Normal Sport, by Kyle Porter
Go buy it.
I just finished up Normal Sport by Kyle Porter, which you can buy here, and you should. I think any good writing on golf should be supported, and this is VERY good, fun writing as well.
Here’s my review on Goodreads. Goodreads makes it way too hard for me to embed this in here, so I’m just copying the whole thing below. Full sigh.
I bought this book about twenty seconds after hearing about it because Kyle Porter is a great writer and part of the nonsense that is "Golf Twitter" that has made the sport even more fun for me over the last five-plus years. I read it in two days, and I might as well have gotten an audiobook version (not sure that even exists) because I could hear Porter's voice reading out the text, after hearing him so often as a guest on the No Laying Up podcasts.
It's a great summation of the weird year in golf during 2021, and also a reflection on the fact that golf is just ... weird. It's why the title of the book is Normal Sport, because this sport so constantly involves things that are just absurd and make exceptionally little sense. Except that they do?
The other reason I gobbled up the book is that Porter is an excellent writer. He's written articles about playing Augusta the day after the Masters after winning the writer's lottery that brought tears to my eyes, and just always has a real interesting take on things, including his article this year about why Rory crying after the Ryder Cup meant so much. (Porter addresses his style of writing towards the end, and it reminded me that he - unlike me - is a VERY devout Christian and that's fine, of course, but it's worth noting that if it shows up anywhere in his writing, it's just about him trying to be a good person and see the best in others.)
I'm also in no uncertain terms a perfect reader for this book. I follow the sport very closely, so much that as he walked through tournaments, I would think, "Oh, right, he's going to talk now about what Patrick Reed did there, or how Hideki Matsuyama's caddie bowed after his Masters win, or wasn't this the tournament that Spieth went low but couldn't close the deal?"
Normal fan.
Normal sport.
Here's an example of how good a writer Porter is, in talking about Tiger Woods' car accident that almost killed him, almost took one of his legs, and how he thinks about how Woods should move forward from here:
I know everyone was being kind when they said things like “The Cat will rise again!” and “He’s going to not only compete in but win more majors!” and all the things that were said in the aftermath of that SUV rolling down a ravine in Los Angeles. All of it badly misses the point, though. Golf is perhaps the most hopeful of all sports because you can play your entire life. That’s beautiful, but it’s also a siren song. Because golf will never ultimately fulfill. If Tiger’s life doesn’t disclose that then I have no idea what it discloses.
Rory’s words from the CJ reverberated when Tiger posted that video. Being me is enough. The hope for Tiger (and from me for myself) is not that he would climb the mountain again but rather that falling off of it taught him that he doesn’t actually need it. Accomplishing what he has accomplished is the second-hardest thing in the world to do. His accident -- among many other life events -- forced him to stare down the only thing more difficult than what he has done over the last 25 years. The narrowest path and the harder way forward. The only thing more elusive than the next major championship is being content enough with your life and yourself to enjoy all the ones that came before it.
I should follow that up by saying the book is also really, really funny. His rant on player logos (and pumpkin spice coffee products) made me literally laugh out loud (a litlol, as it were) and that's just one of many examples. It's a really fun book, and as Soly stated to Porter on their podcast, I now expect him to publish one of these each year.
Highly recommended for anyone who likes golf, or who wants to support independent writing, etc.