Greetings!
We are unashamedly trying to reach 1,000 book sales by the time the 2026 Masters starts and are about 1/3 of the way there. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you can do so right here.
Let’s get to work.
Name drops today: Alyssa Liu, Nathan MacKinnon, Kurt Kitayama, Dwight Schrute, Adam Silver, Cam Smith and Ben Hogan.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Ship Sticks.
Even if you’re not an Olympian — and I’m guessing if you’re reading a newsletter about men taking off their clothes to hit golf balls, you likely are not (though we may have one or two on this list!) — you can at least still travel like one.
That’s because Ship Sticks has a subdivision called Ship Skis, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Whether you’re traveling to Milano Cortina to see if you can ski a 6-minute mile uphill like this absolute freak or just taking your kids to the bunny slopes in New Mexico (seems more likely for this crowd), Ship Skis is a great solution for your upcoming travel.
OK, now onto the news.
1. There are so many different directions to go at the end of this week so let's start with the obvious massive golf storyline hanging out there: Milan 2026.
I didn’t start this newsletter so I could break down Taylor Moore’s chances at the Honda Classic. I started it so I could congregate an audience that I could write anything to (with a mostly golf slant) and let the intrigue fall where it may.
Which takes us back to the Winter Olympics.
I felt this stat from The Athletic.
The Milan Cortina Olympics drew a daily average of 23.5 million viewers in the United States, making it the most-watched Olympics since the 2014 Sochi Games, according to numbers released by NBCUniversal on Monday.
The average daily viewership was a 96 percent increase over the last Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, which drew only 12 million.
The Athletic
And while I don’t really care about the numbers generated by massive media brands like NBC, I do care very much about monocultural events like this. It was such a fun connection point with my own kids, other friends and even in the rote small talk we make with acquaintances or people we see in passing every day.
It reminded me of this great tweet by my pal Tom Marton and our very human need for community and collectivity. The Olympics is not eternally significant, but it is a very fun and useful way to engage with that community and collectivity.
This actually happens often for us on Golf Twitter during tournaments, which Jamie Kennedy and I discussed recently on this podcast.
2. My favorite Winter Olympics things, mostly in order.
The Hockey
Also The Hockey
Jordan Stolz
The (other) quad god
The ice dancing
The women’s hockey
Alyssa Liu
This random freestyle skiing competition my son and I watched where guys started doing 2160s. No idea what it was, but it was extraordinary.
We woke up early on Sunday before church to see if we could get the whole gold medal game in before we had to leave. Because it went to OT, we ended up watching on my phone in the parking lot with friends. An absolutely all time experience.
I have not felt what I felt during the third period and OT of that U.S.-Canada game since Rory was on the 15th tee last April.
[Jason here] I need to shout out my fellow countryman Jorrit Bergsma for winning the 10,000km Mass Start by… just skating faster than everyone else! Normal skate. I've watched the highlight at least once per day since the race and you should too.
3. Some additional thoughts on The Hockey as well some actual golf talk and the golf-hockey crossover comp that involves the phrase “sorta quiet but also a lunatic” for Normal Club members below…
Normal Sport is supported by exactly 1,010 individuals who may or may not think of me when they see penis material headlines in the Olympics. By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• The delight of helping us establish Normal Sport.
• 15% off to our pro shop.
• Access to all of our content (like the rest of this post).
Welcome to the members-only portion of today’s newsletter.
This was written with all my teeth intact.
Here are those additional thoughts on The Hockey …
1. Is there anything cooler than getting your teeth knocked out, banging home the gold medal-winning goal 20 minutes later to win your country’s first gold in nearly five decades and then being draped in the stars and stripes with blood running down your face?
If aura was a photo …
2. The Canadian tears amused me. Also, they were correct. Canada was the better team. Canada did out play the U.S. (by a lot). Canada absolutely wins that game 99 times out of 100.
But … that’s kinda the whole point of sports, isn’t it? Kinda the whole point of not hitting “simulate.” Canadian fans sounded like Alabama football fans who think that they should be in the CFP every year no matter how many losses they have because, Well, we have the most talent. I know what the scores say but we are the group of best players.
That’s the whole point of playing the games!
3. The U.S. team taking the Gaudreau kids on the ice afterward destroyed me. I didn’t see it live, but after reading KVV's tweet, I went back and watched it and just sobbed. My gosh.
4. It feels nice to not feel shameful about being proud of where you’re from. That was sort of the prevailing wind in the U.S. for several years -- and part of the reason Olympics ratings have dipped, I suspect -- and while I’m certainly not proud of everything America does, there does seem to be a bit of a recent cultural shift that it’s OK to be proud of where you’re from and who your people are (Bethpage crowds notwithstanding). I’m glad for that.
