Greetings!
I think this is maybe the second most excited I’ve been for a final round since Kiawah in 2021. Obviously the Rory slam last year tops this, but I legitimately would believe almost any scenario you can throw at me, possibly including Blockie getting re-entered into the field because of a clerical error and shooting 63-63 over 36 on Sunday to take the tournament.
Name drops today: Brian Campbell, Justin Rose, Kiawah, Luke Kerr-Dineen, Blockie (not even playing), Hogan, Hagen and of course Harry Vardon.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Seed Golf, which makes the best golf balls you’ve probably never heard of.
On a week where shared prosperity at the top of a leaderboard seems to be a theme, it’s fitting that we would highlight Seed given that their aim is to bring premium performance golf products to golfers of all abilities … but for less.
In other words, same performance golf ball but for half the price.
And that price point means — much like the T1 spot and -4 number for most of Saturday’s third round — pretty much any human who swings a golf club can get in on the action.
Check them out below and use the code NORMALSPORT for 20 percent off your order. There’s enough value there that if you want to purposefully try to hit the thin, skull-y, possibly-hoseled water ball that we saw earlier in the week, you should absolutely do it!
And if you want to get to know Seed a bit better, we recommend checking out their new Seed Stories series where founder Dean Klaat chats with Seed ambassador (and completely normal figure in golf) Rob Hogan aka Speed Golf Rob aka Marooch. Their conversation captures the golf spirit that makes Seed so special and makes us so proud to partner with them.
OK, now onto the news.
1. The template for Sunday is the same as the template for Saturday: Stars chasing non-stars on an amazing, often diabolical golf course. It’s one of my favorite templates because you get to see how long the leader(s) — in this instance, Alex Smalley — can keep the best players in the game at bay.
The problem in these scenarios for the player(s) being chased is that they have never felt the things they’ll feel on Sunday afternoon. On the flip side, those chasers are playing with loads of freedom that make it even easier to rip off the requisite scoring needed to catch the lead.
You can see the problem for Smalley (and others who have been in his position).
I will say, after one half of the examination on Saturday, Smalley looked ready for the heat. Saturday is not Sunday, however, and sometimes there is nothing that will prepare you other than going through the professional agony that Sundays often bring about.
With Smalley at -6 and twenty-nine other golfers at -1, -2, -3 or -4 — including 11 major champions — Sunday must be the most anticipated final round at a PGA since Phil was trying to ward off the night at Kiawah.
R3 in the production control room.
2. This tournament has kinda ruled. I’m not going to get mega steep on course setup today — I promise — but I was thinking about how I love that the same golf course can test different parts of your game depending on the day.
Kerry Haigh's tried-and-true method for picking pin positions.
On Thursday and Friday, the questions being asked were along the lines of, How patient and disciplined are you? How good are your hands on tricky greens? These are maybe not the most exciting questions ever asked at a major championship, but they certainly demand answers a major champion should be able to provide.
Here’s how my friend, Garrett Andersson, put it in our Slack on Saturday.
Part of the test this week is lag putting on super-sloped greens. A non-sexy skill that players just assume they are good at (because to get to this level you typically are) and get upset when it exposes them.
This is also something they feel like they shouldn't have to show off.
It would be like saying off-ball defending shouldn't matter in basketball. It’s not as thrilling as a three-point shootout, but it’s still the kind of worthy test a championship contender should have answers for.
Garrett Andersson
On Saturday, as players noted, the questions were different. It was, Can you hit it well enough to give yourself 8-10 reasonable birdie putts (because, unlike the first two days, you’re gonna be able to rip at them)?
That’s an interesting question, too.
It doesn’t all need to look the same every day (even if Shane Lowry disagrees!), and after cooling off for a day, Rory even walked back some of what he said on Friday evening about not liking the setup because it had led to a bunched leaderboard.
Again, I’ll wait to judge in full until the tournament is over, but I’m buying what the PGA has been selling this week at The Mink, even if I understand the frustrations top players have had around an inability to separate from the pack.
