23. Greg Norman & Mark Broadie: Why Golf Beats an Orgasm and Why Data Beats Everything

People I (Mostly) Admire

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 April 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Steve Levitt is obsessed with golf — and he’s pretty good at it too. As a thinly-veiled ploy to improve his own game, Steve talks to two titans of the sport: Greg “The Shark” Norman, who was the world’s top-ranked golfer for more than six years; and Mark Broadie, a Columbia professor whose data analysis changed how pros play the game.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're a freak and I'm a radio listener, you might already know that I'm obsessed
0:11.8	with golf.
0:12.8	Here's Stephen Dupner.
0:14.6	I am obsessed with how obsessed you are with golf.
0:18.3	That is my obsession.
0:20.3	I love it.
0:21.3	You are your nuts, Levin.
0:23.7	I mean, let's face it.
0:25.0	I do love golf.
0:26.4	I love golf more than any normal person could.
0:29.1	I think I love golf because I really wanted to be good at it as a kid, and I completely
0:35.8	and totally failed.
0:37.6	And much of my adult life has been devoted to trying to undo the mistakes I made as a child.
0:47.0	As a teenager, the one thing I wanted more than anything else was to be a professional
0:51.8	golfer.
0:52.8	Reality, however, was not kind to that adolescent dream.
0:56.8	Forget about turning pro.
0:58.3	I wasn't even good enough to play college golf.
1:00.6	I quit soon after.
1:03.1	Almost 20 years had passed when I'm my 40th birthday, I hatched a preposterous plan.
1:08.6	I decided I would take up golf again with the objective of finally realizing my childhood
1:12.8	dream of turning pro, this time on the Champions Tour for golfers age 50 and over, that gave
	...

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