Hello,
I am back from our family vacation in Colorado and — after trying to manage the emotions of four children, participate in all of their activities, driving 12 hours both ways and removed from the creaturely comforts of my own home — somehow in desperate need of another vacation.
Me heading out for vacation vs. me coming back from vacation.
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We’re back though, and very excited about what’s on the horizon for Normal Sport. If we can just get through these pesky playoffs first. 😄
Name drops today: J. Porter, other J. Porter, Davis Love III and Billy Beane.
Today’s newsletter is presented by Seed Golf.
We played both real and mini golf during our Colorado trip. I’m not taking any questions right now on the real version or how I fared against my 12 year old, but I will talk about the mini golf.
My sons are a combined 21 years old, which means they brought their own putters and golf balls to a course adorned with jail cell bars guarding the 17th hole and a hollow log that spits your ball onto a different level on the 6th. I gave them crap. They truly did not care.
The final hole was one of those “make a 1 and get a free round” holes, and the 12 year old forgot he was using his own ball. So he putts it, misses the hole but it gets gobbled up and kept forever (or until the $11/hour part-time employee unlocks the wire cage).
It was a [redacted] ball that I think he found while playing real golf, and he was so annoyed that he forgot he was using his own ball and not one of the purple or silver rocks they hand out when you pay.
Seed scenes at Birkdale
I laughed at his misfortune, but for some reason — like Jason at Birkdale (see above) — walked away thinking about Seed’s golf balls. I’m not totally sure why I walked away thinking about them.
Maybe I thought, Well if you were using a Seed, it would have gone in on 18 or if you were using a Seed, you wouldn’t care as much about the cost of losing it.
In the end, I realized — for whatever reason — I was thinking about how difficult it would be for me now to play anything other than a Seed ball when I play golf.
When we first partnered with Seed, I was excited to have a sponsor (truth be told, any sponsor). Now? I feel emotionally and competitively attached to the brand and to the product. I have been doing this long enough to know that’s not always how it goes.
A lost [redacted] ball on a random 18th hole in mini golf reminded me that when it comes to price + performance, Seed is the current 🐐.
Alright, on to the news.
Kyle Porter golf tan update
A couple of weeks ago, Andy Johnson made one of the better observations I’ve seen this entire year. A through line in 2026 (and for the last few years really) has been the dearth of stars (and I would add specifically American stars) under age 25.
So of course in the weeks that followed this tweet, Jackson Koivun (21) and Michael Thorbjornsen (24) both won for the first time on the PGA Tour, and Miles Russell (17) nearly took down the Western Amateur in Chicago. Combined age: Davis Love III.
It doesn’t change the stat, but it does provide a glimmer of hope that the U.S. will produce more Jordan Spieths at that age.
It has felt in golf like we have been rooting for the same players for a long time. There are reasons for this — as Sean Martin outlined here — but regardless of what they are, the result has been a much less exciting fan experience than in previous decades when young Tiger took over golf sports, young Rory announced himself and young Spieth won everything he looked at.
[Jason here] Shout out to Thor and our fellow Baseball Grippers. Grip your grip.
Imagine the NBA if it was LeBron, Steph, Kawahi, Jokic and Harden duking it out every year but without Wemby, Shai, Ant, Cade and Cooper Flagg. That would be … not as fun. Part of the joy of following pro sports is the template of “Can this old guy (usually a mere 33 year old) hold off these up and coming studs?”
In golf of late, it has been, “Can this already somewhat old guy hold off this even older guy?”
All of this is fine, truly, because your stars are still Scottie and Rory. But I have felt — not seen or identified or observed but felt — the lack of nervous electricity that is often present when you have someone who’s 20 or 21 or 22 and ready to take over the industry. When anything is still possible.
Things change quickly though, and all of a sudden, you could have three guys under age 25 that it would be not unreasonable to have on the U.S. Presidents Cup team.
This is not a commentary on whether the Presidents Cup should be a training ground for future Ryder Cups. Nor is it a discussion on whether these guys should actually be on the team. It’s more of an acknowledgement that it is often when things seem to be going one way in golf, they often turn around and head the other way (quickly).
That’s exciting.
Whether these guys become superstars remains to be seen, but there does seem to be more staying power here than some of the one offs we’ve seen in past years (Nick Dunlap at the AmEx, Matt Wolff’s brief illumination). There seems to be real momentum here. These are decorated former amateurs with tremendous pedigrees. Not necessarily the types of players we’ve seen finding success on the Tour of late.
Again, the last two winners on the PGA Tour put together are Justin Rose’s age. Men’s pro golf is not in need of a lot right now. After years of wandering, it has found some purchase of late. But what it does lack (or has lacked until recent weeks) is a crop of young stars who — to quote Billy Beane in Moneyball — are guys you can dream on.
I got this from a reader after Garrett’s excellent post last week.
I think the Scheffler 2025 UK Open comments are the defining press conference of sports for the past 20 years. I think people will be coming back to those comments time and time again because they demonstrate that deep, deep down we all know there is more to the wins and losses in life.
And if a competitor like Scottie struggles trying to verbalize the battle happening between his ears, it could free people up to go through that same process out loud.
Wes H.
I think that Scheffler's 2025 presser is at the very least part of the golf (if not sports) canon from this century in the sense that there will be so many tributaries from that one source material. This is possibly overstating and I may regret it (!), but I think it is one of the handful of most important touchstones when it comes to comments by an athlete since 2000.
I remember where I was when it happened and what I was thinking as I wrote about it. An amazing piece of commentary, and I appreciate Wes distilling it down like that.
That one got me pretty good.
Ugh, I feel this deeply. My 12 year old is on me like the KD-Draymond meme.
Hate to see the teens picking on us because we have jobs providing (for them!) and can’t grind on the game several hours a day like they can!
Thank you for reading and following and sometimes writing to me and us. We love receiving your thoughts and ideas and takes and love having you in our ridiculous little community of Normals.
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