Edition No. 79 | May 1, 2024

Hey,

I was off on Sunday and had been looking forward to it. So much golf over the last few months and so little time to do much of anything else on the weekend either for myself or with my fam.

So where did I find myself by 5 p.m. that day? On the range with my AirPods in, working on a new driver feel, listening to the end of the Zurich Classic.

Of course.

If you can relate, you’re at the right newsletter.

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Onto the news.

One Thing Three Things I Loved

I had three quick things about Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry from New Orleans last weekend.

1. After Rory and Lowry downed [double triple checks notes] Chad Ramey and Martin Trainer in a playoff, the duo engaged in all manner of giggling antics that two good friends of any age or gender should engage in.

Then they stepped to the microphone, and Rory delivered what he always delivers: gratitude and perspective.

“Yeah, it's amazing. The fans and the atmosphere all week has been incredible. People have come out in the thousands to support us. It's not lost on me how cool that is. Every time I get to play in front of thousands of people, the little boy in me just thinks it's so cool and so exciting.”

Rory always seems appropriately in awe that he became Rory.¹ He seems almost taken aback at times — not all the time, but sometimes — that he, of all the other potential candidates — is the recipient of the gifts, the wealth, the fame, this life, all of it. You’ll hear bits and pieces of it trickle out in quotes or the way he handles or discusses different situations.

The first thing to leave the handful of boys whose dreams turn out to be real is the ability to relate. When everything you touch seemingly turns to gold, it is difficult to view yourself differently than how you probably believe most people view you: as a walking transaction. Whether it’s an agency looking for a whale, a business looking to supercharge their product, a journalist looking for a quote …..

…… or a fan looking for an autograph, everybody wants something from Rory.

How difficult it must be to preserve your own humanity.

And yet. And yet, that preservation of his humanity and the self-awareness to interpret his own dream even as he lives it, well, it is perhaps my favorite thing about Rory. Because he has gotten to a place in his life where he understands, accepts and has internalized this truth: At the end of the day, we’re all just boys and girls with dreams who at some point got older.

Most of those dreams fell away, or people like Rory put a dagger in them.² The tie that binds, though, is that we are all still human beings who have pains, joys, fears, delights, sorrows and triumphs. It sounds like a basic, fundamental thing to understand. I’m constantly surprised at how many people forget it.

2. I, like everyone, was taken by the clear love Lowry and Rory have for one another. I once asked Rory about his closest relationship on Tour, and didn’t think about it for more than .01 seconds.

And in the same way that it seems like Rory is amused by his own success, I think Rory and Shane together can’t believe they somehow both made it all the way from weekends at Carton House in Ireland to … all of this.

I thought of the great interview Paul Kimmage did with them together from the Irish Independent last fall. It’s worth the $4 to subscribe to the publication for a month just to read the interview (I just did so for a second time, and I hope all $8 of my dollars go to Kimmage).

Here’s one snippet from it.

Update: He didn’t.

One of my favorite things right now is coaching my son’s baseball team. It’s him and all his buddies playing 10-year-old ball, wearing those ridiculous wraparound shades and trying to be Corey Seager or Elly De La Cruz. The other day, I told my buddy who I coach with: Growing up playing ball with your best friends in the neighborhood … what in the world could be better than that?

Rory and Shane are still doing that 25 years later.

Here’s what I wrote in Normal Sport 2 about their journey and their friendship. It still applies to a pair of Open champs and, now, a pair of Ryder Cup winners together.

Probably even more so.

You remember the moment.

3. Don’t stop Believin’ … really? That was the song Rory belted three weeks before returning to the site of last major championship, which is now 10 years in the rearview?

Come on.

At least make it mildly difficult on us sportswriters!

Two things to add to a video you surely have seen by now.

1. Nothing is more vulnerable than doing karaoke in front of that many people, and he totally leans into it. Emblematic.

2. This resonates.

Normal Sport

Here are this week’s normal moments.

1. This ridiculous moment actually reminded me of the first tee at that first LIV London event two years ago. Remember that?? Also, that guy in the front, one follower asked me, is that … Aaron Rodgers?

