Edition No. 60 | February 28, 2024

Hey,

If this your first time receiving the Normal Sporter, welcome to our world. There have been a lot of new readers added over the last few days, and if your question is, Does the Normal Sporter usually cover ridiculous fodder like what Talor Gooch said about Rory McIlroy and the Masters? I would answer, No, it’s normally even more absurd than this.

Onto the news.

The Asterisk

In case you somehow missed it on Tuesday, Talor Gooch said this about Rory McIlroy and the 2024 Masters.

“If Rory McIlroy goes and completes his [career] grand slam without some of the best players in the world, there’s just going to be an asterisk. It’s just the reality. I think everybody wins whenever the majors figure out a way to get the best players in the world there.”

It’s an all-time take from potentially an all-time takesmith. The absolute premium stuff. And we’ve now gotten three generational takes from Gooch in the last two years.

And in possibly the upset of the year, I actually think it’s a point that’s kind of … fair.

Here are the thoughts I was going to include in our Tuesday newsletter, but as you can see, they got a little out of hand and I had to give the whole thing its own special edition.

1. There are double-digit LIV players invited to the Masters, and Gooch is probably the best player not invited so you’re basically personally asterisk-ing Rory’s potential slam, which is — I cannot possibly emphasize this enough — SICK.

2. The Masters just invited another LIV player — Joaquin Niemann — for what he did on the DP World Tour in December at events where Gooch also could have played (I know Gooch and his wife just had a baby, which complicates this).

3. The only path to the Masters for non-PGA Tour players is to get inside the top 50 in the OWGR either at the end of the previous year or in the weeks leading into the Masters.

I’m not positive this is a good thing, and I don’t know that the Masters (or any major championship) should use OWGR any longer. I personally don’t use it as often when I’m doing research or writing.

Here’s what I said last week in our Friday newsletter.

If majors want to remain above the PGA Tour-LIV fray, I think they could reasonably replace the OWGR with, say, the Data Golf top 50 and achieve their aim, which is to have the best fields of the best golfers in the world.

4. Gooch ranks in the top 50 at Data Golf (which counts LIV events), and he should rank in the top 50 because he’s been playing great. He’s the only LIV golfer in the top 50 who is also not in the Masters. The PGA Tour (!!), however, has three players who are in the Data Golf top 50 but not in the Masters and likely won’t qualify via the OWGR. So, you know, maybe this stuff just isn’t all that fair sometimes and maybe not everything is a personal grievance.

A place that I have landed in considering all of this: No matter what ranking system or invite list you use, somebody is going to think it’s unfair.

5. And really, maybe it’s never been completely fair.

6. On one hand, if the Masters added a “top five on the LIV money list from previous year are eligible” criteria, I’d be fine with it. I think that would maybe marginally improve its field. Though, I would also want a top X from the Euro Tour, Asian Tour and a variety of others.

7. On the other hand … I don’t really feel bad for LIV golfers who signed up without the assurance of OWGR points because, as always …

8. Masters officials are in an interesting spot. They have a seat at the OWGR table but also put together their own tournament (which is affected by the OWGR). Is there a world in which they could (correctly) box LIV out of the OWGR because it does not fit the criteria (no matter what Bryson tries to tell you) and also invite LIV players because it’s a reasonable way to put together a great field? Why does golf feel like astrophysics right now?

9. Will all of this be moot when the Tour and LIV merge?

10. Will the Tour and LIV merge?

11. This is something that doesn’t seem like a problem because … it’s Talor Gooch, but it will be a problem in five years when Bryson DeChambeau and Patrick Reed own half of Aramco after winning 38 straight events over Brooks Koepka, Dustin Johnson and Jon Rahm but can’t play in the Masters.

12. Right now Wyndham Clark is No. 41 in the Data Golf rankings. Talor Gooch is No. 40. Clark is someone who is (obviously) completely capable of winning the Masters. So again, I think Gooch is coming from a fairly reasonable position, and I want to be on his side at least a little bit here.

13. However, you can’t say that a Rory slam gets an asterisk because you’re not there! Again, your point is not unreasonable, my man, but you make it impossible to evaluate because you frame it in such a ridiculous way.

14. How much different would this feel if five-time major winner Brooks Koepka took a reasonable public stance regarding Masters qualification? Like it or not, major wins beget power, and Gooch is working off a tank on E.

15. My favorite part of the Gooch take is how matter of fact he was. It’s just the reality. Like everyone thinks this.

16. This is what grace looks like.

Best of Twitter

There were some gems on Tuesday. Here are a few if you missed them.