Make lag putting cool again.
3. Outside of the history that could be made if Rory or Scottie win (more on them below), I think Jon Rahm is the most interesting potential winner of the immediate chasers. He has been vilified — in this very newsletter — for what has felt a bit like him tossing away a part of his prime for a swimming pool full of money.
But all of a sudden, a win on Sunday means he pulls ahead of JT and Bryson, ties Spieth and is suddenly hunting Brooks. All at age 31. A bad finale followed by coming up empty-handed at both Opens, and we’re back to blaming LIV.
Major wins are so precious, and legacies are defined on such thin margins. That’s part of the burden of being that great.
And while I think we often over-index on the major win column of the resume to determine how good guys were, I also don’t really make the rules. It kind of is what it is.
I was thinking about what Rahm said earlier in the week when he was asked about his place in history. I found it fascinating.
I think I need to accomplish a lot more to even think about it. It makes sense why Rory would think [about it]. Second on the all-time list of majors in Europe. First one ever to do the grand slam. It makes sense why he would think about it, right?
I would put him as the greatest European to ever play already.
…
The best way I can say it is I hope I can put myself in a situation where I can dream of thinking about where my career is at all time.
Do I think about it actively? No, not really.
I think there's a lot of people with my resume. I need to do a lot more to give myself the luxury to think where I'm may be at in the history of the game.
Jon Rahm | 2026 PGA
First, he absolutely does think about it. How could you not? And second, he is absolutely tracking what his peers are and are not doing.
Rahm is one of the most aware (and self-aware) players in the world, and I think the relief of LIV maybe (?) coming to an end for him combined with a victory at this tournament to get back on what his trajectory should probably be at these events would be one of the more interesting major championship outcomes of the last several years.
The Kelce bros were [almost] right.
4. One question I kept asking myself on Saturday as I (and everyone else) noticed the course was playing much easier was, Why? Why was it playing so much easier on Saturday than it was in the first two rounds?
R1: 72.3
R2: 72.6
R3: 70.0
Some of that is because the club pros and Shaun Micheels are out of the field. But some of it because of something Justin Rose described after his round on Saturday.
Not markedly different. I think just sort of subtly different. That probably makes a big difference. I think we've seen a lot of pins on crowns and edges.
I felt like think the pins are just a bit more predictable. The reason, I think when the pins get off of those little knobs and crowns, they're not so much easier to get at, but they're easier to putt at.
Justin Rose | 2026 PGA
The fall off beyond the pins was a common theme.
Kristoffer Reitan mentioned it, too. How cautious you had to be with your putting speed on the first two days and how that wasn’t necessarily the case on Saturday. It remains to be seen what they’ll do on Sunday, but I love getting this insight on what has been such an awesome and different test.
5. Fine, twist my arm, let’s talk Rory.
Some things.
1. He makes this and he’s in the final pairing alongside Smalley. That’s tough.
2. If he wins on Sunday, that’s seven majors. Seven! He would tie the following golfers at seven (read them slowly).
Arnold Palmer
Sam Snead
Gene Sarazen
Bobby Jones
Harry Vardon
My gosh.
There are only six golfers who have more than seven majors.
Tiger
Jack
Hagen
Hogan
Player
Watson
🤯 🤯 🤯
3. I realize that we’re only seven rounds into the major championship season, but has anyone taken the calendar slam this deep with a chance to pull it off since Spieth took it to the 71st hole at St. Andrews in 2015?
Is Rory going to win either of the next two majors? Probably not. Is he going to win this major? Also almost certainly no. But the fact that it’s still tantalizingly alive and that the guy who has it on his clubs is one of the best to ever do it does intrigue me at least a little bit.
4. He swung driver on Saturday with an uncommon freedom, even for him. He went 191-190 on consecutive driver swings, and it looked as flowing as it has ever looked. He just turned 37. The longevity in that swing is remarkable.
