I have been waiting for this tweet for four years. When I finally gave up on trying to predict what would happen, it finally arrived.
And of course, the jokes were off the charts.
And it is now official.
I’m calling it.
LIV Golf …
More on LIV’s ending below along with some unintended … benefits (?) for former players.
Name drops today: Big Timi, Ralph Guldahl, Davis Lamb, the coefficient of friction, the NYT crossword and 1980s Euro Tour.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Cobra.
And while this is not what I’ll be talking about today, I’m grateful to all of our sponsors for the support we have from them, which allows us to work on side projects during downtime in the fall (see Cobra image below). That is a huge gift.
What I do want to talk about today is the Cobra OPTM driver, which may cause either highly addictive accuracy or dangerous levels of stability … or possibly even both.
I chuckle at the highly addictive accuracy thing because it leads me to thinking about what an alien would say I’m addicted to in my game …
• Swinging as hard as humanly possible.
• Digging the edge into the ground from 30 yards and in.
• Leaving putts 15 feet short.
Aspirationally, though, I am looking for a way to be highly addicted to a more accurate off-the-tee game, though, and the OPTM driver is my weapon of choice to get there.
You can (and should) check it out right here.
And now, onto the news.
1. As many of you know, I have recently been getting steep on a history of golf project. Like Viktor downswing steep. Anyway, because of this, I have been viewing the LIV news through a bit of a different lens than I maybe normally would.
What’s maybe most interesting to me is that in 50 (or probably even 10) years, people will view LIV Golf as this little blip in the professional golf world — a literal footnote in media guides and on Wikipedia — and completely forget (or not even understand to begin with) how much it shaped the rest of the golf world.
Twitter will be amusing for the next few weeks. There will be (and are) real questions about Bryson’s future. But the downstream effects of LIV will also be felt for decades.
Which is wild to think about now because in decades, most people won’t connect the dots between Phil Mickelson’s NFT fascination and the fact that Miles Russell and Jackson Koivun are playing 36 holes of match play at Sand Valley for $10 million in August of 2037.
[Jason here] All of this has me looking at the early days of Normal Sport thinking, "What an interesting time to start illustrating golf.”
2. The through line of LIV for me is arrogance. This lack of understanding that you cannot microwave history just by throwing money and names at projects. The amusing part here is that I think LIV legitimately could have become the best golf tour in the world. The PGA Tour was begging to be upended. Begging!
And instead of putting the (ball) frog in the pot of water and slowly boiling it before the frog realizes what’s happening, LIV tried to turn the temperature up to 212 (that’s 100 for those not in the United States) from day one, which is almost always a bad plan.
There are other instances of this pervasive pride.
And for me, that was the easiest thing to sniff out from the very first iteration of this (I cannot believe I’m saying this) now-defunct league.
3. This is easy for Rory — a probable (already?) billionaire — to say, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
You know, there's not as much of an arms race as there was maybe a couple of years ago, and some players will argue that that's not good for players because -- but I think that's very short-term thinking. Like, if you want sustainable tours, and we want these tours object around in 50 years' time, there has to be sustainable business practices in place to make sure they are around in 50 years' time.
Rory McIlroy
LIV kept creating these situations in which what was good for the individuals was bad for the whole, and the fact that it’s gone means that Patrick Cantlay is probably not going to make as much money as he would have — although the damage has mostly already been done on a purse increase standpoint so it will likely be close — but I care very little about how much Patrick Cantlay makes and much more about whether the Western Open (BMW Champ.) is still around in 50 years.
4. The part about LIV ending that I’m most excited about is the reabsorption of Jon Rahm into a real professional golf world. I still believe he’s generationally good, but we’re going to find out if that’s true over the next few years. The other part of LIV ending that I started thinking about came after this quote from Rahm.
As of right now, I really don't know what 2027 is going to look like for me, right. So I have yet to have a discussion with the PGA Tour to see if there's any path back for next year. So I don't know, as of right now. Until I get clarity on that, yeah, my plan would be to spend the year on the DP World Tour, and I'm looking forward to it. Currently looking at the schedule to see how I can organize it to play the events I want to play. You know, maybe have a chance to have a bit of a different year to what I have in the past.
