Tour Pro's Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen talk everything golf every week on the leading Australian Golf podcast. The latest news, issues, and stories from Australia, Asia, the USA, Europe and they cover the PGA and LIV, and everything in between. They tell it like it is and take you behind the scenes to get an inside look into the world of golf from two blokes who played at the highest level internationally. And we get listeners on to ask questions and tell us about their golf game. Nick O’Hern reached #16 in the world rankings and is the only person ever to beat Tiger Woods twice in matchplay. Mark Allen is a former Touring Pro of 15 years - played a British Open at Carnoustie, and in his career has hit 12 hole in one's.....you can see the video of one of them here! Together, this is their podcast - Talk Birdie To Me. Everything golf, every week. Wherever you get your podcasts. Follow Talk Birdie To Me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or TikTok. Executive Producer: Kaizen Media. Sound Design: Loud Zebra. For enquiries click here. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We start today's pod with stretching tips from Mark, he's discovered a new technique which is working wonders. And Dan shares with Nick and Mark is shonky shoulder, and that he's been recommended dry needling to fix it. We're all falling apart at Talk Birdie HQ.Onto some comments and questions from wolfpackers. Steve has just returned from playing a bunch of the big Tassie courses, including 7 Mile Beach and gives his review. Era Golf enjoyed the chat about commentators last week, but felt that it was an oversight to not mention Sandy Roberts and the great Jack Newton....we can't recall if we did or not, but if Era Golf says we didn't we'll cop it.Passion has a slightly different take on Hole in One's and when they do or don't count. Do Nick and Mark agree?Sven has heard a rumour about Tiger and his pace of play, and is curious as to whether the boys can confirm it or not. During this chat, Nick reveals a hat that he was recently given which he says, aside from at home, he will never wear in public. We'll work on it.And Jim is excited for Dottie Pepper to come on the show....as are we Jim !!!! We've now locked her in, it'll be in about a month.After the turn, Kristin wants to clarify Nick and Marks comments about some American courses being 'cookie cutter', she says that may have once been the case but is no longer. And a few messages about shooting your age from Mark in New Zealand, Bruce in Ballarat, and Matt in Ocean Grove.A fun question from Craig in Montmorency who wants to know what clubs and gear is tucked away in Nick and Marks garages...he envisages it being like a mini Golf Clearance Outlet....and then.....this leads to Mark telling a story about being wooed by Top-Flite many years ago, and ending up with a specific club that he used in the Australian Masters when he finished Top 5......but the club may have been non-conforming. He explains why. There may need to be an inquiry, and perhaps the record books need to be written to reflect this heinous error.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Steve left us a voicemail on Monday, he was struggling to maintain his focus when he was close to making par - which he's never done before - he'd get nervy, and his game would fall away. So he hit Nick and Mark up for some ideas on how to address it. Steve went out onto his local course at Ocean Shores near Byron Bay, and put Nick and Marks advice into practise. He left us another voicemail to let us know if the advice made a difference (or not). Over to Steve.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today we read through some of your questions and comments, and we start with a comment about Magnolia Lane at Augusta which Nick made last week. Whilst talking The Masters, it was exciting to see the GolfLoot prize drawn on Sunday - Geoff from Moonah Links won a trip to next years Masters with a friend!! Unbelievable !!! Heaps of other great prizes on offer at GolfLoot, including playing with, and having a lesson from, Nick O'Hern. Details here.After Mark revealed on the show last week that he does not eat fruit, not most fruits anyway, Nick and Dan were horrified and thought that nobody else would share this dislike of fruit.....turns out we were wrong. We were inundated with feedback from fellow fruit-hating wolfpackers who were backing Mark up. We read out 3 or 4 of the dozens we received. Which flows into a chat about Vegemite, American bread, Peanut Butter.....this podcast has clearly jumped the shark.So onto the golf. Wolfpacker Mark has some feedback on commentators from The Masters, Paul has a comment about a commentator he loved who was unceremoniously dumped from The Masters coverage after a couple of gags that the Men of the Masters did not appreciate.Bruiser enjoyed the 66/76/86/96/06/16 Masters analysis last week, but suggested the 79 win by Gary Player is equally worth a chat, he's not wrong, it was a ripper. Mark makes a diary note to do that in 2029. Fair chance he'll forget. But we do kick around the 7's...Roy loved the recent chat with Mike Harwood, if you haven't heard it or watched it - worth a look/listen, Mike is a gun.And we finish on some memories of one of the gentlemen of Australian golf, Alex Mercer, who turned 92 a few weeks ago.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Masters Review this week, and we start of course by discussing Rory. Where does he sit in the pantheon of Mens Golf? Mark saw a tweet from Flushing It that he reads through which outlines his wins beautifully. Is he the best European golfer in history? Nick and Mark discuss, and list the other Europeans who would be in the discussion.Rory was brilliant, but he had a couple of wobbles on Saturday, we chat about some of the players who were coming for him - Cameron Young and Justin Rose in particular. We talk about the influence the great man, Jack, may have had on Rory's approach.Mark says that of all the majors, Augusta is the 'choke' venue, and explains why. Which is one reason why Rory played the venue for 2-3 weeks prior, he explains why, we play the audio, where Rory also outlines Tom Watson's advice to him on how to play Augusta.Nick says Scheffler made the greatest Birdie he has ever seen on the 15th hole, and talks us through it.Our Betr multi was looking a shot early on Sunday when Ludvig got off to a good start, unfortunately he fell away.Nick and Mark discuss the LIV players performance in The Masters, particularly Bryson and Rahm, who played poorly. And we look at the Aussies - Cameron Smith, and Min Woo Lee - both had a tournament to forget. Nick gives some thoughts on where Min Woo's game went wrong.For Hostplus, our That's a Plus for golf was Jason Day's performance, he was in the hunt and playing well. Almost an 'anti plus' was Sergio Garcia's tantrum which Nick and Mark refer to as child like, Nick says he definitely would have received a warning.BMW Touch of Class this week goes to Phil Mickelson for his gracious congratulations to Rory on the win, despite the history the pair have.After the Turn, we give a shout out to our friends at Te Arai in New Zealand who had a nasty fire at the weekend which burned down one of the restaurants. Clearly they need a Switchstar installed. Check them here.Marks Top 5 for Betr is the Top 5 'choke' holes at Augusta. The PING Globals is nearly all Masters, plus a Japanese tournament. Feedback is all Masters, comments and questions on Rory, Rory's caddy Harry, Sergio, Min Woo, Bird Noises, Commentary, and Broadcast coverage.And Nick's masterclass today for the Golf Clearance Outlet is on committing when you're hitting on a slope.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A mini today where Nick and Mark have a listen to a voicemail from wolfpacker Steve whose goal is to break par for the first time, yet whenever he gets close, nerves take over. Steve is keen to know if Nick and Mark have some tips for dealing with the nerves in this pressure situation. They do!Nick explains how he'd deal with nerves and relax himself when he was on tour, and Mark talked through his approach. Mark tells a story about when exactly what Steve is talking about happened to him recently, and Nick explains the time it happened to him playing in the US Open!!Oh and we talk sitcoms. Mark and Dan are unimpressed with Nick's sitcom of choice....not that it's a bad show, but it's not up there with Mark and Dans preferred sitcoms.A fun mini, thanks for the voicemail Steve!