5. And finally, I thought him and Brooks being paired together on Sunday was cool. Just 11 majors walking around playing a championship golf course in front of a bonkers crowd. Two of the best championship golfers combining to shoot 6 under on a difficult course to move toward the top of the board is not something that happens every day.
6. Speaking of Brooks and Rory, these two Twitter responses rocked me.
Legit lol moments during a punch drunk week in which most of the discourse has been very angry. Both may only affect those chronically online in Golf Twitter-like spaces, which I presume most of you are so I also presume that most of you will appreciate them as much as I did.
Again, I don’t know why, but the thought exercise of Aaron Rai as an Antiques Roadshow Appraiser just made me shake with laughter.
Then this one.
I’ve read it multiple times now and genuinely laughed out loud each time. And while we’re on tweets, this one ruled as well. The “how many beers would Scottie have to drink to lose 12 shots to the field” challenge.
We’ve actually had a lot of similar amusing statements in our members-only Slack this week. Enough that I’ve thought, Why am I the one writing this newsletter when the rest of you are collectively this funny?
You can come check it out right here.
7. It was right there for Scottie to take it, and he …
Miss
Miss
Miss
Another miss
did not take it.
He’s hitting it so good, though, that he could shoot a casual 64 on Sunday, and I would not be gobsmacked. I keep thinking “it’s a distance control contest, and nobody in the last two decades has been better!” and he keeps making this face after running another one through the break.
They will start dropping at some point, though. I just hope it’s Sunday at The Mink and not Thursday at TPC Craig James Ranch.
8. The two numbers that really stand out on Data Golf after Round 3 are as follows.
Scottie: 5th in SG ball striking | 65th in putting (of 82)
Ludvig: 1st in SG ball striking | 72nd in putting
Both are primed to see everything fall on Sunday.
The Ludvig numbers are truly crazy. The context there is that he looks … apathetic (?) at times, which is how being cool and calm can come off when things aren’t going well, I suppose. But some of his mistakes are just like, Wait … what?!
Some three putts so weak that you’re staring at them like …
I’m a big time Ludvig believer still, and I think the “he doesn’t have the goods!” stuff is way overblown. Another chance on Sunday, and given the way he’s hitting it this week, perhaps the best one he’s had to date.
9. I think I’m in love with the 11th hole? Those approach shots are so, so cool. Within 10 minutes of each other, I saw Max Greyserman hit one out of the rough up the left side of the green and swing it back around to the hole by using the slope at the very back. Sick, sick stuff.
Shortly after, Chris Gotterup went long and tried to flop one out of the thick rough by taking a full swing from 25 feet away. It … did not go well, even though it was probably the right play.
Crazy, wild hole. Cannot get enough of it. If I was a fan on site on Sunday, I would just post up here early, grab some drinks and enjoy the festivities.
[Jason here] I'm in love with the 20 × 20 yard patch of insane fescue rough on 7. There's no other spot like it on the course. When guys find it it looks like they're on another g̶o̶l̶f̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶r̶s̶e̶ planet.
More tuffs.
10. Maybe you’ll even get a replica of the shot Spieth hit on that hole on Friday.
Yeah, I’m still thinking about it. I watched it several more times on Saturday even though he played his way out of the hunt. I just will never understand how (or why) he hit it.
Thankfully, my friend Luke Kerr-Dineen was equally obsessed so he went and found Spieth to talk about it. His article is must read stuff. Spieth called it a top two shot he’s ever hit in his life!
11. Quick note of appreciation for this Justin Rose quote. I absolutely loved it. He made eagle on Friday to get inside the cut line before scaring the lead early on Saturday. Big time 2018 Carnoustie remix when he made the cut on the number there and finished T2.
I went back and found an article from that event to make sure I was remembering it correctly, and he said on the weekend, “I’m just very happy to not be down the road somewhere else this morning.”
He echoed that on Saturday at The Mink.