Jon Rahm
What this got me thinking about was whether the Euro Tour was about to make a comeback. What if Rahm just decides to post up there for the next 20 years and Rory kind of does as well, and what if the ultimate outcome of LIV is that it re-strengthened the Euro Tour to its mid-1980s heydays when it was arguably much closer to the PGA Tour as an overall product? How amusing (funny? ironic?) would that be?
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,050 of them) and includes a closer look at the project I’ve been working on, some thoughts on that Rory penalty and something I could use some help on …
5. There was a lot of discourse around Rory’s improved lie at the Abu Dhabi Championship on Thursday. A lot. If you missed it, here’s what happened (and an explanation from Shane Ryan).
Rory’s response was fine and good.
But just by looking at the video, it doesn't look very good. Obviously that wasn't my intent. I'm just trying to get a feel for the lie. The ball is in a sort of bottom of a sandy divot. I'm trying to feel like if I can get a 54-degree, like, onto the back of the ball, but in the process, this piece of grass has sort of laid down, and it doesn't -- you know, the technical -- I guess the technical term for the rule is if you press down on the piece.
I don't feel like I pressed down. But at the same time, I don't want the perception of, like, people thinking like I got away with something either. So I'm happy to take a 2-shot penalty and move on and move into tomorrow.
Rory McIlroy
Of course, people started coming out of the woodwork. Just diving in from all over the yard. Which, whatever. That’s fine. He deserved the penalty. But what I don’t have time for is the “this is who he’s always been!!” crowd.
This — from the 2020 PGA — sounds like a guy who always does this?
Context matters. Benefit of the doubt matters. Who you are matters. How could it not when so much of your very normal sport comes down to intent?
The bigger story, as TC pointed out, is a real tour taking a stance on a rule like this. This type of thing happens a lot, and it’s difficult to judge, but I would love to see this cracked down on across the board. Pro golfers in general are way, way too casual with their activity around the golf ball (normal sport), and I’m here for some real adjudication!
6. I had Davis Lamb on the pod this week, and it was awesome. Davis finished 20th in the KFT standings and narrowly got his PGA Tour card for 2027. We talked about a lot of different things — including his love for the NYT crossword, his struggle with pressure and his quiet, steady rise in the world of pro golf — but my biggest takeaway is how winning a KFT event for some guys is tantamount to winning the Masters.
It’s a good reminder of just how grand and broad the pro golf world is because we (I) tend to get very caught up in the Scotties and Rorys and Tigers. Here’s what he said about his attitude after winning the [checks notes] Club Car Championship.
Like that first we went straight to Sarasota after that. And I was I remember getting on the first tee in Sarasota on Thursday and being like, “My God, I gotta like play again.” There was all sorts of there's all sorts of stuff going on that week, and I was celebrating because, you know, I never expected to win on the Korn Ferry tour.
Like I was just telling you, my whole my whole life has just been like, “Yeah, let's just kinda see what happens this next time and I've always kind of had success that next level.”
Davis Lamb
I loved that, and it was a good reminder for me of how meaningful even low level pro events are (obviously KFT is not low level, but it is compared to the U.S. Open and Masters).
7. This week in “what ridiculous thing is Kyle working on” history involves three screenshots from my current side quest below.
Building this project made me laugh at this tweet.
And look, I realize I may be the only one who cares about this stuff, but it has completely captivated my attention of late and is something I have been extremely drawn to.
8. Speaking of, I’m needing ~10 folks who have either UI/UX experience or are obsessed with golf data/history. I would love to give you early access to the site to look for problems and provide feedback. Just email me back, and I will hook you up. I already have 2-3 people working on this, and it has been immensely helpful and fun.
9. (Bonus) Two of the funniest tweets I’ve seen in a while.
Thank you as always for supporting Normal Sport. In a world obsessed with constantly churning out more and more and more, we are laboring to slow down, to handcraft and to build something (multiple things!) that you always look forward to spending time with.
I have been waiting for this tweet for four years. When I finally gave up on trying to predict what would happen, it finally arrived.
And of course, the jokes were off the charts.
And it is now official.
I’m calling it.
LIV Golf …
More on LIV’s ending below along with some unintended … benefits (?) for former players.
Name drops today: Big Timi, Ralph Guldahl, Davis Lamb, the coefficient of friction, the NYT crossword and 1980s Euro Tour.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Cobra.