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A feedback pod today, and we start with a very blunt question from a wolfpacker about Marks eating habits - following the revelation a week or two ago that he has never eaten a cucumber. And we find out some other, surprising, food items he has never (and says he will never) eat.Mark tells a very funny story about playing in a tournament , about to be called to the first tee, when his mother turned up with something he had forgotten to bring...hilarious, but also quite sweet.But enough food chat. Onto golf. Feedback from a wolfpacker who saw Steve Bowditch play live and said, until he did, he wasn't aware of how much of a flusher he was. Ken saw Bubba play at Coolum with Nick and shared that memory. And Colin from New Zealand has a very important question about a hole in one...and whether it counts or not. Nick and Mark give their view.And we have a NSW wolfpacker who is a sparky and given Marks challenge in being able to find one locally to install his Switchstar, has offered to fly down and install it if Mark takes him for a round at Kingston Heath....mmm interesting idea.After the turn, we have a comment and a question from Phillip regarding the worst shot ever in a pressure situation, with Rory the one being nominated....Nick and Mark discuss, and Mark talks about the famous Jean Van Der Velde incident at Carnoustie saying he feels Jean was horribly unlucky and only hit one bad shot.Nick and Mark reveal what they believe to be the worst shot they each ever hit in a tournament....funny (for us not them).We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A mini today where Nick and Mark have a listen to a voicemail from Mick in the UK who has a suggestion for a Top 5, in fact two Top 5's. We don't do the first one, and the second is impossible, because we cannot fit the answers into just 5.....Mick has asked Nick and Mark to name their favourite commentators, on or off course.As we talk, more names come to mind, and a Top 5 is simply impossible...but what a wonderful chat about some legendary people in our game.If we've missed anyway, let us know!And we end this mini with a very special piece of audio. If your life has been impacted by Alzheimers, or you've lost your Dad (or Mum), it's worth a listen.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Phew this is a big pod today, one of our longer ones....we try to keep the main pod no longer than an hour, but it's a tad hard in Masters week! We start today with Mark asking Nick how he prepared for The Masters given he played it 4 times. Nick explains what he did, and he talks about the first time he saw the course, and what he did. He explains the how the wind works on 11,12, and 13. We talk about preparation in the lead-up, and Nick explains why living at Isleworth in Florida was the perfect preparation - if you know why, the story is worth hearing again, if you don't - it is wild. Mark asks about the risks of overdoing your preparation when you arrive at Augusta, particularly as the course is so hilly.The facilities have had an upgrade at Augusta (of course they have, they're loaded), and we hear about the new carpark for the players....sheez.Onto the Ryder Cup, with Tiger now not in consideration, who will be the captain for the US team? We talk about the names being mentioned and Nick and Mark suggest who they think it will be and why.Mark runs through The Masters '6's'. That is: 1966, 1976, 1986, 1996, 2006 - all years where extraordinary things happened. And he tells a great story about Greg Norman from the 96 Masters, not great for Greg, or for Australians, but amusing in hindsight.What about the Augusta National Women's Amateur - 18-year old Raegan Denton from Adelaide finished T4, the highest ever finish by an Australian in the tournament! A star on the rise for sure, and we award her our Hostplus 'Plus for Golf' this week. She certainly is.After the turn, into the back 9....sorry, Masters week so it's the second 9. We hear about a few of the rules at Augusta, overall they are strict but they all add to the prestige.For BMW our Touch of Class goes to Justin Rose, Nick watched his interview at Augusta and given the pressure he must be feeling, it really was a classy interview.Then, for Betr, Nick lists the Top 5 memorable moments from the 12th hole at Augusta...there are some absolute rippers!Feedback for Southern Golf Club is Masters centric this week: comments from you on 1986, on Rory from last year, The Shark in 86, Nick's results, and a great story from David in Brasil about Jack Nicklaus in 86, which Mark follows up with an amazing Golden Bear stat.Lots of results for Nick to run through in the PING Globals today....we divert slightly from them to hear a story of Nicks run-in with US Police, and how he got out of it....sneaky...And finally, Mark's Masterclass for Golf Clearance Outlet is on lag putting - when the greens are running hot, and there are undulating greens, lag putting is your friend. Nick and Mark discuss.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's Masters week and today Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen preview the tournament. You'd think we'd start off by chatting golf, but no, Mark brings a fun fact about trees (albeit Augusta trees) to the table, and Nick counters with another 'tree trivia' item.But after we get 'tree chat' out of the way, it's onto the real stuff. Nick and Mark discuss the Aussies and Kiwi, and what their chances are. Nick likes Min Woo the best of the Aussie and Kiwi players, Mark feels Adam Scott is in a purple patch and is the most likely of them. Each give their reasons.What about Jason Day, can he win even with a toned down outfit on? And Cam Smith? The boys are not confident. Does Ryan Fox have the game to compete at Augusta? We discuss.Then onto the power rankings, and we look at the big US and international players from 1-12-ish, deliberately skipping over one player who neither Nick or Mark enjoy watching. Nick wonders if, with the monkey off his back, Rory might go crazy this weekend, and we discuss how Scheffler might play with a new baby having just arrived. Mark is red hot for one particular player, saying he believes in 'magic' at Augusta, and this player winning would be that. Then we construct our Betr multi...and there is trouble in paradise. Nick and Mark agree on two of the legs, however have a disagreement on the third....so we 'rock paper scissors' it to see which we'll go with.After the turn, an Augusta weather update from Nick 'meteorologist' O'Hern, then we hear back from Hummer on the pricing for the multi....it's pretty good! And Mark reckons we're on a roll so it's a good one to get on board. Mark might be whacking some mayo on what defines 'on a roll', given we won our last one, and we're hardly stringing multiple wins together, but hey, let's go with it.Get on board at the Betr website here, or on the app - search Betr specials and you'll find the Talk Birdie To Me multi there.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's Masters week and today Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen spend some time reminiscing and sharing their memories of what is, in many eyes, the greatest golf tournament ever played - the 1986 Masters, during this week, it's 40th anniversary.Nick and Mark focus on the Sunday, when Jack Nicklaus started the day with 7 (incredible) players ahead of him and through the course of the day chased them all down.We hope you enjoy this Talk Birdie To Me where we go down memory lane and enjoy the wonderful memories, and hear some of the amazing shots, from players like Jack, Seve, Kite, Shark.And happy Masters week!!!