Greetings to everyone who is already thinking about the Ryder Cup. I have some goodies for you, specifically you, today.
Name drops today: Packy McCormick, James Dodson, Ben James, Michael Scott, Arnold Palmer, Jamie Kennedy and Nick Saban.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Ship Sticks, whose hassle-free way to transport golf clubs, luggage, and travel gear is the way to do it this upcoming holiday season.
Instead of lugging heavy bags through airports or paying oversized airline fees, ShipSticks ships them door-to-door.
Like the U.S. Ryder Cup team, if you keep doing things the same way and they keep not working out, maybe it’s time to try something different.
You can use the code NORMALSPORT at checkout for 20 percent off your first purchase.
And now, onto the news.
1. I spent an hour on Tuesday morning on the still-a-year-away Ryder Cup press conference with Jim Furyk and Luke Donald listening to them field questions from both in-person media as well as those of us on Zoom. Some mini-takeaways.
1. I like to give the Euros a hard time for being quite proud of the way they do things. Then I hear Luke Donald speak, and realize they probably aren’t proud enough. They stumbled into the Nick Saban of Ryder Cup captains. I do not understand how he’s able to be such a calming presence but also so inspirational at the same time. I want him to be my business coach.
2. Furyk calling the U.S. alternate shot struggles “not an aberration” and saying things needed to change and that he was changing them was good.
However, I want long-term change not just one-captain change. This is part of the problem on the U.S. side across Presidents and Ryder Cups. No continuity which leads to one-off (but not wholesale) change.
3. Furyk talking about being on the same page as PGA of America CEO, Terry Clark, was good. I’ve heard great things about Clark as someone who doesn’t care about how things have always been done but cares a lot about how they can be done better in the future. Watch this space.
2. Furyk also gave this quote on the U.S. struggles …
I would say, one, as captains, we need to do a better job, not only put the folks into good pairings in good positions but I don't think we are preparing for those matches in a proper way.
I will promise you, we will be prepared. I'm going to ask this team to do more than any other United States team has in the past. We'll be prepared. We'll be ready to go in that format, and hopefully we can showcase our talent. We have too much depth to have that poor record in alternate shot.
Jim Furyk
He referenced an Ireland trip next summer multiple times and seemed adamant about putting in more prep work than the U.S. has put in historically (which, who knows how much that is).
This is a good step and gives me confidence in Furyk as captain (of course, fool me once, shame on you, fool me 17 times, not sure who the shame falls on).
The first step is admitting you have a problem, and throughout the presser Donald insinuated that Furyk’s more veteran approach — he’s the first repeat U.S. captain since Davis Love III in 2016 — feels different than in recent years for the U.S. side.
This is good if you’re a United States fan, though I have thought the same thing many times in recent Ryder Cups. Ultimately, I hope Furyk instills two things (and that they get carried into future team events).
BYOJ (Bring Your Own Juice) — They have not done this on the road since … Reed and Spieth at Gleneagles (?), and they’ve gotten torched early because of it. I’m not sure how you do it other than sending JT out four times on Friday morning.
Big team, little me — The Americans constantly propose the idea that they need to remember who they are as individuals. I think this is backwards and have said so constantly. Forget who you are and only worry about the good of the team.
If Furyk prepares appropriately, leans on course fit and is able to implement those two things above, the U.S. has a shot.
3. Shortly after the presser, we recorded a podcast talking about some of this, giving our category picks for “most off-the-radar possibility” on each side, biggest storyline with 11.5 months to go and so on.
Jamie Kennedy (follow him on Twitter) and I put together the teams we think will represent both sides (him for the Euros, me for the Americans). Again, this is a prediction of who will be there. Not who we think should. And surely — with 11 months to go — nothing will be incorrect.
Oh wait, something already is incorrect. I forgot about Collin Morikawa. In my defense, Morikawa can be forgettable. But I did not mean to forget him. So I had to issue a short mea culpa and re-upload the pod. Here’s my team … in order of confidence that each guy will be on it.
Scottie
Cam
Cantlay
Xander
Koivun (come at me)
Gotterup
Burns
Wyndham
Morikawa
JT
Gerard
Ben James
4. If and when people ask me for advice about getting into media (which is probably debatable whether they should be asking me!), I always say to niche down as much as possible and become an expert in the most obscure thing that still has an audience big enough to sustain your business. I also tell people to do things that don’t feel like work to them. You most certainly are not going to become rich doing any of this, so you might as well find a ton of joy in what you’re covering.
