Edition No. 81 | May 7, 2024

Hey,

Time to gird yourselves.

For Scottie’s run at the slam?

No.

For Rory’s return to Valhalla?

Nope.

For Brooks’ sixth?

Why then?

We’re a week away from Blockie SZN.

Onto the news.

One Thing I Loved

Brooks Koepka gave a quote last weekend after he won LIV Singapore that’s been rattling around in my head ever since.

He was asked about why he’s so capable of winning major championships, what sets him apart from everyone else.

“I think I'm a good ball striker,” he said.

Obviously.

“I'm pretty good inside eight feet I feel like.”

Of course.

“Normally when there's a clutch putt, I feel like I do make it.”

It does feel that way.

…

“But I think the big thing that kind of separates me is my ability to lock in and go someplace where I think a lot of guys can't go.”

The quote is just specific enough that it makes sense and just vague enough that it doesn’t. As someone who consumes and is around a ton of golf, I think I understand what he’s saying. But as someone who has never played within four standard deviations of that level of golf, I also might not.

Brooks seems to have the same superpower Scottie (of all people) has, even if they summon it in very different ways. It’s this ability to thrive mentally and emotionally in the middle of the chaos. To — when the storm of a major championship starts rolling in, and it always rolls in — not even remain unchanged but to somehow elevate, to make better decisions to become more clearheaded.

That is an extraordinary gift that so few can muster.

It can also take so much out of you, which — as I hypothesized in an article for CBS Sports this week — is perhaps one reason why Brooks fades away in the non majors.

Anyway, the quote from Brooks actually reminded me of the first few lines of the Rudyard Kipling poem, If: 

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, 

But as I read through the entire poem, it actually reminded me more and more of Scottie (not Brooks) in so many different ways. You can read it here.

I decided a brief major championship rewrite of If might go a bit like this.

If you can keep your head when all about you   
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you, 
If you can find greens and discipline and wise choices
You will win a major every year and maybe two

If you can dream of Opens and the Masters;   
   If you can think—but not make thoughts your aim;   
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;   
If you can bear to hear of who is leading
    Twisting birdies and eagle bids for days
And stay the course with your own shots and game
    Worry not what others may be doing, and then a trophy you will raise¹

One Thing I Didn’t Love

Ewan Murray of the Guardian has been all over this “Rory returning to the PGA Tour board” story, which, it turns out, has become a bit of a mess.

Rory is still (?) not back on the board because certain people in power are apparently trying to keep it from happening.

This is from Murray’s story at the end of last week.

I am led, by this article, to believe that basically Rory wants a world tour with PIF money, and other players on the board (and perhaps other management on the board) very much do not want that.

Listen, is a world tour funded by the Saudi regime an idealistic state for professional golf? No. But also, how many times do we need to watch a lesser-funded organization attempt to take on the PIF and how many Jon Rahms does the PIF have to sign before the Tour and its leadership understands what is happening here?

The best outcome to all of this is obviously (?) a world tour with everybody back in the mix. As I wrote last week, I’m dubious that enough people will get on the same page to make this world tour happen, but that seems to be Rory’s agenda.

The worst outcome to all of this is a slow, methodical bleed where the PIF takes two guys every seven months and you look up at the 2027 Memorial and it’s Spieth, Cantlay, a couple of YouTubers and five guys from the Outlaw Tour playing in the final few groups with Tiger looking on and applauding.

I don’t know all the details around why Rory left the board to begin with, and I’m sure that plays into some of this. But to box him out because Tiger and others think it should be dug out of the dirt seems — and I’m trying to give the benefit of the doubt here — short-sighted at best.

One Thing I Believe

This question was proposed to me last week: Do you think it’s ok that golf journalists so openly root for their favored guys?

This is something I have strong convictions about, and it goes back to a lot of time spent listening to the Dan Patrick Show.

At our old house, nearly 10 years ago now, I built my own backyard office. Alongside friends, I poured the piers, built the floor, set the studs and filled it all in. It was about 150 square feet, and — for a flailing amateur — not that bad of a job. Here’s a photo.

Anyway, the point is not that I built a backyard office. The point is that while I was building this office, I listened to a ton of the Dan Patrick Show.

DP always used to talk about — almost brag about — how he didn’t play favorites, didn’t root for anybody. This is emblematic of his generation of sportswriters and content creators.

I always found this to be … kind of silly.

Nobody is objective. Nobody. Everybody who is even moderately invested in a sport or a business or the arts or anything at all has favorites. Why not disclose these favorites like you would, when you start a new job, disclose a business you own or a person at the company you have a relationship with?