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A Talk Birdie Mini today where we read out a handful of the hundreds of messages we've received on what your first ever set of clubs were!It's fun to reminisce, and to simply hear some of the old brand names again...some flashbacks to an earlier time! And of course, your messages on clubs lend themselves to some interesting stories from Nick and Mark....including finding out that one of the two had 'cleaning golf club toilets' as their first ever job! Sheez.....We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today on the pod we have a special guest. Jayden Hunt is a former AFL footballer who played 172 games for Melbourne and the West Coast Eagles, you don't get to that number of games unless you're a gun! These days, his (sporting) life revolves around golf, and he has embarked on a challenge to play 52 of the Worlds Top golf courses in 52 weeks.....we wanted to find out why, how, the plan....so many questions!We start with Jayden telling Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen how he got into golf, where the bug came from....and he talks us through his handicap journey over the last few weeks, it is mind blowing...he tells us the amount of golf he is playing to achieve his current handicap. He went to Q School last week, he tells us how he went, and his plans to return.He's working his way through 52 of the Worlds best 52 courses at the moment, he heads off to the US on Monday - and whilst there will be attending The Masters. But of all the courses he is playing, which one is he most excited about? And, how on earth is he managing to get on these courses ?!?!?He explains the backstory of how he did it. Which is fascinating. Jayden also talks through his partnership with GolfLoot, a new Australian company where memberships provide the chance to win some quite extraordinary prizes, with a focus on 'bucket list golf trips', there are a number on offer - the big one right now is a chance to win a trip to the 2027 Masters for two people - flights, accom, tickets - amazing prize, the winner is drawn on Masters Sunday (12th April) so well worth entering now...you can find out more details here: https://www.golfloot.com.au/Jayden talks about his fascination with the mental aspect of golf, and Mark suggests that it would be great for him to play some tournaments over the next year or so.A great chat with Jayden Hunt , clearly a great footballer, and now an excellent golfer.....we'll keep in touch with him as he works his way around the world through these 52 courses!And have a look at GolfLoot, the monthly fee is very reasonable considering what you'll get - and the chance to win a trip to The Masters in 2027 is worth it just on its own!! https://www.golfloot.com.au/We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Another massive pod today, we start with Mark reviewing Huntingdale, he played it at the weekend. Does it play as good as it looks? He tells us.And then. Gary Woodland. What a performance, what a story, and what emotion. A fantastic and very popular win in Texas, nobody deserved this more. Nick and Mark discuss his performance and how he has come to this point. We listen to/watch the winning putt, and hear some of the post win interview.Are challenging pin placements late in a round good or bad for golf? That might depend on whether you're playing or watching. Certainly Karl Vilips might have some strong views after he ping-ponged across the green at the weekend. Nick and Mark give us their thoughts.Tiger. We have to discuss Tiger. And we do. The BMW Touch of Class this week goes to Min Woo Lee after his extraordinary bunker shot at the weekend. And we award the Hostplus 'Thats a Plus' for golf to, who else, Gary Woodland. 7 Mile Beach. Nick and Mark have heard contrasting reviews - some love it, some feel it's very tough, maybe too tough. We discuss the reviews.After the turn, for Betr, Mark lists his Top 5 'gotcha holes', those holes that lull you into a false sense of security and you think you've got them, but then BAM they nail you.Nick takes us around the world in the PING Global Results.And in feedback for Southern Golf Club, plenty of whacks....some for one member of the team for something on last weeks pod, some for the entire team after something different on last weeks pod. And Mark reads out a text from a Tour Pro who listened to last weeks show where we discussed the Monday Q story on the player suspended for cheating, and makes some WILD accusations. We wrap the show with a masterclass from Nick - he calls this a 'combination masterclass', and it's a ripper.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We must apologise for the start of today's pod. Mark and Dan were ready to go, Nick was extremely unprofessional and decided to send a text just as the show began, so there's a slight delay while Nick finishes his extremely important, far more important than Mark, Dan and the Wolfpackers, text message.But...once we get through this hiccup in the Talk Birdie Zen, we get on with the show! JH has a request for Nick and Mark which the boys don't mind....and this leads onto a chat about a very famous, and very funny, movie that Nick has (embarrassingly) never seen !?!?!?! He really is having a shocker today. Onto Andrew, who has a comment on 'golf farces'. Tony heard Mark talking about his desire to travel to Ireland, and has some course suggestions for him. Whilst in the UK, Craig played the London Club last week and gives a report on the conditions. Trevor has messaged us about slow play and aim point, and believes a particularly massive Tour Pro is guilty of the former - but is a protected species.Mark has been shopping on Temu again....sheez.Alex has a question. His club head speed isn't great and he has found a way around it that works for him, and is interested in Nick and Marks thoughts on it. Peter watched John Senden play a few months back in the Australian Open, with Parkinsons, Peter also plays with Parkinsons and has asked if we can get Sendo on the pod to chat about how he does it, some of the tools he uses. Mark tells a great story about playing with Sendo in New Zealand where a shot went extremely pear-shaped.And Chris from Toronto writes in to let us know he enjoys watching the pod on YouTube, and has a recommendation for another pod we should check out....we've not heard of it, but when we google it, it is massive!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Peter from Commonwealth Golf Club in Melbourne left a brief voicemail on Sunday outlining something quite special that happened at Commonwealth at the weekend.....surely this is a record? Have a listen to Peter's voicemail and let us know if you have ever seen or heard anything like it previously. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We love chatting with legends in golf, and today we have a cracker of a guest - Mike Harwood won 3 huge events in Europe, came second in The Open Championship, and has played with some of the biggest names in international golf. Today for Hostplus, we host Mike Harwood on the Talk Birdie To Me.We start with Mike telling Nick and Mark how he got into golf, how it all started and how he caught the bug. He tells us how old he was when he first shot under par. Get ready to be simultaneously impressed and envious.Mike talks about playing the Troppo tour in Queensland, his recollections about playing with the various characters who were on the tour at that time.Mark asks Mike about the time he took Greg Norman down at Castle Hill and what happened - Mike reveals something about that tournament that we've never heard and blows us away! He talks about the four big wins he had, and his performances in Europe. Mike discusses his 'attitude' when he played and why he always expected to get results.Mike is very tall, and Nick is curious about how this impacted his clubs in the bag, in answering Mike reveals what the worst thing he ever did for his golf swing was, and why he feels it hindered his career.Of course, we have to discuss The Masters. After finishing second to Ian Baker-Finch in The Open Championship, Mike was not offered an invite to The Masters. Nick and Mark want to know why not and how he felt about it. Mike answers both questions.Mark asks Mike about playing with Greg Norman at the World Series of Golf, and what happened when he was announced to the tee. Very funny.And we wrap asking Mike about what's next for him? He's helping out at Southern Golf Club, and explains how much he enjoys that, and there's plenty of family time.A great chat with a legend of Australian golf, fantastic to host Mike Harwood for Hostplus on Talk Birdie To Me !We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Short feedback pod today. Lots of comments on our Bubba Watson mini - if you haven't watched or listened you can find it in the feed here - fair to say he is a polarising character! Tour Pro Paul Moloney enjoyed the recent reminiscing about Pantales Nightclub, where the Pros would hang out in the UK.We spoke last week about shooting under your age, and have a couple of messages to read out - have we found the record ? It may be, or may not be, but they are impressive either way. Leads to a chat about Nick and Mark playing Clearwater in Christchurch.A question about players not defending their titles, is there any excuses or is it poor form?And a wolfpacker has heard us talking about Switchstar, the charger that turns off after 8-hours of charging your buggy - thus protecting your house, or golf club - but he kept missing the name. It is Switchstar, and you can check it out here.Last week Nick was giving tips on playing in windy conditions, and we had two wolfpackers write in - one with some info that he heard Sir Nick Faldo give on windy conditions, and another with his own tip....which Mark rates.Did Mark's caddy who bet against him (many years ago without Marks knowledge) share the winnings? We find out.A while ago we listed some of the yippiest moments in golf.....but, according to one wolfpacker there was a massive one that we missed, in fact he feels it should be number one. We listen/watch.A comment on the NSW Golf Club from someone who has a view on whether it is worthy of an increase in ranking, or not.And we wrap with a final message from Craig on a fantastic 'shooting below your age' record, which may well be the record.