Edition No. 42 | December 1, 2023

Hey,

Normal Sport 3 is done.

That feels good to type. I have not kept up with this newsletter because we have been laboring to get that project across the finish line.

I put it together quite a bit differently than I have in the past. Essentially, I just wrote down 250+ of my thoughts, ideas and takes on golf this year and formatted them into a book. If you like my Twitter feed, you’ll love the book.

And the illustrations from Jason Page are once again marvelous. I included a couple of them below.

We plan to launch the book on December 12 and will have digital, audio and physical book options. One thing that would help us is if you would participate in the poll below indicating your interest in each (or none!) of these options. If you have feedback or questions, feel free to just hit reply and email me back.

Note: If you buy the audio, you’ll receive the digital book. If you buy the physical book, you’ll receive the audio and the digital book.

Question of the Week

The newsletter is mostly just a few snippets and illustrations from the book, which we hope will fire you up to buy it when it’s ready.

But first!

A reminder that we have a newsletter sponsor. Frame Coffee is giving away multiple free 12-month coffee subscriptions to our readers. To be eligible to win, leave a comment on this tweet and refer at least three new people to the newsletter after November 1.

We’ll keep track of how many folks you referred so you don’t have to. I’m doubtful that thousands of people will all refer at least three others (though that would be great!) so if you do hit the three-person benchmark, your odds of winning great free coffee for 12 months are going to be pretty good.

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Onto the news.

One Thing I Think

I have been thinking a lot the Jon Rahm situation over the last week or so. Obviously, the smoke about him signing with LIV is billowing more than it has in the past. It’s not just the LIV Boys on Twitter, either. There is real chatter from folks who have no incentive to stir up the chatter that he is gone.

I presume we will find out soon whether all of this is true or not true, but that’s not what I’ve been thinking about.

The thing that I’ve been thinking about is why. Why would Jon Rahm go back on his word and his principles and, more or less, everything he has been adamant about over the last two years.

I don’t believe it’s because of money. Perhaps that makes me the fool here, but I truly believe Rahm is among the few who are not swayed by numbers.

What I do think is that Rahm is not a huge fan of the Tiger-Rory-JT PGA Tour cabal and that any decision to break away from the Tour would be informed by his annoyance of how he is perceived in light of that group.

That is not to say that Rahm dislikes those guys. In fact, in Paul Kimmage’s recent Rory-Lowry interview, Lowry told a story about how Rahm said to him during or shortly after the Ryder Cup, “Rory is some teammate, isn’t he? He’s the best.”

I do think he dislikes the fact that he is sometimes not recognized as being their equal.

There was a fascinating moment during the winning European press conference at the end of the Ryder Cup this year when Rahm got a question after Rory got, like, the first seven. Rahm kind of scoffed and hrrrumphed as if to say, Finally, I get to talk. Rory is very aware of this dynamic, at one point in the presser, saying, “Only the best player in the world” indicating that Rahm should have been asked more questions.

It’s a fascinating thing that seems small to us but might be big to Rahm. I don’t know that it’s a reason to burn it all down like Rahm would be doing, but when you consider the why, the incentive, the reason, it’s something to keep in mind.

On the other side: I don’t understand the timing from LIV. The PIF is trying to invest $1 billion into the PGA Tour … whose product they are going to weaken by giving one of its top assets $300 million (or whatever)? The only way I can reason this is if the PIF is either 1. Trying to get the Tour back to the negotiating table or 2. Saying, That $1 billion meant we were going to take 22 percent of your organization before Rahm left but now we’re taking 26 percent.

Regardless, split tours makes zero sense to me for any of the parties involved (PIF, PGA Tour, anybody). And thus, it’s odd timing on LIV’s part.

Again, none of this may be true. This time is certainly different than the previous “No, really, trust us, Rahm is GONE” times, but it may turn out only to have been more smoke and no fire in the end.

Normal Sport 3

Thought No. 40 from Normal Sport 3 …

During the Phoenix Open, CBS’ cameras and microphones caught an incredible interaction between Tom Kim and caddie Joe Skovron in which Skovron talked him out of a 5 iron and into a 6 iron that he hit to about 4 feet. It included a bit of what I wrote about earlier in that it was the nerdiest imaginable conversation that was also completely engrossing. There were no jokes. There was no cursing. There was no trash talk. Just 1 minute, 42 seconds of “it’s 17 pin, short is good, probably too much there, I think held off 5 or stock 6, you’re trying to land it 12 but if you land it 7 that’s fine too.” If you showed the transcript to a normal human being, they would need Google Translate to make heads or tails, but it’s everything any golf fan could ever ask for in terms of an interaction.

My question: Why? Why do golf fans – the sickest among us – crave this type of content? There are probably a dozen answers to that question, but ultimately I believe it’s the relatability of it. We’ve all had a 217 shot, and we’ve all had to think through at least a few of the snippets Skovron and Kim spoke about. This is going to sound preposterous, but I think if you watched two engineers get steep on their craft and talk deeply about their process, it would be compelling to an engineer and maybe even a bit to one who is not. This is the advantage that golf has and should lean into – we are all golfers! Not all football, baseball and basketball fans are football, basketball and baseball players – in fact, probably very few ever were and almost none still are. But nearly everyone who watches golf has been, is or will be a golfer, which means that we should be fed as many of those interactions as humanly possible.

When people get frustrated about, for example, animal content from the PGA Tour, I think this is the place that frustration stems from. I’m not a wildlife conservationist! I want players chopping it up about cut 4 irons and how they play when the wind is quartering, especially in the context of an event I’m watching. Not more foxes and alligators. I think some people believe foxes and alligators bring in more people, but the goal of any business should never be more people at the expense of the quality ones you already have.

I’m delighted to announce that the rest of my deck on customer acquisition will be delivered via email.

Normal Sport 3

Thought No. 138 from Normal Sport 3 …

Hovland won Memorial, tried to roast Jack Nicklaus with an “I went to the real OSU” joke, botched it, laughed about how nobody in Norway knows who Jack is, and then the next day caddied for his old Cowboy teammate, Zach Bauchou, over 36 holes in a U.S. Open qualifier.

There are better professional athletes. There are more likable professional athletes. I don’t know if there is a combination of those two that can match Hovland. He is the – I don’t know how to say this the right way – best most likable athlete in the world.