Obviously a bit of gratitude just to be here. Yeah, it offered me the opportunity to go and try and find something within myself and within my game today. So that was good. I relished that opportunity, yeah.
Justin Rose | 2026 PGA
There’s been a lot (like a LOT) of hollering and whining and sniping in our dumb little world of golf this week. Oh, and the players have had a few grievances to air, too.
So I appreciated someone who’s seen everything and done most of it express his gratitude for just getting another tournament round. By my count, this was his 289th major championship round. Just another in a long, long line of them. But he’s out here talking about how grateful he is for it.
Gratitude is cool. I should practice it more often.
12. Who I want: Rory. Who I think: Ludvig.
I’d be fine with either. I’d be fine with most of those top 30. Low nightmares are I guess Smalley and Matti Schmid, so many of the guys who are truly in it would be great stories.
Rory, though, would obviously be incredibly historic for all the reasons mentioned above. Every win — and especially every major win — is historic for him now.
Since 1973, only two golfers have won the first two majors of the year. Tiger did it in 2002. He took the calendar year slam into the 11th major round of the year at Muirfield and shot 81 in some of the most insane weather in Open history. Spieth took it to the 12th major round of the major season in 2015 before making bogey at the Road Hole and missing an Open playoff at St. Andrews by one.
Rory has a chance to take it to Shinnecock in a month if he can somehow come from outside the top 100 after the first day and win his third major in his last six tries.
It won’t happen.
But what if it does?
Thank you for reading and participating in all of this nonsense. I am currently heading to bed around 11 p.m. my time while Jason wakes up in Amsterdam and I tag him in to drop some ridiculous illustrations and edit what I’ve written. Normal sport. Also the best.
Greetings!
I think this is maybe the second most excited I’ve been for a final round since Kiawah in 2021. Obviously the Rory slam last year tops this, but I legitimately would believe almost any scenario you can throw at me, possibly including Blockie getting re-entered into the field because of a clerical error and shooting 63-63 over 36 on Sunday to take the tournament.
Name drops today: Brian Campbell, Justin Rose, Kiawah, Luke Kerr-Dineen, Blockie (not even playing), Hogan, Hagen and of course Harry Vardon.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Seed Golf, which makes the best golf balls you’ve probably never heard of.
On a week where shared prosperity at the top of a leaderboard seems to be a theme, it’s fitting that we would highlight Seed given that their aim is to bring premium performance golf products to golfers of all abilities … but for less.
In other words, same performance golf ball but for half the price.
And that price point means — much like the T1 spot and -4 number for most of Saturday’s third round — pretty much any human who swings a golf club can get in on the action.
Check them out below and use the code NORMALSPORT for 20 percent off your order. There’s enough value there that if you want to purposefully try to hit the thin, skull-y, possibly-hoseled water ball that we saw earlier in the week, you should absolutely do it!
And if you want to get to know Seed a bit better, we recommend checking out their new Seed Stories series where founder Dean Klaat chats with Seed ambassador (and completely normal figure in golf) Rob Hogan aka Speed Golf Rob aka Marooch. Their conversation captures the golf spirit that makes Seed so special and makes us so proud to partner with them.
OK, now onto the news.
1. The template for Sunday is the same as the template for Saturday: Stars chasing non-stars on an amazing, often diabolical golf course. It’s one of my favorite templates because you get to see how long the leader(s) — in this instance, Alex Smalley — can keep the best players in the game at bay.
The problem in these scenarios for the player(s) being chased is that they have never felt the things they’ll feel on Sunday afternoon. On the flip side, those chasers are playing with loads of freedom that make it even easier to rip off the requisite scoring needed to catch the lead.
You can see the problem for Smalley (and others who have been in his position).
I will say, after one half of the examination on Saturday, Smalley looked ready for the heat. Saturday is not Sunday, however, and sometimes there is nothing that will prepare you other than going through the professional agony that Sundays often bring about.