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We start today's show as we did last week - by congratulating Hannah Green, 3 wins in a row and she appears well on track for a major in 2026. Nick and Mark discuss how she looks so comfortable and in control at the moment, Nick awards Hannah the Hostplus 'That's a Plus' for golf this week...hard to argue.Matt Fitzpatrick played beautifully at Valspar to win, he's in great form. However it wasn't all smooth sailing as he was frustrated by the slow play of his playing partner Adrien Dumont de Chassart who played with the speed of a slow moving turtle. Matt has spoken about this before, and he was clearly unhappy after the tournament - and rightly so. Nick and Mark discuss what the punishment should be, and why the powers that be seem to never do anything about it.An alarming story, that Nick and Mark were unaware of until they saw it on the Monday Q Twitter account about a young Tour Pro being banned for 6-months for cheating, however playing in a tournament in China at the weekend. We talk through the problems with this, and how the governing bodies could better approach it (rather than keeping it secret) to both act as a deterrent and a punishment, but also provide a path to redemption for one mistake.Jon Rahm's appeal has been dropped, what does it mean for the Ryder Cup?Rory McIlroy's menu for The Masters dinner is all over the internet, we discuss it - particularly the wine. Nick awards the BMW Touch of Class to the wine list. Leads to a chat about Nick and Mark playing at the weekend with Hostplus honcho's David and Mark at Victoria Golf Club, and particularly how it ended in the clubhouse!After the turn, Nick lists his Top 5 fast swings on the PGA Tour for Betr.Then into feedback for Southern Golf Club: feedback today on Tiger, Cheating from Tour Pros, clarity on our legal terminology that we mangled last week, Hawthorn's Mitch Lewis and his amazing round at PK North last week, and lots of comments on Radar - including some feedback from one particularly big name!Nick takes us around the world in the PING Global results, and Mark's masterclass for Sam and the team at the Golf Clearance Outlet is inspired by something Ludvig Åberg does in his pre-shot routine. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Some more feedback today, we start with Scarby who loved The Ox's random drop in a couple of weeks ago, and reckons he should be a regular guest. Not the worst idea we've heard to be honest.Nathan asks for clarity on the difference between Australian style and American style courses, after a chat he heard on last weeks show. David played Bonville recently and after hearing the discussion about it last week had some thoughts following his recent visit. Keith reckons Kooralbyn Valley was always under-rated, and had it been on the Gold Coast would have been far higher regarded, however he feels it's condition presently isn't what it could be.Leads to a chat about some Australian golfers who went through Kooralbyn Valley, including one very famous one, and another who was extremely talented however had some personal challenges that got in the way. Mark has a story about the latter which he wants to consider whether it's appropriate to tell, he'll decide after the turn.Wolfpacker Greeny played NSW recently, and talks about the wind! And James 'vents' on duffers and how they drive him (as a self-confessed duffer) crazy.After the turn.....Mark decides to tell the story. Steven Bowditch had all the potential in the world, and remains a very, very good golfer. He has had some well documented challenges with alcohol, which is the context of the story that Mark tells from a tournament in New Zealand. We'll note here that Steven has spoken openly about his struggles over the journey, and from all reports is in a good place at the moment and healthy, which is what we all want.Then we get Craig, a Brisbane wolfpacker, on the show who tells us all about the redesign at his course, Indooroopilly, which has it in schmicko condition! Craig explains what was done, how it's changed it, and if the members are happy with the results.And we wrap with a comment from Paul on Denis Brosnan, of Brosnan's fame, and he has a wonderful bit of trivia about Denis that we share.....leading to Mark giving you some homework!!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We've been talking a bit about a new product called Switchstar lately, and for good reason. There has been a number of incidences in Australia of lithium iron batteries catching fire with catastrophic results - not only at golf clubs, but in nursing homes, garages, without being overly dramatic, it can be devastating.Given Mark currently is charging his MGI buggy in his garage, he thought we should get John O'Callaghan, the guy who invented Switchstar, on the pod to explain what it is, how it works and why it solves the problem. Mark has had several instances where he's woken up in the middle of the night and realised he's left the buggy on charge for 3-days, and ducks downstairs to turn it off.John explains why batteries can explode, what causes it. And he explains how Switchstar can prevent this happening by automatically turning off after 8-hours, or when it identifies the battery is fully charged - removing, to a significant degree, the risk. He explains what items this works for, and what it isn't appropriate for, and how easy the install process is.John explains that there are insurance benefits to having Switchstar installed which potentially can result in more savings than the cost of the unit.Eagle eyed Mark spots an opportunity for golf clubs, in particular his, to install a heap of these and charge members a fee to leave their buggy at the club - at the moment buggies have to be taken home given the risk, but with Switchstar, they can be safely left at your club - very handy.It's a cracking idea, and you can find out more info at the Switchstar website here: https://switchstar.com.au/We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today we run through some questions from you and kick them around.We start with a message from a wolfpacker who seems to be a Tour Pro, and has written regarding Nick's story about not signing a card of a player in Asia some years ago, he had a similar story about playing on the Korean tour involving both a player and a rules official. Another wolfpacker asks Nick why he waited until the end of the round to raise the issue, rather than addressing it whilst on course.New listener Lee is working through the back catalogue of shows, and has a question about Marks recent masterclass on wedge distance control.And as we go to the turn, an update on young Sophie, a 9-year old wolfpacker who listens to the show with her Dad Travis, and sent her swing in a month ago....Travis has written in with some news on Sophie's golf.After the turn, Shankedit has written in, he's just moved to Perth and is after some advice from Nick on playing golf in a region (like Perth) where it is incessantly windy.Peter has a question about Tour Pro's swapping clubs during a tournament, leading to a chat about Justin Rose, and the PGA money winners list.And we finish with a couple of comments about Wayne 'Radar' Riley, one from a listener who rates him, and another with a question about his appearance....mmmm....We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A voicemail today from wolfpacker Tim, who plays of 5 at the mighty Southern Golf Club in Melbourne, he heard Nick and Mark discussing Royal Dornoch last week and their eagerness to play it, and left a message running through his experience on his Scottish golfing tour with his Dad playing Royal Dornoch, Carnoustie, Tain, and Panmure. Wow....slightly envious truth be told. Great voicemail, and Tim goes into fantastic detail about the trip.