2. I mentioned Russ Cochran, who is 65 (!), last week in this space. He nearly made the cut alongside Eric Cole. My buddy Brendan Porath had an all-time rant about this in a Shotgun Start episode last week (like, all time all time) in which he was screaming about Bob Charles and the 1963 open.

And then the clip got turned into a bit of outrage (perhaps feigned?!) on PGA Tour Live (see below). The entire thing was amazing.

The disdain with which the word “pod casts” is said in this clip is palpable! Also, there are a couple of pod casters getting two a side that I think I would take against a 65-year-old Russ Cochran!

3. This gentleman picking up a poofy Brandt Snedeker iron shot on one hop and looking like he was going to turn two had me howling. So hilarious. Imagine wandering onto a football field and picking up a live ball with T.J. Watt barreling toward you!

Also, maybe the best part is the severe overreaction by the broadcaster, a reaction reserved for, idk, 360-ing a 2-footer on the last hole of the U.S. Open to win your first major, not having somebody touch a ball you hit in the middle of a 40th place finish at the Zurich Classic.

4. Gators on the tee box has become pretty standard, run-of-the-mill normal sport fare at this point.

Data Golf Corner

Since January 1, 2022 here are your top two in the following categories.

This is wild. They have (pretty easily?) been the two best overall and also major championship golfers of the last 2+ years.

Nobody deserves anything in golf obviously, but boy — after sitting through month after month after month of discussion about which executives will occupy seats on the board of a new company that nobody actually understands — I do feel like we kinda deserve Rory vs. Scottie at Valhalla, Pinehurst or Troon.

The Infirmary

Imagine seeing this screen grab of T-Mac at an NBA playoff game, and your first thought is not about how T-Mac was one of the most complete young players in NBA history, how he was traded to the Rockets for Stevie Franchise, how his inability to get out of the first round affected his legacy or about his role in that dunk contest (you know the one) but rather your first thought is about …….. Live From.

Insane, truly insane stuff.

Also, should we check on whether T-Mac could serve as a reliever for Johnson Wagner on Live From if needed at some point? In researching this part of the newsletter (yes, I researched this part of the newsletter) I learned that T-Mac once got innings for the Sugarland Skeeters!

Crooked Golf Media

👉️ Joseph LaMagna on slow play was excellent. This part is tough to read but also … true.

👉️ Wait, so representatives from the PGA Tour, European Tour and PIF haven’t even … been in the same room together since the framework deal last June 6?

👉️ I enjoyed these thoughts on the LIV event from my good pal, ANGC Burner. Not all negative!

👉️ This thread on what is the best sentence or paragraph you’ve ever come across is awesome. Here’s mine. It’s by Andrew Peterson from a book called Adorning the Dark. Man, I love it so much.

Overheard on Twitter

“Remembering that, at least at work, you're not doing the other party any favors by being vague, soft, or obtuse. Radical candor nailed this with the concept of ruinous empathy. Being honest and direct is a gift to the other side.” -DHH

A Mea Culpa

This is extremely embarrassing, but while doing research on the 25/4 club (which Rory joined on Sunday) — that’s 25 PGA Tour wins and four majors, which we will discuss more in Friday’s newsletter — I realized that I left Sam Snead out of a couple of clubs in Normal Sport 3, which I published last December.

Here’s how it looked in the book when I was discussing Rory’s ceiling.

Snead had 82 and 7!

And I somehow didn’t include him here either.

[Raises hand] that’s egregious, especially when the club is only five players wide.

How is This App Free?

• This made me laugh.

• Very.

• The Falcons war room was in shambles after the Michael Penix Jr. decision.

Love Your Work

If you appreciate craft, you should read this paragraph on bike shops and the choices that they make.

My summary: We have traded delighting in a craft for reverse engineering the life algorithm because one pays better, and we pretend like that’s a fair and equal tradeoff.

The rant above reminded me (encouraged me) to build what you want to build. To, as Paul Graham points out in his essay on work, follow the curiosity.

Unfortunately for my wife but perhaps fortunately for you, reader of this newsletter, my answer to “what are you excessively curious about"?” right now involves driving range pool noodles, major championship xWins and all the Ryder Cup theories my brain can handle.

Thanks for reading until the end.

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