Normal Sport

by Kyle Porter, Jason Page (Illustrator)

Normal Sport is an irreverent (but hopefully insightful!) look at the year in golf in 2021. A collection of the most absurd but also the most wonderful moments of another indelible season. It’s an attempt to contextualize what we saw and experienced -- like Bryson shadowboxing on a helipad, Westy raising the roof at Sawgrass and Phil (PHIL!) winning the PGA -- and document it all in one place for the sake of both enjoyment and posterity. 

Genres: Sports, Nonfiction

152 pages, ebook

Published December 7, 2021

About the author

I'm a writer and a builder. Currently I cover golf for CBS Sports, which means a lot of different things depending on the day. Coverage of the modern game includes columns, podcasts some on-camera work and, of course, Twitter. It's the last of these that helped produce my books, Normal Sport 1 and 2.

Golf, from my viewpoint, is so often a way to worship God. For an earth rich with unique contours and teeming with subtle beauty that I get to travel to and see so very often. And for a game that has been, from the very beginning, probably the most relational of any sport ever created. What good gifts those are, and how rarely do I consider them, much less praise God for their creation.

In the past I built and sold Pistols Firing, an Oklahoma State sports website, and contributed to Joy in the Sorrow -- How a Thriving Church (and its Pastor) Learned to Suffer Well.

I'm also an elder at Mosaic Church in Richardson, Texas, where I live with my wife and four kids.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

You can pick it up at anormalsport.com, and you should do just that.

[Craig LeVasseur · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entertaining recap of the season, but the short bits and notes from week to week covered most of the same ground as the SGS year in review. I thought the stronger suit of Normal Sport was diving a little more in depth to the biggest stories of the year, and providing more context and perspective as to what those stories meant in the greater game of golf. Rory after the Ryder Cup, for example, was excellent. Phil at Kiawah. Spieth's wild year, and why we cheer for him. All of these were great.

If I were to suggest a blueprint for a future edition, I would say to focus more on those features, and less on the day-to-day minutiae. It's amusing, but probably better handled by SGS. Something like Shea Serrano's "Conference Room, Five Minutes" might be a better goalpost; a collection of focused essays, each on a particular event or person of the season, but viewed through a specific context or perspective (see: the essay relating the personality of each Office character through how they would play in a pickup basketball game).

[Josh Dykstra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normal sport; only sport. This is the perfect combination of clips from published articles plus the humor of Golf Twitter™️, made me laugh out loud more than a couple of times, and also the serious stuff makes you feel something. Great recap of 2021 which was a wild year in golf, hopefully the (surely) forthcoming 2022 issue will be easier to write if you're thinking about it all year long

[Alec Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything Kyle writes, I try to get my hands on. What an amazing recap of the wildest year in golf history. Everything Kyle mentioned in his “final thoughts” that he set out to do with this book, he accomplished, and then some. Here’s to the 2022 edition of “Normal Sport.”

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't play golf and I've just recently starting following one particular player. Even as a total novice I enjoyed this book very much. It is well written, funny, and best of all you don't have to be a golf nerd to appreciate the humor. Well done!!

[Lee Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great. I have always loved Kyle's writing and was glad to read him address the humanity he writes with. It really is what sets him apart from others for me.

[Stephen Nand-Lal · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a year when so much happened in golf, Normal Sport really does a fantastic job of putting the year into context.
Written in a casual and informal fashion, Kyle has done an amazing job of recapping the year in a humorous and relate-able way. Using first names of tour players gives the book a personal approach, and really gives a novel and unique take on the years events.
10/10 would recommend!!

[Ean Snell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t wait for Porter to hopefully continue this every year. Golf is a wonderful, weird sport that I love more and more every year.