Masters.
Screaming, gesticulating theatrics during team events? ✅
Able to control the entire event with a single shot or hole? ✅
An emotional spark plug when his team needs it most? ✅
Rory reading this.
That’s right: Bryson might be our Rory at this event. And if you think that’s taking things too far then you’re probably forgetting how good and likable and galvanizing Bryson was at Whistling Straits, even at a time when most of the golf world hated him.
3. Speaking of galvanizing! After yesterday, we are at 999 Normal Club members. Don’t let us get hot and get to 1,000 this week! We may never look back. More info on why our membership is incredibly important to everything we do here.
4. After seeing some of the choices this week, I find myself longing for a time when the uniforms actually slapped like these babies from 1993.
[Jason here] There’s a non-zero chance that our inside the ropes pass gets revoked when Kyle goes full Costanza feeling the team uniforms.
The newsletter will continue below for Normal Club members (if you just joined, you can sign into our site and read the rest here). It includes some thoughts and takes on ….
The crowds so far at Bethpage.
Those two motivational videos from each side.
How this event could (and hopefully will) end.
Normal Sport is supported by exactly 999 crazed individuals. By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• A vote for trusted, independent media.
• The delight of helping us establish Normal Sport.
• Access to all of our content (like the rest of this newsletter).
Welcome to the members-only portion of today’s newsletter. I hope you both enjoy it and find it to be valuable to your golf and/or personal life.
5. You can’t summarize the ethos of an entire decades-old multifaceted organization made up of hundreds and hundreds of people in a less-than-10-minute video, but both the United States and Europe came pretty close this week at Bethpage.
The U.S. went first with a poignant (if a bit forced) moment on the opening tee where they received a solo, personalized rendition of the national anthem followed by a heartwarming story from a member of the FDNY whose family experienced tragedy during 9/11.
I thought the whole thing was very cool, and I loved that Keegan said he’d been thinking about it for a year. His line of, “This week, this is the course we grew up on” induced some chills, too.
And I applaud the U.S. — and specifically Keegan — for working toward this. Building culture takes a long time. He seems intent on casting good vision and following through. This seems like not too much to ask but [gestures at the last two decades’ of American captains].
Keegan is a try-hard. This is a compliment. As someone who is also personally in that camp, I appreciate how hard he tries, how much he cares and how little he’s concerned with showing how much it means.
All of that is more difficult to do than he makes it seem. And while the overall vibe of the scene comes off as just a little bit rigid — especially compared to Europe’s opera performance from Italy — it makes me even more in on a Keegan captaincy that I was already ecstatic about.
6. Then, unfortunately, the U.S. got absolutely pummeled by what the Europeans put out. I had chills for, well, pretty much the entire time.
It’s just not a fair fight.
They got all the living Euros who have won an away Ryder Cup and scripted together a motivational video that will have you questioning your passport status. It’s insane. But it’s insane because it’s believable. Because you believe that they believe all of it.
This part specifically, players chanting, “Seve! Seve! Seve!” in the locker room at Medinah as Sergio and Jose Maria embraced, just lit me up. Whew.
All of it reminded me of this quote from Justin Rose in 2023.
Well, I was just thinking there before you asked that question, we are united by a culture and we are united by a generation of players that have come before us. This is our time. Luke has been very clear on that message, this is our time to shine, not because this is our stage, we are just taking care of it because of the amazing role models that we've had before us that have shown us how to do it.
There's a really strong culture on the European Team. A good pairing on the European Team doesn't mean playing with your best mate. You know, it means about representing something bigger than yourself, and I feel like that's, for me, what being a European Ryder Cup player is all about.
Justin Rose
The video is still quite manufactured, players are delivering lines and so on. But because of what undergirds it — that quote from Rose — it’s very easy to buy into.
7. The lessons from Rome remain.
The Euros preach that it’s not about self. It’s about forgetting self to honor history, to carry the legacy that came before them. The Americans preach that it is about self, at least more so than the Euros. The line, “Go out there and play like you have the country on your back because you do” was prominently featured in the video above.
I don’t love it. I do accept it. I think it’s just the way things are. Perhaps this is cultural, perhaps it is just how the two organizations operate. I don’t totally know.
Regardless, I think both teams are walking forward the best way they know how, and the Americans are doing so with at least some meaningfulness that maybe hasn’t been there in quite the same way before. Add it all up, and this week does feel like an all-time clash. Maybe even one that ends in a way it hasn’t in a long, long time.
8. I have a take that’s been percolating for a bit that I want to hold off on but need to test run here with our paid members before I get it out into the wild: I’m curious about just how good the crowds here will be.
I was out for a bit on Wednesday morning with the three American groups, and while the stands were full, the people weren’t exactly raucous.
At least one American player agreed with me.
I'll be honest, I think it's kind of tame so far, Tuesday and Wednesday. I know tomorrow is going to be pretty bad but I hope Friday is just absolute chaos. I'm all for it. I think it feeds into who we are and the American players and the American Team. We want it. Like we want to use that to our advantage.
Collin Morikawa
Again, it’s Wednesday, but I have experienced both an extraordinary crowd (Hazeltine) and tepid-and-borderline-weak one (Whistling Straits). I’m interested to see where New York falls on that spectrum.
Not making a judgement. Don’t put it in the papers that I declared the New York crowds weak! I’m simply gently broaching the topic two days before the event begins.
We are also curious to see where drives land [on crowds] on the 1st hole.
9. Like I said in the tweet below, I don’t think either Rory-Bryson or Rory-Scottie is on the table in terms of deciding the event late on Sunday … but could you imagine either of those?
The first: A climax of the last two (five?) years of clashing between the sport’s greatest carnival barker (perhaps ever) and one of the great main events in history. Bryson, whirling and bellowing in all his American-themed bluster. Rory, delivering blow after blow, taking on an entire country while trying to make good on a called shot in Rome.
Would it reach that level Rory and Reed reached in 2016? I’m doubtful, but it would unquestionably be tremendous theater.
I think Rory-Scheffler is the real dream, though.
Two titans who won three of the four majors this year squaring off in a 13.5-13.5 match after 12 straight years of blowouts on either side? Two guys who will almost certainly (?) go down among the 15 best in history. Unequivocally, the two best golfers in the post-Tiger era dueling for the greatest event in golf.
Two legends who have been broken down into tearful exits by this horrible and wonderful week.
Yeah … that would rule.
10. The gala photos … Mrs. Normal had some (probably-not-for-the-newsletter) takes.
via Golf.com
My takes are not as searing, but here they are.
• I’m fine with the open collars and whatever the shoes are that the U.S. players are wearing, but I also think it’s a tough look when going up against the Euros in wingtips and ties.
• Best comment I saw (that is also a low-key deep cut): Europe showing that ties win this week.
• I don’t really understand how Ludvig is this good looking and has that good of a swing?
• Seriously, though, has Cam Young ever (ever!) smiled?
• Viktor — as always — rules. Zoom in on the photo above, or just look at this screenshot from the players only photo.
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 2,271 words long like this one.
While we do use digital tools that help us find information, everything you read and consume was created from scratch by two humans who are absolutely obsessed with the game.
If you ever want to support our business, you can buy merch here or send this link to the Normal Club to a friend.
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