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Every week we say it's a big week in golf, but this one might just take the cake. Try this on for size....We have to start with the amazing Hannah Green, winning the Australian Open, a wonderful display and she was the player to beat from go to woah. We also discuss how great Kooyonga looked, what a golf course it is. Whilst Hannah, rightly, deserves great praise, we do discuss Cassie Porter's wonderful tournament, specifically her sunday where she shot a course record by a mile.We take a moment to bask in the glory of rinsing Betr this week with our multi coming off....good fun. The multi was on The Players, and we discuss plenty of that on the show. Cam Young was sensational, and his drive on the 18th...wow....that's our BMW Touch of Class for the week - one of them - the other is Cassie Porter....two Touches of Class! On The Players, Ludvig looked great, until he didn't. Thursday through Saturday, brilliant.....Sunday, it all fell apart. We discuss the comments that Jonathan Yarwood and Brandel Chamblee made about Ludvig's swing, and have a look at it. Also some comments about Scottie Schefflers swing, he's off a bit at the moment by his lofty standards.Hostplus 'That's a Plus' for golf this week - in a week of highlights, it can only be Hannah Green. She is absolutely a plus for golf....a superstar.You may recall we had a discussion about Travis Smyth last week in New Zealand and our view that golf's governing bodies are not effectively policing the rules. Travis wasn't happy with our analysis and reached out, whilst he didn't want to come on the show (we invited him) he did send in some comments about what happened, from his perspective. In the interest of transparency and offering him the right of response to our discussion, we read out his comments in full and unedited. Onto the Betr Top 5 and Mark's doing it today - he takes some inspiration from Nick and makes it a Top 6, and runs through the 6 key points that Brian Rolapp has announced for the revamped PGA Tour. We discuss the changes, what they mean, and whether they're positive. Nick and Mark believe that they are overwhelmingly positive.Nick runs us through the weeks results in the PING Global results. And then for Southern Golf Club, some feedback and questions from you. Themes include The Australian Women's Open, Akshay - anchoring or not, Travis Smyth, and our recent conversation on farces in golf - one wolfpacker reckons we've missed an obvious one and gives us a whack over it.And for the Golf Clearance Outlet, Nick's masterclass today is a combination of Cam Young and Hannah Green....now that's a decent combination !We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A Talk Birdie Mini today where we have a question from Wolfpacker Dermie for Nick O'Hern. Dermie was a little tacker and went to the 2005 Australian Masters at Huntingdale, and remembers following the grouping with Bubba Watson and Nick O'Hern - and being amazed at some of the golf he witnessed. Dermie wants to know, from Nick's perspective, what it was like playing with Bubba.Nick talks about that tournament and some of the shots he saw Bubba hit close up, he also talks about shots he watched Bubba hit at Memorial, and some of his idiosyncrasies - of which he had many. Nick also reveals the very famous golfer whose house Bubba bought! And he tells Mark Allen why he was surprised that Bubba won two US Masters.Some great stories, and a lot of fun on todays Mini!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feedback pod today and we start with a video that a wolfpacker has sent in of their swing - Ian from Lancashire has sent a short video through to Nick and Mark and you will not believe the course that he filmed it on!!! Nick and Mark (and Dan!) are veeeeery jealous. Even though it's analysis of a video, if you're listening, the feedback will still make sense. We give Ian 3 things to take away and work on.Whilst in the northern hemisphere we head over to Portugal where wolfpacker Laubie is comparing Melbourne's sandbelt courses to the Portugal courses...Nick has played plenty in both areas, does he agree? Rob feels that 14 clubs in the bag is too few and would like a 15th. Nick and Mark discuss. Then back to to UK where Craig has a question about playing in Bermuda.Lee is new to golf and wants the boys to drop in and check out his club, Alex heard us discussing great comebacks a couple of weeks ago and feels that an obvious one was missed....it's pretty impressive....and Geoff has a different sort of comeback to mention, and has a question about a possible bazillion dollar deal for Scottie Scheffler to endorse Brosnan Taipans (now that's a flashback!).Nick and Mark reminisce about the first clubs they ever had. Good times.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Recently Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen listed the official Talk Birdie To Me Top 20 list, and the feedback has been off the charts...some of you thought it was spot on, some thought it was off the mark, some felt it was good, but needed 1 or 2 position tweaks. Thanks for all your feedback and keep it coming. Today, we have a look at a random selection of comments from a few wolfpackers.We hear thoughts on The Grange, that it should have been in the list. Also Royal Canberra.Some thought Metropolitan was too high, others thought PK South was too high, and another was pleased PK South was recognised.Commentator Paul Gow says that NSW is incredible and is in his Top 3, possibly #1 for him.One wolfpacker says that Kingston Heath was too low, we had it at #2, Mark and Nick give their view on that comment.We heard from someone who played the new Huntingdale a couple of weeks ago and has it as their #3 in the country now.Phil wants Nick and Mark to commit to play NSW, Royal Sydney, 7 Mile Beach, Kangaroo Island, basically all the contenders, before redoing the list in 12-months. They agree.A comment about The Australian and how some are not a fan. Mark disagrees and explains why.We had a number of comments about Bonville, so we find out where the guys would rank it and why. Nick hasn't played it, and Mark doesn't have it in his Top 20, however he said it makes the Top 3 for one particular category!And we wrap the pod by discussing great golf trips, of which there are plenty, and we decide to dedicate an upcoming podcast to exploring the great golf trips available.If you haven't listened to our Top 20 lists - two pods, 1-10 and 11-20, you can find them in the feed here, just click on your preferred platform: https://linktr.ee/TalkBirdieToMeWe're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Always an exciting week, it is Players Championship week, and today Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen are previewing the tournament.We all love the week, Mark refers to it as 'the fifth major' and he's like a kid in a candy story. Nick tells us about playing the tournament , which he has done multiple times, and how it plays, how you feel as a player - and he explained how his feelings coming into the 17th island hole were quite different from day to day and why. Mark has not played a tournament there, but he has played the course and says that it was something quite special.Given he knows the course so well, Nick talks us through the kind of player he feels will win this tournament. We look at the power rankings, which seem a touch odd this week, but nonetheless we kick them around. Nick and Mark give their tips, their dark horses, and give thoughts on the Australians in the field.After the turn, we construct a market for Hummer at Betr to have a Talk Birdie Multi on....we've given him no notice so during the record of the show he confirmed the multi, but needs some time to frame the odds....it will be good, but probably a little shorter than usual as this one seems a likely win (to the extent you can think that). Download the Betr app or visit the website and look at Betr specials for our multi....by the time this episode is live the odds will be there...jump on board and remember to gamble responsibly!We wrap the show with a very dodgy story from Mark about his caddy many years ago regarding a bet on Mark....it would be illegal today, and rightly so, but it's a funny story.