Issue No. 89 | June 12, 2024

Hey,

We have two giveaways going this U.S. Open week.

No. 1 — Garmin is giving away a new watch — the Approach S70, which I’m currently wearing — to whoever gets the closest to guessing how many steps I take this week at Pinehurst (Monday-Sunday). Very normal sport stuff there. You can guess on this tweet right here. If you don’t have Twitter, put your name and guess on this spreadsheet.

No. 2 — Just like we did for the Masters, we’ll be giving away some gear. This time, two bags of U.S. Open/Pinehurst/Putter Boy stuff. You don’t have to do anything to be entered into that one other than be subscribed to this newsletter (which you are if you’re reading this via email).

Thank you for reading. We always want to give away more than we take, and I appreciate businesses who will help us achieve that.

Onto the news.

12 Thoughts on the U.S. Open

1. What’s your favorite, “Wait, this is getting kind of historic” statistic when it comes to Scottie?

• Is it that the gap in total OWGR points between Scottie Scheffler and world No. 3 Rory McIlroy is the same as the gap in total OWGR points between Rory McIlroy and world No. 613 Anthony Quayle? (Apologies to anyone from Anthony Quayle’s family who subscribes).

• Is it that Scottie is gaining eight more strokes per event than the 15th best player in the world this year (Tommy Fleetwood)?

• Or that since 1983 (that’s 40+ years), only three golfers have won 6+ events in a PGA Tour year (Tiger, Vijay and Nick Price). Scottie will have six or seven rips at being the fourth.

• How about that in the last 30 years, only the Cat has a higher highest ceiling, and Scottie keeps moving closer and closer to what Tiger was doing in 2000 (which in retrospect — and probably in the moment — was borderline illegal).

The number below in the far right column is how many shots better per round, at his apex, that player was over the last 150 rounds compared to an average PGA Tour player. Scottie just passed 3.0 earlier this year, and continues to move toward Mount Cat.

We can go on and on.

I thought my guy Rick Gehman said it well after Scottie’s Memorial win. We were talking on the CBS Sports HQ, and he just kept saying variations of, This is history, enjoy it. It doesn’t happen very often.

It’s true.

Listening to Scottie talk about what he’s doing is like listening to somebody try to explain what The Zone feels like. He’s been at that intersection where he is both deeply thoughtful and not thinking whatsoever for so long that it sometimes feels like he has forgotten what it feels like to be outside of it.

2. I think about a couple of things as it relates to the above. The covetousness with which his peers talk about that flow-y state that we have all experienced or at least been adjacent to in some area of our lives (probably not golf) is tangible.

The first time I noticed it was when Brooks talked about it in Full Swing.

Then at the Masters this year, Rory was asked what Scottie is thinking about: “Nothing. Nothing. Not a lot of clutter. The game feels pretty easy when you're in stretches like this. That's the hard thing whenever you're not quite in form. You are searching and you are thinking about it so much, but then when you are in form, you don't think about it at all.”

It must be what it feels like to Steph when he’s hit like six of seven and he rips one from 35 feet on some 6’5” dude that was the greatest basketball player his hometown has ever (or will ever) see, and it barely moves the net. He doesn’t even see it go in because he’s running back the other way.

It must feel like outer space.

Except that Scottie has basically been ripping from 35 feet on 6’5” dudes that were the greatest basketball players their hometowns have ever (or will ever) see for two straight years.

One final Scottie nugget for you.

Since January 1, 2022, here are some numbers.

Scottie Scheffler has played 58 events and has 12 wins. In that same timeframe, the following players have played 922 events and have 12 wins combined.

• Matt Kuchar

• Harris English

• Cam Davis

• Sergio Garcia

• Patrick Reed

• Adam Scott

• Tyrrell Hatton

• Cam Young

• Rickie Fowler

• Jason Day

• Jordan Spieth

• Will Zalatoris

• Justin Thomas

• Collin Morikawa

• Bryson DeChambeau

• Tommy Fleetwood

• Hideki Matsuyama

I threw that take on Twitter and got chastised for including guys like Adam Scott and Cam Young who have not won at all in that stretch. I get that, but it’s not like they weren’t playing the events! They were there. They went 0-fer. Scottie took them all, just like he’s going to again this week at No. 2.

3. For reasons outlined below, I am sympathetic to the idea that the USGA is boxed into a difficult spot. However, and this is probably a bit of a selfish request, I wouldn’t mind seeing a reconnaissance mission to find The Line this week at Pinehurst. Maybe spot it in the wild, see what it’s doing, approach it, back off it and continue the hunt later in the week.

All I’m asking for is a sighting, which we haven’t had in a while. Not a catch and release, not a seek and kill. Just a sighting. Get within striking distance just to let them know you could. That’s all. Just a whiff of The Line.

Also, as I noted in last week’s newsletter, the point is not carnage for the sake of carnage but rather carnage for the sake of two things: 1. To see who’s mentally and emotionally soft and 2. To reintroduce players to what a consequential shot looks like.

4. Speaking of Normal Sport content, we now have a Twitter account that you can follow here. Thanks to Grace P. for keeping the spot for us and not holding it hostage for Crushers GC money.

5. If you enjoy the annual grass length press release from ANGC, then buddy do I have some content for you.

American Pokeweed!
Bethpage Blue Toadflax!
Common Lambsquarter!
Harris English Holly!
Four O’Clocks!
Goosegrass!
Justin Rose Mallow!
Stiff shaft Aster!
Sulphur Cosmos!
Winged Foot Sumac!