At least then, it is a lens through which your work can be viewed.

This isn’t to condone fist pumping and hollering for your guys and rooting against guys who are not your guys. I think that’s sort of dumb and unprofessional. But the irony is that the people who believe most deeply that sportswriters should be completely objective are most often the biggest perpetrators of crossing that invisible line!

My allegiances are well known. If Scottie, Spieth and Rory won every major for the next 10 years, I would be delighted. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to give you anything but my best on Brooks, Phil or Morikawa (or Blockie!) if they happen to take a handful.

I think a good example of this is the piece I wrote on Phil on Saturday night at Kiawah. Did I want Spieth to shoot 52 that Sunday at the PGA and win his slam? Of course. But more than I wanted that, I wanted to be the best golf writer in the world and to write the best thing I could write on Phil.

I think as long as that desire supersedes my rooting interests, then it is fine. I know there is a flip side to this and a good argument against it, but I find when people try to be completely objective in their coverage, they don’t come off as very human. It is a very human thing to root for some people more than others. We all do it, and as long as it is at least somewhat disclosed, why should sportswriters be any different?

I remember a response to a tweet before the Ryder Cup last year about how I found myself thinking everybody was going to go 3-0-0. Somebody said, “Yeah, that’s because you’re a fan and not an analyst.” This person meant it as an insult, but it very much was not. Yes, I am a fan! And I hope that comes through in my writing.

By the Numbies

This from Joseph LaMagna knocked me off my feet.

Brooks has more than twice as many top 2s at majors as the next best golfer since 2017?

Normal Sport

Here are this week’s normal moments.

1. We got some non-golf normal sport moments this week, including this gem from the Diamondbacks game, which culminated in a beekeeper having the moment of his life.

2. I made this stupid joke on twitter, and somebody responded by saying that he had just walked past a Masters winner in the screenshot. Got me good.

3. Taylor Pendrith trying to get lift clean and place on the 71st hole last week was hilarious. Why? Well because he was on a par 3 and his tee shot came up short. So he was trying to technically argue that he was in the fairway (of a par 3!), which would have worked except that his ball was not touching the fairway at all but 100 percent in the rough. Normal stuff.

4. I could use a supercut of all the LIV first tee celebrations. Would watch.

The Infirmary

A fun infirmary-off would be to see who could find the most outrageous Wikipedia page. Todd Hamilton’s is up there.

Crooked Golf Media

👉️ This Geoff Shackelford interview with Rory on the 2014 PGA is really good. Geoff is good at really spotlighting specific moments in time. I struggle with this. I always want to go big picture and get existential. Geoff is like, no, let’s look at this seven-hole stretch. Anyway, the interview is good.

Here’s a quote I could do 8,000 words on.

Also, this was probably the best miss of Rory’s career. A miss that somehow resulted in eagle and greatly affected the legacies of three of the most popular players of the last 20 years.

👉️ You guys know I’ve been screaming about the LeBron-JJ Redick pod. This is why: Bron drawing up inbounds plays while JJ sketches them on a whiteboard, and then both of them discussing why Bron is making the choices he’s making and then showing examples from different teams they’ve seen of this. So cool.

👉️ This from John Nucci on Tiger’s brand is excellent. Reeks of too many cooks in the kitchen.

👉️ Send this from Porath straight to the history books. It will be the simplest and best way to explain to people what in the world was happening during this period of men’s professional golf.

Overheard on Twitter

"I can fix the $32 trillion US debt problem in 5 minutes. You pass a law that when there’s a deficit of more than 3% of GDP, all sitting members congress are ineligible for re-election” - Warren Buffett (via George Mack on incentives)

How is This App Free?

• These made me laugh.

• So did this.

• Weeks, maybe.

• Annually, one of my favorites.

Love Your Work

If you are online at all, you should read through the below exchange. TL;DR — The Hustle newsletter used to have a humorous unsubscribe page in which they tried to get you to not unsubscribe. The point of it was not that it kept people from unsubscribing (although maybe it did) as much as it was that it implied what Chad Kettner said below: That this is what happens when everybody is inspired toward making every touch point meaningful.

We have a saying at Normal Sport called EEE. It stands for Easter Eggs Everywhere. They are there, everywhere you look. Partly, because we are amused by them and Jason and I try to surprise and delight one another with them. But also because we care about “making every touch point meaningful.”

Why build something if you don’t?

Thanks for reading until the end.

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