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Phew this is a big show today, plenty of stuff that has happened, and plenty that is about to.We start with the Bay Hill tournament, a course that Nick has played many times and isn't fond of, he explains to Mark how differently the golf ball plays on Florida courses and why. We discuss Akshay Bhatia's brilliant shot on the par 5 16th hole, did he plan it that way? Doesn't matter....amazing. Mark was amazed about Rory's shot over the gallery, the footage is on the YouTube version of the show, it is wild.But back to Akshay. We have to discuss his putting. Is he anchoring? Nick says it looks like he may be but he'd give him the benefit of the doubt, Mark says he absolutely is. But Mark doesn't blame Akshay, he holds responsibility elsewhere, and explains who and why.We grab a broomstick putter at Titleist HQ and Nick shows us illegal and legal usage, and some of the nuances.Speaking of bending the rules. Travis Smyth. Did he improve his lie in Auckland at one point? A wolfpacker sent us in some vision from Kayo and we have a look, Nick and Mark give their views.Nick tells a story about the time he refused to sign the card of a pro he was playing with in a tournament.The BMW Touch of Class, Nick awards it to the Australian Women's Open, or particularly Kooyong, one of his favourite courses and he is excited to see it this weekend. Fingers crossed one of the incredible Aussie women get up for the win!Mark's 'That's a Plus' for Hostplus goes to Luke Donald, announced as European Ryder Cup captain again, obviously he was always going to be, but Nick and Mark both say he should remain captain for a little while yet, he's that impressive. Who will be the US captain? Nick and Mark give their preference, it's an obvious one.We discuss the LIV Clutch player of the year demonstrating his clutchability (it's a real word, look it up), and how it is a shame he won't play Ryder Cup. After the Turn, for Betr Nick lists the Top 5 rules that players take advantage of, the grey areas. For Southern Golf Club, plenty of feedback - this week focused on Marks criticism of the NZ Open's ProAm structure, and our bonus video ep on Huntingdale's redevelopment. Plus a bit of feedback on something from last weeks show from a English LIV player.Nick runs through all the results in the PING globals, and there are heaps!And we wrap with a masterclass from Mark, for the Golf Clearance Outlet, on how experimenting with your backswing length can give you greater distance control.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partnerBMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A Talk Birdie Mini today where Nick and Mark consider an excellent question from wolfpacker Andrew, who has essentially asked if Tour Pros damage their game and their creativity through a continual search for the perfect swing. There are of course many examples over the years of players changing their swings and it working out beautifully and, in some cases, not working out.Nick and Mark feel is different for the men and women players at the moment and explain why, and they talk about the role flexibility plays and the Tour Pro who Mark says is a 'flexibility freak'. We discuss which players on tour have the highest performance looking swings at the moment, and who is a touch more home made.And we talk about Ian Baker-Finch and when he spoke to us recently about addressing his swing challenges during his career - Nick played with him a couple of weeks again and said that whilst Finchy is still working on his swing, he was hitting them beautifully! A fun little mini today, thanks Andrew for the question!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Great voicemail from wolfpacker Andrew in Perth about a recent experience on his local driving range, and how he has played a significant role* in a Tour Pro winning a tournament. Great message, love it Andrew!*role may be slightly overstated.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feedback pod today and some great questions and comments from you. We start with with feedback for you, the wolfpackers, listenership and viewership to Talk Birdie To Me increases each month, and our February numbers were (again) a new high with over 56,000 audio downloads and over a quarter of a million views on YouTube. We know you've got plenty of ways you can spend your time, and we appreciate very much that you carve out some of that to spend with us, so thank you!Okay onto the show. Daniel from Holland reckons Nick and Mark have gotten their Top 20 list out of whack and feels that the National Moonah course should be ranked higher, and explains why. Last week Nick outlined the Top 5 hardest 3 final holes in world golf - Roger reckons he missed one, do Nick and Mark agree? And Falco has a smokey to add, from one of the Melbourne sandbelt courses.JD has a huge prediction for 2026 for Jeeno Thitikul - Mark thinks it's a chance, Nick says it isn't. We then discuss how many majors in 2026 would be considered a 'success' by Scottie Scheffler.Message from Scott on the Ritchie Smith interview from a few weeks back - if you missed it, worth going back to, it was great. Callen enjoyed Marks masterclass on bunker play and recalled some advice Mark once gave him on a golf day! Sven loved the swing critique of 9-year old Sophie recently, and shares a story of how much his daughter enjoys beating him on the course.A wolfpacker has done an extensive trial (300 balls!!!) with a stimp meter and shares the results with us.Lots of feedback on sandbaggers. Humble hates the handicap system and says it is fundamentally flawed, Aussie talks about his inconsistency, Syd reckons his club has sandbaggers that emerge at a specific time of the year.And we wrap with Nick and Mark telling us where their handicaps are at the moment. We leave Dan's out of the discussion, his is a very long way behind Nick and Marks but improving (painfully slowly).We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
We start off this week with Mark delivering on his promise to Nick to buy him a gift from Temu....does it work or is it underwhelming? We find out. But then onto far more important things like Hannah Green's win in Singapore. A great performance, Nick and Mark discuss how she played, her swing, and her hubby on the bag! Big year on the way for Hannah.Nick tells us about how he managed to get his green card when he moved to the US. It wasn't looking good for a while, until he rolled out something pretty special....he tells the story.The New Zealand Open was at the weekend and the boy from windy Wellington, Daniel Hillier played beautifully. Mark says that he loves how Daniel plays, and he has only scratched the surface of what he can do. Although Daniel did have one thing that annoyed Mark, and he fixed that at the weekend....Mark explains the thing that bugged him.Then...buckle yourself in....Mark absolutely rinses the New Zealand Open saying that a few things he saw 'made him sad'.For BMW, Nick's Touch of Class this week is Shane Lowry. He led by plenty and then had a meltdown at the Cognizant Classic, that wasn't the Touch of Class, but something else Shane did was....Nick plays the audio.And Marks 'That's a Plus' for Hostplus is young 17-year old golfer Amelia Harris who played in the NSW Open in Wollongong (finishing 8th!), and then did something unexpected and impressive the following day.After the turn, we discuss shanks in tournament golf, one particular one from a few years ago from a superstar comes to mind. And then, for Betr, Marks Top 5 is the 5 'supposed' reasons for hitting a shank. In the middle he is reminded of a shank he hit in a tournament when he was paired with Lee Westwood....it's a wild story.....Lots of golf from the weekend, and Nick takes us all over the world in the PING global results. For Southern Golf Club, plenty of feedback - questions and comments on Austen Truslow's chipping, Pros doing maths along with their caddy, a gentle whack for Nick over Tour Pro Jamie Donaldson, and a wolfpacker who saw Mark playing recently at PK North and thought he might have a future in this crazy game. And we finish with a wolfpacker question about golf shoes, we get the inside word from the FootJoy boss Snowy.And for the Golf Clearance Outlet, Nick's Masterclass today is on hitting fairway woods.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A couple of weeks ago, after ripping some of the Top 100 course lists apart for some dubious selections, Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen decided to do their own list, and ranked their Top 10 Australian Courses, you can find it in the feed if you've not heard it. However, the Top 10 courses were:1 Royal Melbourne West2 Kingston Heath3 Victoria4 Peninsula Kingswood North5 NSW6 Royal Adelaide7 Barnbougle Dunes8 Cape Wickham9 Peninsula Kingswood South10 Royal Melbourne EastSo today, we move on to 11-20....which will be tricky, and perhaps a tad controversial. If you think in the 11-20 (or the 1-10) Nick and Mark have missed a course, or gotten a ranking badly out of whack, let us know - the only rule is if you want to put a course in, you've got to tell us which you would remove.And a caveat, we have not considered Seven Mile Beach, Huntingdale, Royal Sydney or Long Island as they are too new and we feel need time to settle in.Let the debate begin !!!