To combine those things, I was thinking on Tuesday how if I started over in the media world, I would start a Ryder Cup-specific business. I would just cover the Ryder Cup — all its nuances and idiosyncrasies and history and everything that goes along with it — every day of the year. I would develop sources on both sides of those teams, make social and video and newsletter content daily and become the go-to person when it comes to the Ryder Cup.
It doesn’t feel like work for me. Nobody is (or ever should be) that focused on an exhibition event that doesn’t even happen every year. And I think the audience is just big enough to find sustainability. Heck, maybe I still should do this.
5. Jamie Kennedy posted the current teams based on Data Golf ranking right now.
 |  |
Seeing those squads …
6. Jon Rahm has left LIV. Stage left. Post the letter jacket meme and so on.
There is much to discuss, and Joel Beall did a great job with so much of it right here.
What I’m intrigued by is the pre-LIV and post-LIV splits. Here they are at the major championships.
It is undeniable that he has lost a step. Maybe a step and a half. I think the biggest indicator of this is the top 10 percentage. He was auto two-top-10s-per-year at the majors. Now? Just one since he left for LIV.
It’s impossible to pin all of this on Greg Norman and Yasir Al-Rumayyan. Things change. Players wane. Look at Rory (he’s in blue, Rahm is in green).
The point now is two-fold.
1. Rahm is free from the stupidity of that league. Free from pretending like those pink and black uniforms were meaningful. Free to properly prep for the majors. Free to be The Guy for the Europeans at the Ryder Cup again. Free to chase history.
2. It won’t get talked about, but Rory from 26-31 wasn’t the same as he was from 20-25 either. Or from 32-present for that matter. No major wins. A good SG but not exactly the 2.25 it’s been since 2021.
I believe in Rahm. Wholeheartedly. He is that good. That committed. Cares that much. Things change. Players wane, but they also wax, and if I’m purchasing stock in players who have slipped and slid down any number of paths over the last few years, I’m putting all of that money on Jon Rahm.
7. This piece by James Dodson in Golfer’s Journal ($$) is incredible. He writes about what it was like to become the person who wrote Arnold Palmer’s memoir and everything that went along with that. The ending is emotional and wonderful and also quite a bit sad.
I will post it below, but you should read the whole thing if you have access.
In the silence that followed, Arnold returned to his autograph pile, and I just sat looking around his spectacular office, thinking, well, whatever one thinks when you know it will probably be the last time.
Finally, rising, I said, “Well, Arnold, I’d better move along. It’s a seven-hour drive home. Wendy’s closing on the house this evening.”
Seated at his desk, he looked at me and said, “So, Shakespeare, what can I do for you?”
I’d heard him say this very thing to so many of his friends over the years.
I smiled. “Nothing. You did everything for me by asking me to co-write your book. That changed my life.”
Then I remembered something I’d brought along—a first edition of A Golfer’s Life. I handed it to him. “Would you mind signing your book for me?”
He gave me the Look and took it from my hand, gently growling, “It’s not my book. It’s our book.”
I stood waiting, watching him write on the title page. The only sound was his pen moving across the paper. It felt like time had stopped.
He closed the book and handed it to me with his big left hand, reaching with his right to grab my right, holding it firmly.
“I just have two things to say to you,” he said seriously. “Don’t read this until you get home. And don’t ever come back without Wendy.”
Whereupon he laughed. And I laughed. And almost cried.
At least I made it to the Maryland border with West Virginia before I looked. While the attendant was pumping gas, I opened the book and read what my boyhood hero had written. A lump rose in my throat.
Jim—
Thanks for all your wonderful words. You are the greatest friend I could have.“Sir,” the attendant said, “are you OK?”
“I’m fine. Just thinking about an old friend I’m going to miss.”
James Dodson
🥹 🥹 🥹
8. This on independent writers and media businesses is really good. Digs into the worlds of people like Marc Stein, Ethan Strauss, Matt Brown and Joe Pos. I’m with Ethan in betting on the written word as everyone goes the other direction, and I identified with the final line big time.
Still, there is upside — no slack channels. No editor-driven assignments. No conflicts of interest. Just a 4 a.m. alarm clock, a laptop, and a private email distributed to an audience willing to pay for it.
“I can write what I want and say what I want,” he said. “I believe when you add it all up together, it’s the best job I’ve ever had.”
Mark Burns | Sport and State
I would add: Also the hardest.
9. Both of these (very different) thoughts on AI were good.
First, Packy.
Sometimes I look around and don’t really understand the AI surge because people often are just using it to … create things that don’t matter at all. It feels like the new “I’m checking my email to feel important even though almost all of it doesn’t matter” task.
