MudBall Newsletter - Walker Simas

Drinking:

There truly are few things I enjoy more than arriving home to a shipment from GoodWalk Coffee. This week, I’ll be gaming the trio of South America Dark Roast, Breakfast Ball Columbia Medium Roast, and of course the MudBall Half Caff (Code: THETIE for 20% off). It was a week of increased sleep debt, so full caff beans were the supplement. Because I don’t want to ride on this train too long, back to the half caff full time this week.

As always, lots of water and salt- and I’m sad to to report no Sazeracs were had on our New Orleans trip. Because there is precisely zero backing down and because we love a bounce-back birdie, we did crush two at Uptown Social in Austin on Saturday night. Bartender Victor gave us the run-down on mezcal, national parks, and chili mango syrup.

Eating:

Mundane weekdays as far as food goes are probably the most important to share here, as most weekdays are mundane by default. Low on groceries on a 3-day week with travel on both sides, my eating contained mostly sushi rice, ground beef, carrots, and RX bars. That being said, I hear there is plenty of good food in Austin and Houston. Coming back to my first draft of this newsletter, I can confirm that between Henry’s crispy rice and La Santa Barbacha’s taco game, we are in #good #shape.

Reading:

Reading this week has been an enjoyable re-run of Lean Startup by Eric Ries. I first read this book my junior year in college with no experience starting something or putting creative efforts out into the world. Most of his examples are of larger companies and how they grow through teams or individuals, but the same principles stand for an independent two high school buddies poking their head in golf media.

Thinking:

Lately I have been spending a huge portion of my day in shoes and I have been making a point to get outside barefoot this week. Whether listening to a podcast, taking a phone call while going on a walk, or taking my running shoes off for my cool down post-run, I highly recommend. For those of you who don’t ever walk outside with their shoes off, give it a run and let me know how you feel.

Secondly, I really enjoyed the conversation with Golfer’s Journal Assistant Editor Casey Bannon last week. He brought up one of my favorite Steve Jobsisms which I constantly need to be reminded of. The concept is as simple as focus. He would regularly halt meetings to revisit why so and so was being discussed. Is this important for getting to our goals? If not, why are we discussing?

Culture:

This two week stretch might be the definition of primo culture/competition/architecture- USGA 4-Ball Qualifier, plenty of good food, some great workouts. Shimpy even pulled me into another marathon in 2024 this week. On that token, golf has been the through-line, but has represented maybe half of my/our focus when traveling. And that’s what it’s all about.

Competition:

This week’s MBM episode covers LIV’s OWGR ranking bid, TGL, Netflix Cup, PGA Tour updates, and our thoughts on the madness. I have to believe our true equilibrium point here is getting the best players in the world together again (more often during regular season) and present that in a much better way.

The irony of PGA TOUR players and journalists criticizing LIV having no long term vision while praising TGL (as the most notable example) is hilarious to me. LIV is 2 years old- and I’m not talking about the moral/ethical/political bubbles. I’m talking about the product. Even if you believe they won’t be great, they CAN’T be great yet! No great thing takes only two years to build.

Despite how you feel about Phil, his chess analogy is probably more accurate than we’d like to believe. I don’t see any other scenario for Tiger, Rory, et.al rushing a new prime time indoor golf league with only PGA Tour members. It had to be the clear next move in what will likely be a long game of wizards chess.

Architecture:

Tie Guys offsite in Houston this past weekend to see Jay Blasi and his work at Riverside Country Club. We will have more to report as grow-in continues, but it was a treat getting to hear the full run down in person.

This Week’s Menu:

Monday 6am EST: Mud Ball Monday

Wednesday 6am EST: Henry on the keys for the #TieWeeklyNewsletter

Thursday 8pm EST: Sean Foley & Henry Shimp

Cheers,

WS