5. I don't know if this is an apt description because I do not follow hockey at all. But it felt a little like the 3-on-3 in overtime would be like the Masters telling Justin Rose and Rory to head to the first tee on the par 3 course.
Which … completely electric, and I wouldn't necessarily be against it. But I do understand where the Canadians are coming from in being mad about it.
It was a masterful tee to green performance by the Canadians and the U.S. kept getting up and down from more and more ridiculous spots on the course. Which is infuriating if you’re Canada, but again also the point of playing the games!
6. Related: I am going to abuse this meme.
7. Some great tweets …
8. I floated on Twitter who Connor McDavid is like from a personality/vibe standpoint. Again, I don’t follow, and while his talent is obvious, I don’t know what he’s like as a person.
This was probably the best response.
9. The game got nearly 19 million average viewers with a peak of 26 million (according to The Athletic). Compare that to the following two events.
2025 Masters: 12.7 million average | 19.5 million peak
2019 Masters: 10.8 million average | 18.3 million peak
My first thought here was that it’s actually kind of crazy that Rory's Masters win got anything in the ballpark of that Canada-U.S. game (I don’t care what time it was on). Golf is mega niche (though the Masters tends to break out of that for the most part). The Olympics is not niche at all as a viewing activity.
I think we’ll look back on those 2025 Masters numbers as some of the highest ever until Phil wins in 2037 at 67 years old with four drivers in the bag (including a right-handed one) and drives the green on 17 and 18 for a 2-2 finish.
4. I’ve already spent so many words, and I still have so many more Olympics thoughts! We’ll keep it short here.
On Stolz: Watching him skate is like watching Federer rip. It's somehow both extremely powerful and also exceedingly beautiful. Such a unique combination.
On timing: We had an argument around our dinner table the day after the Olympics were over about whether there should be an Olympics every year.
So summer every two years and winter every two and you get one of them every single year. Curious for your thoughts.
On NBC: Tirico is extraordinary at his job, and the drone footage was amazing.
Also, this sign off is 2x as good as One Shining Moment.
On Alyssa Liu: Competing with joy as a professional is both incredibly elusive and also undefeated (see: 2025 Masters).
On coverage: The 2026 Winter Olympics will be when I flipped from using ESPN.com as my default “I wonder what the headlines are today" to using The Athletic. They are not the same. The difference between Scott Scheffler and Scott Stallings, and it took me this long to realize it.
On Johannes Klaebo: I enjoyed this profile a lot.
On the ice dancing mess: Normal sport normal sport normal sport!
5. Congrats to our three winners of Tuesday's trivia question. The correct answer? Jock Hutchison won at Augusta National Golf Club in 1937.
Wait, I thought Byron Nelson won the 1937 Masters? you might be saying. And you would be correct. That’s because Hutchison won the 1937 Senior PGA Championship, which was played at ANGC. If this is the first you’re hearing of this, you’re not alone. 🙋♂️
6. Mentioned earlier, but Jamie Kennedy and I chopped it up on the podcast this week about golf Twitter and what we hate love about it.
There are few people whose golf minds intrigue me more than Jamie, and it was fun to go down different rabbit holes with him and hear about how he thinks about the game. We have picked Thursday a.m. as our consistent podcast posting time so if you’re not subscribed, please do so!
7. One of my good friends sent me this article about the tennis calendar with the note, You think golf’s scheduling is a mess!
This is what happens, of course, when there are five, six or seven enormous entities all vying for what is in the best interests of those entities.
One other thought on this quote from the article.
“There are trade-offs,” [WTA chief executive Portia Archer] said during an interview last fall. “I think, as you noted, that we’re building fandom, and so that’s not the same as reaching our hardcore fan that already exists.”
The Athletic
I get it, but I always wince at the phrase, not the same as reaching our hardcore fan that already exists. I read a great post the other day about the importance of delighting — not just serving or catering to or meeting the minimums for but delighting — your core audience. The idea being something Seth Godin has talked about before with his theory on the minimum viable audience. These organizations — like the PGA Tour — love to chase the elusive casuals but would have more success by doubling down on delighting the most hardcore audience member.
8. Speaking of scheduling, Eamon Lynch wrote about the apparently large changes coming to the PGA Tour. That article is more canary in the coal mine than it is anything detailed out, but there does seem to be an obsession with shrinking the high-end tournaments (good!) and also owning the summer (questionable!).
Andy and Bacon talked in this pod about how much better it is for viewers — who are also golfers themselves — to own the winter. Summer is when we all want to play golf! Though you get back into all of those issues of going up against football that the Tour has been trying to avoid.
One other fascinating insight Andy had on that pod is the idea that men of his generation (also mine) are more involved in family life which leads to less time spent on following and watching golf.
This is quite true, and it's a fascinating problem for all leagues but perhaps especially so for smaller niche ones like golf which could also be considered boring by kids.