And then this one by Andrew Yeung.
Brilliant and — in my opinion — correct. Also … read more books.
Thank you as always for supporting Normal Sport. In a world obsessed with constantly providing more and more and more stuff, we remain handmade, bot-free and immensely invested in the craft of creating something great for our community.
Greetings to everyone who is already thinking about the Ryder Cup. I have some goodies for you, specifically you, today.
Name drops today: Packy McCormick, James Dodson, Ben James, Michael Scott, Arnold Palmer, Jamie Kennedy and Nick Saban.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Ship Sticks, whose hassle-free way to transport golf clubs, luggage, and travel gear is the way to do it this upcoming holiday season.
Instead of lugging heavy bags through airports or paying oversized airline fees, ShipSticks ships them door-to-door.
Like the U.S. Ryder Cup team, if you keep doing things the same way and they keep not working out, maybe it’s time to try something different.
You can use the code NORMALSPORT at checkout for 20 percent off your first purchase.
And now, onto the news.
1. I spent an hour on Tuesday morning on the still-a-year-away Ryder Cup press conference with Jim Furyk and Luke Donald listening to them field questions from both in-person media as well as those of us on Zoom. Some mini-takeaways.
1. I like to give the Euros a hard time for being quite proud of the way they do things. Then I hear Luke Donald speak, and realize they probably aren’t proud enough. They stumbled into the Nick Saban of Ryder Cup captains. I do not understand how he’s able to be such a calming presence but also so inspirational at the same time. I want him to be my business coach.
2. Furyk calling the U.S. alternate shot struggles “not an aberration” and saying things needed to change and that he was changing them was good.
However, I want long-term change not just one-captain change. This is part of the problem on the U.S. side across Presidents and Ryder Cups. No continuity which leads to one-off (but not wholesale) change.
3. Furyk talking about being on the same page as PGA of America CEO, Terry Clark, was good. I’ve heard great things about Clark as someone who doesn’t care about how things have always been done but cares a lot about how they can be done better in the future. Watch this space.
2. Furyk also gave this quote on the U.S. struggles …
I would say, one, as captains, we need to do a better job, not only put the folks into good pairings in good positions but I don't think we are preparing for those matches in a proper way.
I will promise you, we will be prepared. I'm going to ask this team to do more than any other United States team has in the past. We'll be prepared. We'll be ready to go in that format, and hopefully we can showcase our talent. We have too much depth to have that poor record in alternate shot.
Jim Furyk
He referenced an Ireland trip next summer multiple times and seemed adamant about putting in more prep work than the U.S. has put in historically (which, who knows how much that is).
This is a good step and gives me confidence in Furyk as captain (of course, fool me once, shame on you, fool me 17 times, not sure who the shame falls on).
The first step is admitting you have a problem, and throughout the presser Donald insinuated that Furyk’s more veteran approach — he’s the first repeat U.S. captain since Davis Love III in 2016 — feels different than in recent years for the U.S. side.
This is good if you’re a United States fan, though I have thought the same thing many times in recent Ryder Cups. Ultimately, I hope Furyk instills two things (and that they get carried into future team events).
BYOJ (Bring Your Own Juice) — They have not done this on the road since … Reed and Spieth at Gleneagles (?), and they’ve gotten torched early because of it. I’m not sure how you do it other than sending JT out four times on Friday morning.
Big team, little me — The Americans constantly propose the idea that they need to remember who they are as individuals. I think this is backwards and have said so constantly. Forget who you are and only worry about the good of the team.
If Furyk prepares appropriately, leans on course fit and is able to implement those two things above, the U.S. has a shot.
3. Shortly after the presser, we recorded a podcast talking about some of this, giving our category picks for “most off-the-radar possibility” on each side, biggest storyline with 11.5 months to go and so on.
Jamie Kennedy (follow him on Twitter) and I put together the teams we think will represent both sides (him for the Euros, me for the Americans). Again, this is a prediction of who will be there. Not who we think should. And surely — with 11 months to go — nothing will be incorrect.
Oh wait, something already is incorrect. I forgot about Collin Morikawa. In my defense, Morikawa can be forgettable. But I did not mean to forget him. So I had to issue a short mea culpa and re-upload the pod. Here’s my team … in order of confidence that each guy will be on it.
Scottie
Cam
Cantlay
Xander
Koivun (come at me)
Gotterup
Burns
Wyndham
Morikawa
JT
Gerard
Ben James
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,050 of them) and includes Jon Rahm-LIV thoughts, current Ryder Cup player rankings and what I would do if I was starting over in golf media.
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