Edition No. 68 | March 26, 2024

Hey,

Some days I don’t get this newsletter out on time because there’s so much news to go back through over the last few days. Other days, I’m deep diving on ridiculous things like Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s Wikipedia page. Sometimes I’m busy with dad duties. Life stuff. You don’t care about any of this, and you shouldn’t. But you might care about this part.

Most days when it doesn’t get done on time, the reason is because it’s difficult to write something that’s worth reading.

I write a lot of words — articles, columns, emails and texts — every day. A lot of words. Invariably the ones in this newsletter are among the most daunting because I know they will require more of me emotionally and mentally than I give to some of those other places.

That’s a good thing.

But it’s also a difficult thing.

I was thinking about it today, and I suspect we all have those parts of our job. The ones that are good but that take so much out of us.

Thank you for appreciating mine.

Onto the news.

One Thing I Loved

I spent a lot of time writing this one so I apologize if you’re on Twitter and already saw it. I was struck, though, by both the obvious emotion from Peter Malnati on Sunday at Valspar but also by his words.

They were … not the words I would have thought would come from a professional golfer, even one who has not been very successful by PGA Tour standards. But they were good, and — perhaps more importantly — they were right.

Here’s what I wrote on Sunday evening after his victory …

Peter Malnati's emotion today was obviously cool, but I think his words are also quite important. Here they are.

"... To have this moment. It just feels so amazing. Obviously, my family believes in me. I have the best caddie. He's been loyal to me for a long time, through a lot of down times, too. I'm so thankful. I'm so thankful for my wife. She makes this all possible.

"Life is hard.

"It's obviously glamorous at times like this. This is my dream job, and it's absolutely amazing. But life is really, really hard, too. When you're trying to figure out how to live this lifestyle and have two kids and be everything you want to be, it's really hard.

"My wife has been an absolute rock through all of it. She's amazing. ... my family is amazing. It just feels so good.

“It feels so good."

Everything for the last two years has been looked at through the lens of "what is the most economically advantageous situation no matter the cost?" instead of "where best (and how best) can I and others thrive as human beings?”¹

Money doesn't solve most of our problems, no matter how badly we want that to not be true. It’s the human condition.

Life is hard.

Making even terrible Tour money makes it more comfortable but not much easier. Money doesn’t make our kids turn out OK or improve our relationships or make us content, though I kind of feel like the rhetoric of late has implied that it will.

To capture a moment like this and realize how meaningful it is as a respite from the difficulty of life is incredible. So often over the last few years (for a variety of reasons) we have seen players speak shamefully about the choices they’ve made.

This? This was pure pride. Pride in engaging the difficulty. Pride in doing your best. Pride in remembering that there are much more important things than success in golf (and the money that comes with it), even though it’s sometimes actually success in golf that helps remind us of that very truth.²

Follow up — Someone who used to represent Malnati responded on Twitter, and I thought it was worth posting here.

By the Numbies

0 — That’s the number of times Scottie Scheffler has shot worse than 71 so far in competitive rounds in 2024 (out of 27).

22 — That’s the number of feet of putts made (shout out Big Randy) by Justin Thomas in the third round last week. Count the feet of putts you make next time you play. Just estimate it. You almost cannot get it to add up to less than 25. That’s impossible.

Normal Sport

I got a tweet the other day that I thought summed up Normal Sport better than I have ever summed it up: The dry wit and breaking down of things I never really thought odd at the time but after your review, I alway say to myself, “dang, that was crazy/hilarious/nuts/sick/wacko.”

Here are this week’s normal moments.

1. I was on a conference call with the No. 3 player in the world last week. The following phrases were used. I am quoting directly here.

• “We have Gernika peppers”

• “an anchovy skewer with more peppers and olives”

• “I guess is spicy Basque chorizo”

• “it's breaded creamy chicken fritters”

• “It's just scrambled eggs with mushrooms but not really mushrooms”

• “a ribeye that is seared on basically a regular grill with a bit of coal”

• “basically a puff pastry with custard and just very little layers”

Normal sport.

2. This absolutely got me. I howled. I could not be more in the center of this Venn diagram.

3. Spieth was caught on camera saying that he did not want to play this shot left-handed right right before playing it left-handed, which, brother, I just think we have enough evidence to the contrary that I have a difficult time believing you when you say that you do not want to do crazy things.

4. I don’t know why, but this gentleman standing 2 feet from Cam Young and staring straight at him the whole time while Young is trying to figure out his yardage was hilarious to me. Like Justin Verlander trying to get a sign from his catcher but with a fan standing between him and the catcher!

5. “We have this in red and white as well, but you seem more like a convertible guy. Let me show you some of the hard-shell coupes we have in the back …”

6. Speaking of cars, I hope Padraig drives this everywhere. Oh, there’s a three-time major winner pulling up to Target in his mini Aston Martin. Also, this is crazy! Can you imagine Ja’Marr Chase rolling around Heinz field in a Mini Cooper after beating the Steelers in a playoff game?!

7. Normal thought.

Quote of the Week

"I think that's why I love golf so much, just because I'm always working to try and get a little bit better at a time. I'm never going to solve the puzzle, but getting in there, putting in the work, is kind of what I enjoy about it."

-Scottie Scheffler

This is true of most pros. It’s not a crazy thing to hear a pro say. Scottie seems to mean it, though. He seems to love practice in a way that I’m not sure you can learn to love practice.

It shows.

We’ve talked about all the insane numbers that show just how much better he is than everyone else right now. I found a new one.

Here it is.

Total SG per round in 2024 for players in this week’s Houston Open field.