9. Can't believe it's already time for this, but here we are. Here is all-time best scoring average (min. 25 rounds).
Top 10
1. Spieth: 70.98
2. Rahm: 71.00
T3. Tiger and Xander: 71.30
5. Phil: 71.44
6. Rory: 71.45
7. Rickie (!): 71.64
8. Hideki: 71.70
9. Reed: 71.73
T10. Rose and Cam Smith: 71.76
Others
Scottie (24 rounds): 70.33
DJ: 71.87
Brooks: 71.97
Jack (163 rounds!): 71.98
JT: 72.00
Fleetwood: 72.00
Norman: 72.31
Hogan: 72.38
Couples (142 rounds): 72.43
Some thoughts.
• Scottie would have to shoot 88 in his first round this year to not immediately take over as the best scorer ever at Augusta National.
• Rickie at No. 7 is jarring. Rickie Fowler is the seventh-best scorer in Masters history?!
• Nicklaus under 72.00 with 163 rounds is outrageous.
• Rory and Phil having almost the exact same number is kind of perfect. They’re having the same career.
• Jack and Brooks having the same number with the equipment Brooks is dealing with is totally wild.
• I will never (ever) quit Spieth.
Thank you for reading our ridiculous golf newsletter that is sometimes (but oftentimes like this one barely) about golf.
Every edition is handcrafted by me (Kyle) and Jason. Go buy our Rory book. We can’t wait to get them to you.
We would appreciate it greatly if you would check out our new book that we can’t wait to get out into the world.
Greetings!
We are unashamedly trying to reach 1,000 book sales by the time the 2026 Masters starts and are about 1/3 of the way there. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you can do so right here.
Let’s get to work.
Name drops today: Alyssa Liu, Nathan MacKinnon, Kurt Kitayama, Dwight Schrute, Adam Silver, Cam Smith and Ben Hogan.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Ship Sticks.
Even if you’re not an Olympian — and I’m guessing if you’re reading a newsletter about men taking off their clothes to hit golf balls, you likely are not (though we may have one or two on this list!) — you can at least still travel like one.
That’s because Ship Sticks has a subdivision called Ship Skis, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Whether you’re traveling to Milano Cortina to see if you can ski a 6-minute mile uphill like this absolute freak or just taking your kids to the bunny slopes in New Mexico (seems more likely for this crowd), Ship Skis is a great solution for your upcoming travel.
OK, now onto the news.
1. There are so many different directions to go at the end of this week so let's start with the obvious massive golf storyline hanging out there: Milan 2026.
I didn’t start this newsletter so I could break down Taylor Moore’s chances at the Honda Classic. I started it so I could congregate an audience that I could write anything to (with a mostly golf slant) and let the intrigue fall where it may.
Which takes us back to the Winter Olympics.
I felt this stat from The Athletic.
The Milan Cortina Olympics drew a daily average of 23.5 million viewers in the United States, making it the most-watched Olympics since the 2014 Sochi Games, according to numbers released by NBCUniversal on Monday.
The average daily viewership was a 96 percent increase over the last Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022, which drew only 12 million.
The Athletic
And while I don’t really care about the numbers generated by massive media brands like NBC, I do care very much about monocultural events like this. It was such a fun connection point with my own kids, other friends and even in the rote small talk we make with acquaintances or people we see in passing every day.
It reminded me of this great tweet by my pal Tom Marton and our very human need for community and collectivity. The Olympics is not eternally significant, but it is a very fun and useful way to engage with that community and collectivity.
This actually happens often for us on Golf Twitter during tournaments, which Jamie Kennedy and I discussed recently on this podcast.
2. My favorite Winter Olympics things, mostly in order.
The Hockey
Also The Hockey
Jordan Stolz
The (other) quad god
The ice dancing
The women’s hockey
Alyssa Liu
This random freestyle skiing competition my son and I watched where guys started doing 2160s. No idea what it was, but it was extraordinary.
We woke up early on Sunday before church to see if we could get the whole gold medal game in before we had to leave. Because it went to OT, we ended up watching on my phone in the parking lot with friends. An absolutely all time experience.
I have not felt what I felt during the third period and OT of that U.S.-Canada game since Rory was on the 15th tee last April.
[Jason here] I need to shout out my fellow countryman Jorrit Bergsma for winning the 10,000km Mass Start by… just skating faster than everyone else! Normal skate. I've watched the highlight at least once per day since the race and you should too.
3. Some additional thoughts on The Hockey as well some actual golf talk and the golf-hockey crossover comp that involves the phrase “sorta quiet but also a lunatic” for Normal Club members below…
Normal Sport is supported by exactly 1,010 individuals who may or may not think of me when they see penis material headlines in the Olympics. By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• The delight of helping us establish Normal Sport.
• 15% off to our pro shop.
• Access to all of our content (like the rest of this post).
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