And while this is not what I’ll be talking about today, I’m grateful to all of our sponsors for the support we have from them, which allows us to work on side projects during downtime in the fall (see Cobra image below). That is a huge gift.
What I do want to talk about today is the Cobra OPTM driver, which may cause either highly addictive accuracy or dangerous levels of stability … or possibly even both.
I chuckle at the highly addictive accuracy thing because it leads me to thinking about what an alien would say I’m addicted to in my game …
• Swinging as hard as humanly possible.
• Digging the edge into the ground from 30 yards and in.
• Leaving putts 15 feet short.
Aspirationally, though, I am looking for a way to be highly addicted to a more accurate off-the-tee game, though, and the OPTM driver is my weapon of choice to get there.
You can (and should) check it out right here.
And now, onto the news.
1. As many of you know, I have recently been getting steep on a history of golf project. Like Viktor downswing steep. Anyway, because of this, I have been viewing the LIV news through a bit of a different lens than I maybe normally would.
What’s maybe most interesting to me is that in 50 (or probably even 10) years, people will view LIV Golf as this little blip in the professional golf world — a literal footnote in media guides and on Wikipedia — and completely forget (or not even understand to begin with) how much it shaped the rest of the golf world.
Twitter will be amusing for the next few weeks. There will be (and are) real questions about Bryson’s future. But the downstream effects of LIV will also be felt for decades.
Which is wild to think about now because in decades, most people won’t connect the dots between Phil Mickelson’s NFT fascination and the fact that Miles Russell and Jackson Koivun are playing 36 holes of match play at Sand Valley for $10 million in August of 2037.
[Jason here] All of this has me looking at the early days of Normal Sport thinking, "What an interesting time to start illustrating golf.”
2. The through line of LIV for me is arrogance. This lack of understanding that you cannot microwave history just by throwing money and names at projects. The amusing part here is that I think LIV legitimately could have become the best golf tour in the world. The PGA Tour was begging to be upended. Begging!
And instead of putting the (ball) frog in the pot of water and slowly boiling it before the frog realizes what’s happening, LIV tried to turn the temperature up to 212 (that’s 100 for those not in the United States) from day one, which is almost always a bad plan.
There are other instances of this pervasive pride.
And for me, that was the easiest thing to sniff out from the very first iteration of this (I cannot believe I’m saying this) now-defunct league.
3. This is easy for Rory — a probable (already?) billionaire — to say, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
You know, there's not as much of an arms race as there was maybe a couple of years ago, and some players will argue that that's not good for players because -- but I think that's very short-term thinking. Like, if you want sustainable tours, and we want these tours object around in 50 years' time, there has to be sustainable business practices in place to make sure they are around in 50 years' time.
Rory McIlroy
LIV kept creating these situations in which what was good for the individuals was bad for the whole, and the fact that it’s gone means that Patrick Cantlay is probably not going to make as much money as he would have — although the damage has mostly already been done on a purse increase standpoint so it will likely be close — but I care very little about how much Patrick Cantlay makes and much more about whether the Western Open (BMW Champ.) is still around in 50 years.
4. The part about LIV ending that I’m most excited about is the reabsorption of Jon Rahm into a real professional golf world. I still believe he’s generationally good, but we’re going to find out if that’s true over the next few years. The other part of LIV ending that I started thinking about came after this quote from Rahm.
As of right now, I really don't know what 2027 is going to look like for me, right. So I have yet to have a discussion with the PGA Tour to see if there's any path back for next year. So I don't know, as of right now. Until I get clarity on that, yeah, my plan would be to spend the year on the DP World Tour, and I'm looking forward to it. Currently looking at the schedule to see how I can organize it to play the events I want to play. You know, maybe have a chance to have a bit of a different year to what I have in the past.
Jon Rahm
What this got me thinking about was whether the Euro Tour was about to make a comeback. What if Rahm just decides to post up there for the next 20 years and Rory kind of does as well, and what if the ultimate outcome of LIV is that it re-strengthened the Euro Tour to its mid-1980s heydays when it was arguably much closer to the PGA Tour as an overall product? How amusing (funny? ironic?) would that be?
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,050 of them) and includes a closer look at the project I’ve been working on, some thoughts on that Rory penalty and something I could use some help on …
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