Every one is somehow better than the one before it. And it might not even be the most normal thing about this week …

6. One of my highlights so far happened on Tuesday evening. I called my wife and we talked about our various travels, what the plan was for the rest of the week and how my time on Tuesday with the good folks at Holderness and Bourne was. Just the usual. Then for some reason I ended the call by telling her about Jon Rahm’s toe separators.

I’m not kidding when I tell you that she gasped. I sent her the photos, which I refuse to drop in here, while we were still talking and she howled: “It’s like they’re just feeding you normal sport stuff!”

It actually is very much like that.

Other sports have defensive and offensive matchups. Over here in golf we have Hare’s Foot Clover and toe separators.

7. This thought exercise from KVV during last year’s U.S. Open is underrated and excellent. It’s something I think back on often.

This is why the USGA is in such a difficult spot when it comes to U.S. Opens. Again, I’m in favor of them finding The Line, and the current equipment landscape is very much their own fault. But the margin between silly and serious when it comes to golf course setup has only gotten thinner and thinner over time.

8. On my flight to North Carolina, I finished the book on Clayton Kershaw by Andy McCullough, The Last of His Kind.

It’s so good. Highly recommend. I’ll try to drop a few of the better excerpts in future newsletters, but two quick thoughts on the overall arc of the book.

1. Kershaw reminds me a lot of Scottie. Both are deep in their faith, reserved people who can sometimes come across either distant or even bristling. Both are seemingly uncomfortable with their own greatness and care far less about the outcome than they do about the process. Neither is big into social media or many of the trappings that come with their positions. Both went to (and still live in) Highland Park and married a girl they knew from high school. Both seem to be more concerned about being a dad than being an athlete.

They are both, almost unequivocally, among the best of their generation.

It was kind of startling to read this book with Scottie as my background. It made me realize that we are officially entering “books (plural) will be written” territory with Scottie. Still a long way to go there, but this season means it’s in play, which I’m obviously excited about.

2. This is maybe too Inside Baseball, but I think about this quote from Ben Thompson of Stratechery often.

I think I have dropped that quote in here before, but if not, it’s one of my favorites. Because as cool as it is to have written a book, it’s not a book that I’m necessarily chasing. Rather, it’s book-like content in written form. If that’s a weekly or twice-a-week newsletter, then so be it. This Kershaw book reminded me of that reality.

I consider it both a joy and a gift to have that opportunity (plus the mea culpas are much easier to extend). And while I have not talked about this publicly yet, it’s probably a good time to mention that Normal Sport the book will, for this year, simply be a collection of our best stuff from this year’s newsletter.

We’ll reformat, rewrite and re-illustrate it, and of course we will add all the footnotes you can possibly handle. But for mine and Jason’s sanity as well as a high-quality physical product that you can enjoy and have as a sort of artifact for golf in 2024, we think this is the right route to go. More on that soon.

9. What is one take you have that you know is objectively incorrect and dumb but also you don’t really care or can’t convince yourself to exert more emotion or outrage than you currently do? I’ll go first. I think the Astros cheating scandal isn’t a big deal and may not have even happened.

Again, I know this is factually not true and objectively incorrect. I know these things. And yet I just can’t muster much anger beyond “Idk, seems like they kinda broke an unwritten rule, probably should have had a few guys thrown at the following year and then we move on.” I want to be clear: I’m not justifying what I know the Astros did. It’s just that every time I read about it, it doesn’t seem all that bad or nefarious to me, which, again, I know is a horrific take.

It’s simply how the situation makes me feel.

10. Here is this year’s U.S. Open Porter Family Draft. I should note a couple things.

1. We drafted on Monday when Rahm is still in the field. He has been replaced on Hannah’s team with Sepp Straka (who, tbh, may have been a better original pick).

2. My wife I … forgot that Niemann wasn’t in the field. He has been replaced with Sam Burns.

Is Jack lost in the sauce? Yes. But one follower articulated it well …

11. I haven’t even been here 24 hours, but I cannot get enough of Pinehurst. The village reminds me so much of St. Andrews. Sickos walking around all over the place just drowning in golf.

And No. 2 itself is just the coolest.

Two things disclosed this on Tuesday.

The first is this clip of Cam Smith. Listening to him talk about chipping strategy and what he’s trying to do and how he’s trying to play the course. The best stuff. Watching guys think through shots is nearly as good (sometimes better?) than watching the shots themselves.

As an aside, do you guys remember the phrase “all roads led to this,” which I think either was or is the Open Championship tagline.¹ 

Anyway, I it should be Johnson Wagner’s theme for this week. A crazy Open at bouncy, purple Pinehurst where the course gets dicey and we get chaos?

I want it all.

The second thing that disclosed how good Pinehurst is came via quotes from two of the three best players in the world, Scottie and Rory.

The trope that it’s easy for a bad player like me to shoot 85 but difficult for a good player like Scottie or Rory to shoot 65 is true at Pinehurst perhaps more than any other non-Augusta golf course in the country.

That makes the course fun and relatable but also, when the conditions are turned up like they will be this week, it can make it extremely complicated.

Rory said something similar.

Fun and difficult. Numerous routes to the cup. A course that asks you so many different questions. Shots that have real consequences. Excitement and fear on each approach.

It’s tough to ask for much more than that from a major championship.

12. Some (maybe many) are saying this is the greatest reply tweet of all time.

Thanks for reading until the end.

You’re a sicko, and I’m grateful for it.

We have a Twitter account now. We hope you enjoy it.