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Feedback pod today, and we start with a bit of snake chat. Snakes on golf courses, snake names, and snakes on a plane (okay maybe not that last one). Then wolfpacker Andrew poses a question to Nick and Mark that gets some serious pushback from the boys! But it does lead to a chat about pathways for young pros.Wolfpacker Greg has a theory on how to improve your golf game. We discuss his theory and whether it has merit. After the turn we have a question from David who has a sandbagger at his club, and he's after some advice on how to deal with this particular gentleman. A comment on the chat from a few months back about whether a male scratch marker could beat an LPGA Pro (hint: they wouldn't). A question for Nick about the shaft he uses, and Mark recommends a short doco he saw on YouTube called Tiger 2000 - you can see it here. And we finish with a wolfpacker who used to be a caddy and had some exposure to Ian Woosnam, Nick and Mark tell a couple of stories about Woosie.A fun feedback pod today, keep it coming!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
So we received a message from John who told us a very funny story about playing golf with a fancy lawyer whose driver ended up stuck in a tree. Wonder if he could hold that tree in 'contempt of course' ?? (see what we did there?).Anyway, John went on to ask what funny things Nick and Mark have ever seen on the golf course....and once the memory bank started flowing, oh my gosh were there some stories!Mark had a story about a putter in a tree;Nick once saw a caddy quit mid round in a tournament after his Pro was behaving badly.A fantastic story about Seve Ballesteros, we hear the audioJohn Daly sacking someone, and hiring them in a different role - one related to some of his non-golf interests.We remember the time US Pro Hannah Gregg came across a massive snake in the halfway house on an Australian golf course with Mark making an outrageous claim about Rory McIlroy.The extremely amusing, although not for him, incident involving Mike Clayton many years ago.And we finish hearing a fun video from a comedian on TikTok called Max Price about a day on the course...sort of...very funny. You can follow him here. Ooops....hang on, whilst we're listening to and watching the video, Nick remembers one other very funny story about when he played the Presidents Cup in Montreal involving one of the US Team Members.Thanks John for the idea, this was fun!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
There never seems to be a quiet week in golf, and this week is no different. But before we get into the show, we touch on our Betr multi which was so close to coming off. Rory did the job, Min Woo feel agonisingly short of the Top 10, and Scheffler had a very good weekend, but a poor Thursday and Friday, missing the Top 5. So close, yet so far away....on the flip side a number of wolfpackers seem to have profited from Nick's dark horse tip of Aldrich Potgieter (including Mark and Dan).Nick is over the moon that his good mate US Tour Pro Austen Truslow won at Paraparaumu at the weekend, his first win, and Nick was commentating so saw the whole thing, and was chatting to Austen on the Saturday night before the final day.Huge win for Jacob Bridgeman at Riviera at the weekend, he hung on to claim the title. Mark did see him doing something that he doesn't like and explains to Nick, who completely agrees. And for Hostplus, this week our That's a Plus recipient is Adam Scott for his wonderful performance in Riviera.The BMW Touch of Class from Nick this week is not awarded to a person, although it sort of is a living, breathing, thing....he explains his choice to Mark.Massive news from the DP World Tour with their announcement of a settlement deal for LIV players which sees a number of them now able to play in certain DPWT events alongside LIV. But one player refused to accept the deal....we discuss.Rumour mill....Nick and Mark separately have some mail on something that, should if come off, would be huge for golf. It involves Golf Australia and LIV. They explain on the pod and read out the texts they have each received on this issue.Royal Melbourne's routing for The Australian Open. Good for matchplay, not for the Open. Mark says that Golf Australia need to 'change it now' before it is locked in.After the Turn, for Betr, the Top 5 toughest finishes in golf on courses Nick has played. #1 is a big one, and contains memories that still haunt Nick! He explains why.Lots of feedback - a message on something that a wolfpacker saw at LIV but has not heard about from anyone else, some suggestions on players who have come back from adversity who you feel Mark missed last week - one Australian male golfer and one international female golfer.Feedback on our Ritchie Smith chat from a week or two ago, and Travis (Sophie's Dad!) has written in after Nick and Mark reviewed 8-year old Sophie's golf technique on the pod last week. And then we hear of another young gun, a 14-year old this time, and Mark shares a text from legendary AFL journalist Mike Sheehan about his 15-year old grandson....the kids are killing it!In the PING Globals Nick runs around the world with all the results, and suggests that Talk Birdie To Me may be responsible for killing off Schefflers run of Top 10's....harsh.And for Golf Clearance Outlet, Mark's masterclass is on Rory McIlroy's impressive bunker play.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A feedback pod today, and if you heard last weeks feedback ep, we had a message from wolfpacker Jack who enjoyed the Top 10 Golf Courses in Australia list from Nick and Mark, and suggested a Top 10 Public Courses list....which we jumped at without really thinking it through. The challenge is that we were inundated with suggestions, however there's no real way to rank them, so we just read out a few of the messages and talked about a couple. Sorry Jack!One of the comments we had was from a New Zealand wolfpacker who used to live in Melbourne, and was playing at Brighton East on the day a very famous TV show and scene was being filmed right outside...he explains.Off the back of a vote for Narooma, Mark raises the sheer number of Hogans Alley's that there are around the world. Narooma having the famous Hogan's Hole.A message from a wolfpacker who has been a walking scorer and had some thoughts to add following our chat about The Australian Women's Open having walking scorers for the first two days this year.And a voicemail from John in Albury about Corowa Golf Club. We've had a huge number of messages about what has happened at Corowa, it's a very sad outcome for a famous course.And on a brighter note, Tim has tried Marks 'right ear' idea, has it worked for Tim? We find out.After the turn, this is very sweet. And it is a little visual so if you're listening to the pod we hope the comments make sense. We've had a message from Travis, he listens to the pod with his 8-year old daughter Sophie, who plays golf and asked her Dad to send some footage of her swings into Nick and Mark to review....which of course we do.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Plenty of people who loved seeing Anthony Kim's spectacular performance at LIV Adelaide, it was one of the all time great redemption stories. Gerard from Brisbane agreed, and had some comments on what he saw in the performance from AK, and he gave Bryson a drive by on the way through.Have a listen to Gerard's voicemail.