1. Scheffler 3.23
2. Clark: 2.15
3. Theegala: 1.86
4. Scheffler (on approach shots only): 1.54
5. Kim: 1.51
6. Day: 1.41
7. Zalatoris: 1.38
8. Hoge: 1.31
9. Noren: 1.30
10. Ghim: 1.16
11. Scheffler (off the tee only): 1.08
12. Hossler: 1.06

If you were only allowed to look at Scottie’s iron play, he would be the fourth best player in the field behind himself, Wyndham and Sahith. Come on.

Idea of the Week

I am actually way in on the idea Matt Painter proposed here that content creators should have to take a test about the thing they are covering. But the flip side is also true. The subjects they cover should have to take a test about creating content and the unwritten rules of journalism.

I’m being serious! There is so much about golf that I didn’t know when I jumped into this job. There’s so much I still don’t know. So much. Example: I used the term “dunking one” about a shot Keith Mitchell hit last week. I realized after I wrote that that I’m not positive if “dunking one” means the ball goes in the hole on the fly or if you can still use it on one or two hops.

I word things incorrectly all the time, use phrases that don’t mean what I think they mean and, because I didn’t play golf at a high level, must rely on what I imagine things are like instead of what I have experienced them to be.

I just think something like this — if done the right way³ — would benefit all of us.

It would build trust.

It takes players a long time of seeing you speak their language and make interesting content before they trust you. This would help speed up the process. It wouldn’t solve everything, but it would speed it up.

Some of you know this, but I used to cover Oklahoma State football and hoops. Built a business and sold it several years ago. I had a number of clashes with Mike Gundy during that time. He didn’t like what we did. And my first instinct was to say This dude is an idiot, whatever, but I think that was unfair. I think the truth is he just didn’t understand what we did. Didn’t really understand how the internet works and so he was fearful of it (rightfully so!).

Some sort of test like this would help both sides understand each other better better and trust one another more.

The Infirmary

I received this email last week. Incredible stuff.

I had a dream last night that Adam Long went to LIV. This is the only thing I remember from the dream. I have a vivid image of Adam Long in my dream wearing a LIV hat with his MLB logo still on his golf shirt.

I don't know what is wrong with me. Thank you for providing an outlet where I feel like I can tell somebody about this incredibly stupid dream. Love your stuff and reading the newsletter each week. I will keep you updated if the Schlong or any other middling pro golfers go to LIV in my dreams.

Thanks.

-Ean S.

Honorable mention: This guy responding to the Shotgun Start boys and calmly using the phrase "saw a dude with the Bryson chocolate beaker hat this weekend!” as if it’s the most normal thing in the world (which, I guess to some of us, it is).

What a strange, strange world.

Meme of the Week

Use wisely.

Overheard on Twitter

I loved this. It doesn’t really apply to golf, but it applies to so many other things in life.

“PIMCO had a theory called ‘strategic mediocrity.’ Never being No. 1 in a given year but outlasting everyone so you eventually come out on top.”

-Morgan Housel

Crooked Golf Media

👉️ This Rachel Heck essay about why she’s not turning pro is, as my friend Jordan pointed out, rather beautiful.

KVV nailed it right here.

👉️ This on why Holderness and Bourne is successful is excellent.

👉️ These old photos of ANGC are wild.

👉️ Very much enjoyed this on Nick Saban and retirement. Hilarious story in there about his daughter explaining to him who Travis Scott is after Saban played golf with him.

👉️ A total of 1,000,000 juniors started playing golf over the last five years? Let’s go!

👉️ This on two Tampa Bay Rays who do the crossword puzzle every day is excellent. I was especially compelled by this part.

Probably not a lot of major leagues reading to their kids every night.

👉️ This story on a guy who lives near me in Dallas and tried to buy English soccer club, Derby — currently in the top three in League One, which is two leagues back of the Premier League⁴ — is wild.

He ran a company that sponsored a Euro Tour event and has played golf with Rory, Tiger and Yasir (not all at the same time!).

Now? He’s going to prison.

👉️ Here’s how the following exchange went. My friend Dylan — you may have seen him on a Netflix golf show — sent me this lovely article about alternative school that he thought I would enjoy (and I did!).

Sickos that we are, I responded to him that King Charles — who went to the school as a kid, and was photographed there, a photo that was used in the article (see below) — looks a little like Matt Fitzpatrick.

And of course Dylan responded that this is actually a photo of Ernie Els, Charles Howell III and Matt Fitzpatrick at boarding school.

👉️ How Andrew Wilkinson built an empire that includes Aeropress, Dribbble and MetaLab.

How is This App Free?

• 😏😏😏😏😏 

• This was so good.

• I have been there.

Love Your Work

I saw this quote the other day and immediately identified with it.

For … a lot of reasons, everyone just copies everyone else. If you’re starting a pod about basketball, most people try to make it like Simmons. If you’re writing a book about psychology (or anything in that realm), most people try to make it like Gladwell. If you’re making videos for young people, most people try to make them like Mr. Beast.

But those people are successful in part because they are different and they owned that. They owned it. They took bits and pieces and did things with them that had not been done before. They are not facsimiles. The ingredients they use are not new, but the recipes are.

That’s why people are drawn to them.

It reminded me of another quote I heard recently from Tim Urban, who built the website Wait But Why.

I find both of these to be true at different times, and maybe especially No. 1.

To close the loop on the intro to this newsletter, the difficult part is not the flowing but the finding of the flow. Meandering through all the brush and weeds to jump in the stream. That’s the emotionally and mentally taxing part. Once you find the stream and get in?

It usually just feels like floating.

Thanks for reading until the end.

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