Edition No. 50 | January 26, 2024

Hey,

Last week’s Friday newsletter — which was just six thoughts I had on golf for the week — went well, and we enjoyed making it so here we are again with a collection of thoughts I had throughout this week along with some … amended illustrations from Jason Page.

I don’t know if this is how we’re going to do things all year, but it’s been fun to experiment and wander around a world we’re constructing as we go.

One of our goals for Normal Sport is to become the most unique publisher of golf text + illustration in the world. To build a heartfelt and humorous world that helps daily golf fans see life a little bit differently than before.

With that in mind, here a few thoughts I had on golf this week.

6 Thoughts on This Week

1. At lunch on Thursday, I told my wife, “You know that kid who won on the PGA Tour last week — he turned pro today.” Her response was what her response normally is to most things I tell her about golf and my job and the internet …

“Are people mad about that?”

I laughed. People are actually not mad about that. It has been widely celebrated that one of the best amateurs of the last decade is taking advantage of the opportunity he created for himself.

This, for once online, has seemingly been universally praised.

And to be clear, he had no choice. This is the logical decision. You’re slipping into the VIP area at a time on Tour when you rarely get asked to leave. This is the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment but with a boyhood dream and not two morsels of puffed sugar.

However, I couldn’t help but feel a tinge of sadness for Dunlap on Thursday. College golf is special. Professional golf is often a meat grinder. If you believe half the guys who went to LIV, part of the reason they left is because in light of the latter, they’re trying to recreate the former.

In general, we seem to be always chasing not who we once were in college — that would be foolish — but the elixir of fellowship, innocence and joy that it provides. It’s hard to find that not only as a professional golfer, but just as an adult of any kind. Not impossible but difficult.

And so while no, people are not mad about Dunlap turning pro, I think it’s worth acknowledging the sadness of missing out on something meaningful at Alabama. In a moment of self-awareness I know I didn’t have at age 20, Dunlap did just that on Thursday. It doesn’t fix his conundrum, but it’s good that he called it out.

“It was the hardest, easiest decision I’ve ever had to make, by far.”

2. Earlier this week, I went back and re-read Joel Beall’s excellent Golf Digest piece on the future of ANGC.

I was struck by a few things, but mostly by how much ANGC members seem to care about the fan experience. This is obvious. Of course they do. It’s what they’re known for. But maybe it hit me harder than usual because of how little it has felt like this Tour-PIF-SSG consortium has seemingly made this a priority.

Two examples from the piece.

1. It was implied that one thing ANGC has cared a lot about is that Fans should not have to pay more for parking on top of their badge entrance, so let’s build a new parking lot.

2. Here’s an anonymous quote about secondary badges: Despite measures to cut down on secondary markets, badges still wind up on ticket hubs at five-figure prices. “The patrons are the most informed, passionate galleries in golf because we have the most passionate base,” a member says. “The more you bring in corporate crowds, the more badges that are turned around and sold for profit, the more that passionate base can get pushed aside. It hasn’t yet, but you have to be careful.”

These seem like small things. Most organizations would see No. 1 as a golden revenue stream. Most organizations would either not care about No. 2 or jack up prices to levels that meet the demand that is clearly there.

And while ANGC is broadly in a financially advantageous position because its members can afford to pay $500,000/yard to move tee boxes around whether they have the Masters money or not, the care they have shown their customers should not be overlooked, especially at a time when it feels like nobody is playing the long game.

I think about Neil Schuster’s appearance on Making Media all the time. He talked a lot about how NLU is purposely trying to grow slowly. You have to be extraordinarily committed to the long term health of your business to purposely try to grow slowly. That is true of NLU, Augusta National or any business.

Don’t be fooled by the last 20 years of ANGC. They’ve entered their hockey stick growth era, but it’s only because, from the beginning, they have cared about things like not charging folks for parking on top of what they paid for their badges.

3. Derek Thompson and my guy Bryan Curtis did a podcast this week on the state of media in light of the Sports Illustrated and LA Times news. It was interesting and sobering, and it reminded me of our waning trust in institutions and increasing attention on individual creators or tiny outlets to fill the void.

At first glance, this makes sense and probably even seems like a good thing. I trust individual people, not brands! And maybe it is a good thing.

But as Ezra Klein pointed out here, institutions can so often do things that individuals cannot. Sports Illustrated could make extra money on [whatever vertical] that would allow them to send Bamberger on a 10-day trip to Spain to get the goods on Jon Rahm in a way that individuals or tiny shops cannot.

Perhaps the trade off is worth it. And frankly, it doesn’t even matter, because the more what happens to Sports Illustrated continues to happen, the more incentivized writers, podcasters and thinkers are going to be to start their own stuff.

Again, I’m not against this. I think it’s good! That’s a little bit of what Normal Sport is. But I still want to acknowledge the reality of that institutional loss, which I think sometimes gets painted by non-media as a bit more celebratory — crooked media finally crumbling! — than it maybe should be.

4. A question I thought of related to the above: Which organization will generate more revenue this year between Sports Illustrated and [choose one of Foreplay, Fried Egg and NLU]? That would have been an inconceivable question even a few years ago but — given the insane state of SI’s mismanagement — it does not seem all that unreasonable right now.

5. I’ll say this now before everything gets silly. And it might go down as an all-time bad take.

But I’m all good on the Anthony Kim stuff. I’m out. Don’t want it. Don’t need it.

Dylan Dethier had a terrific report on Thursday about his comeback, which I understand from Kim’s perspective — especially if he gets paid by LIV! — but will almost certainly not enhance his legacy.

Here’s a dirty little secret on AK: He was fine. Fine! Three wins in 140 OWGR starts. Three top 10s at majors. He was a good player. But the myth certainly outweighs the reality, and I don’t want to have to pretend like the new reality is going to even come close to approaching the myth.

Stats aren’t everything, I know, and part of the allure of AK was his potential, But at 38, potential no longer exists, and the performance — even when you ignore a 12-year layoff — might not be what everybody thinks it’s going to be.

To further the point, I pulled two six-year strokes gained numbers from AK and Cameron Tringale earlier in their careers. You tell me which is which.

6. I’m slated to be on the NLU pod with KVV and Bacon recapping the Farmers on Saturday night. Be sure to tune in!