With Smalley at -6 and twenty-nine other golfers at -1, -2, -3 or -4 — including 11 major champions — Sunday must be the most anticipated final round at a PGA since Phil was trying to ward off the night at Kiawah.
R3 in the production control room.
2. This tournament has kinda ruled. I’m not going to get mega steep on course setup today — I promise — but I was thinking about how I love that the same golf course can test different parts of your game depending on the day.
Kerry Haigh's tried-and-true method for picking pin positions.
On Thursday and Friday, the questions being asked were along the lines of, How patient and disciplined are you? How good are your hands on tricky greens? These are maybe not the most exciting questions ever asked at a major championship, but they certainly demand answers a major champion should be able to provide.
Here’s how my friend, Garrett Andersson, put it in our Slack on Saturday.
Part of the test this week is lag putting on super-sloped greens. A non-sexy skill that players just assume they are good at (because to get to this level you typically are) and get upset when it exposes them.
This is also something they feel like they shouldn't have to show off.
It would be like saying off-ball defending shouldn't matter in basketball. It’s not as thrilling as a three-point shootout, but it’s still the kind of worthy test a championship contender should have answers for.
Garrett Andersson
On Saturday, as players noted, the questions were different. It was, Can you hit it well enough to give yourself 8-10 reasonable birdie putts (because, unlike the first two days, you’re gonna be able to rip at them)?
That’s an interesting question, too.
It doesn’t all need to look the same every day (even if Shane Lowry disagrees!), and after cooling off for a day, Rory even walked back some of what he said on Friday evening about not liking the setup because it had led to a bunched leaderboard.
Again, I’ll wait to judge in full until the tournament is over, but I’m buying what the PGA has been selling this week at The Mink, even if I understand the frustrations top players have had around an inability to separate from the pack.
Make lag putting cool again.
3. Outside of the history that could be made if Rory or Scottie win (more on them below), I think Jon Rahm is the most interesting potential winner of the immediate chasers. He has been vilified — in this very newsletter — for what has felt a bit like him tossing away a part of his prime for a swimming pool full of money.
But all of a sudden, a win on Sunday means he pulls ahead of JT and Bryson, ties Spieth and is suddenly hunting Brooks. All at age 31. A bad finale followed by coming up empty-handed at both Opens, and we’re back to blaming LIV.
Major wins are so precious, and legacies are defined on such thin margins. That’s part of the burden of being that great.
And while I think we often over-index on the major win column of the resume to determine how good guys were, I also don’t really make the rules. It kind of is what it is.
I was thinking about what Rahm said earlier in the week when he was asked about his place in history. I found it fascinating.
I think I need to accomplish a lot more to even think about it. It makes sense why Rory would think [about it]. Second on the all-time list of majors in Europe. First one ever to do the grand slam. It makes sense why he would think about it, right?
I would put him as the greatest European to ever play already.
…
The best way I can say it is I hope I can put myself in a situation where I can dream of thinking about where my career is at all time.
Do I think about it actively? No, not really.
I think there's a lot of people with my resume. I need to do a lot more to give myself the luxury to think where I'm may be at in the history of the game.
Jon Rahm | 2026 PGA
First, he absolutely does think about it. How could you not? And second, he is absolutely tracking what his peers are and are not doing.
Rahm is one of the most aware (and self-aware) players in the world, and I think the relief of LIV maybe (?) coming to an end for him combined with a victory at this tournament to get back on what his trajectory should probably be at these events would be one of the more interesting major championship outcomes of the last several years.
The Kelce bros were [almost] right.
This post will continue below for Normal Club members (all 1,049 of them) and includes thoughts on why more birdies were out there on Saturday, one of the worst round that has ever been played, reimagining Aaron Rai as an Antiques Roadshow appraiser, and some thoughts on … you know, what if Rory actually does win the first two majors of 2026?
By becoming a member, you will receive the following …
• Access to 100 percent of our content this week.
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• A free digital copy of our Rory book.
• 15% off to our pro shop.
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