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Wow. Anthony Kim take a bow. After some significant personal challenges and demons to work through, this surely is one of time great redemption stories, and we rightly start todays show discussing his performance at LIV Adelaide - particularly his final day performance. Nick has played with Anthony and says that, by his own admission, he could be a difficult character but he has turned that around. Nick shares a text that he received a few months ago from his caddy Wilbur who had spent some time with Anthony and said that he was a changed man.Mark has some stats on Anthony from the last couple of years, that Ryan at the Monday Q Twitter page shared.Rahm's drop. What was that all about? A number of wolfpackers wrote in about it, we all saw it, Mark describes it as 'crazy', although Nick found Bryson's reaction amusing. On Rahm, we have a listen to the audio of him talking about The Australian Open, and Mark tees off again on the date.For Hostplus, Nick says that Rahm playing The Australian Open would be a plus for golf, along with the other big names who might also play it should the date be more favourable.LIV Adelaide was great, and rightly took a lot of the focus, however Pebble Beach was also exciting and Min Woo nearly got home! Morikawa played very well, and Mark says that he deserves enormous credit for recovering from what would have been a difficult week last week for him.For BMW , our Touch of Class this week is the outpouring of support for Anthony Kim after his LIV win. It was great to see.After the turn - we remind everyone of our Betr / Talk Birdie To Me multi - Scheffler to finish Top 5, Min Woo and Rory to finish Top 10 (including ties) at Riviera this weekend. Decent multi and it's paying 19 bucks at Betr, just head to the website or the Betr app, and search Betr specials.....we're right there!Marks Top 5 is players who have bounced back from significant adversity. There's some great stories.The PING Globals from Nick has plenty to discuss - and he diverts for a moment to tell a very funny story about an orangutan.....it sounds strange, but trust us, it's a must listen.Heaps of feedback - lots on LIV, also OWGR points, our Top 10 course list, and we discuss the Huntingdale redo.Nick's masterclass today is inspired by Anthony Kim.And just as we're wrapping the show, Nick gets a text from Wolfgang at BMW who has sent us his Top 10 Australian courses....and he's played them all!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Massive tournament this week in Los Angeles, with Riviera on, and today we preview the tournament. This event has a cut, and the 10-shot rule is in play which is a good idea, but can go pear-shaped and we discuss when it did.Nick has played Riviera half a dozen times and he talks through how the course plays, what he enjoyed about it, and one hole he particularly loves. Mark wants to know if Nick would use the same clubs, in hindsight, as he typically did when he played there. He wouldn't as it turns out, and explains why.There is a specific kind of golfer, according to Nick, who Riviera suits beautifully and that starts to shape a Betr Multi that we're building for wolpackers. There are three players who stand out for different reasons, and our multi is built around them. Interestingly, we expected the multi might be about 8 bucks....it is well over double that! So whilst there is no guarantee of course, this Talk Birdie To Me multi feels like it might be worth considering.Nick also notes the back tees on one of the holes have been moved, which he feels suit the three players we've gone with. And outside of those three, Nick and Mark give their dark horses. Marks are perhaps predictable, a leopard never changes its spots, Nick has gone for a huge outsider and gives his reasons.If you have a Betr account, jump on board the Talk Birdie To Me multi, just head to Betr on the website or the app, and look at Betr specials, you'll find us there. If you don't have an account, it takes only a couple of minutes to set up. Either way, remember to always gamble responsibly.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This will be fun. Today we're hosting superstar golf coach Ritchie Smith for Hostplus, and boy oh boy do we have a bit to talk with him about.Ritchie is unquestionably the leading golf coach in Australia, and you can make a compelling argument that he is the leading coach in the world. His stable of players include (among others) Min Woo Lee, Minjee Lee, Hannah Green, David Micheluzzi, Yuka Saso. Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen start by finding out how Ritchie got into golf, he started as a player, and he was a good one, but transitioned into coaching quite early.We find out about how he selects which players he will work with, the criteria that he has, and how he finds them or how they are brought to his attention. There is quite the process and quite a checklist, Ritchie explains why this is so important to him. One of the attributes is that he only works with players who are prepared to be 'vulnerable', and he tells us why this is a non-negotiable for him.Ritchie coaches Ryan Peake who has had some well documented challenges, of his own making, and Ritchie discusses the background, how they reconnected, and how he helped Ryan integrate back into golf after some years away following his incarceration.Hannah Green is one of Ritchie's most successful golfers, he describes her as 'the prototype of what I'd like my golfers to be'. He explains how he identified her as a kid, her development in the shadow of a couple of bigger names, and more recently how Hannah and he have completely rebuilt her swing. He explains how and why, and the results. Ritchie started working with Minjee as a 12-year old when he, in his words, 'didn't know what I was doing', clearly he does now! He talks us through Minjee's putting issues, why they changed to the long putter, and the results. He also coaches Min Woo and we're interested in his insights into coaching him, and particularly the work they are doing on Min Woo's iron play. Ritchie says that ''his iron play (was) poor", and he explains how they have been fixing it to ensure that aspect of his game is stronger. And he explains why he got 'cranky' with Min Woo at the Cognizant Classic, what he said to him, and what he had him change....and what happened as a result.David Micheluzzi has just come on board to be coached by Ritchie, and he explains to us what they are working on, and the theory Micheluzzi had on his swing that Ritchie needed to disprove for their work together to be successful. And we finish by finding out what comes after golf for Ritchie, what are his plans and dreams when he gives golf away!A fascinating chat with arguably the worlds best golf coach, thanks to Hostplus it was great to host Ritchie Smith on Talk Birdie To Me. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A feedback pod today with some cracking messages to chat through.We start with a couple on the Australian Open cancellation, on day one, that Nick and Mark spoke about recently. Raymond has written in and he was caddying that day, and remembers it very clearly, he runs through what he was seeing on the day. And Brad, who narrowly missed qualifying for the Open that year and went along with his wife to watch the tournament - unfortunately the day was, obviously, cut short!Phillip has some news on the Australian Women's Open which he asks Nick to confirm, or otherwise.McDougal has a view on this weeks comments about The Players Championship. Mark heard us discussing conceding holes last week and Nick and Mark noting how rare it is, he points out a very famous occasion from an Aussie! Andrew listened to Nick and Mark's 7 predictions, and has a prediction of his own.And after the turn, we review the putting technique of journalist and wolfpacker Jon Ralph who was playing with Mark last week, and was caught on camera putting to save par. We ask Nick O'Hern to analyse Ralphy's putting technique. Is he impressed or underwhelmed?Kevin from Vietnam writes to Nick with his views on the courses in that country, Nick knows it well having played golf there a number of times.And we read a note from Brenton of the Woodburn-Evans Head Golf Club in NSW who recently had a significant theft at the club, and are putting on a great day in March to raise funds for recovery. You can find out more here.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Like everyone Chris from Rutherglen on the NSW/Victorian border was excited about Elvis Smylie's win on debut for LIV last weekend, and in the lead-up to LIV Adelaide this weekend he watched a video on the LIV YouTube channel with every shot of Elvis' final round in the Riyadh tournament and left a voicemail recommending it and explaining why and what is in it. Have a listen to Chris' voicemail, and you can see the video he's referring to here. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
No time to muck around - right off the bat we reveal the BMW Touch of Class recipient this week, and it had to be Elvis Smylie....a huge win in his LIV debut, individual and team and a well deserved Touch of Class for BMW. Nick and Mark discuss how Elvis played, particularly with Rahm on the tear in the late stages, and how he has moved from 130 to be in the 70's now, on the verge of a Masters spot if he can have another couple of solid performances.His timing was pretty good given this was the first LIV tournament eligible for OWGR points, although both Nick and Mark feel the structure of how many points is not yet right. Obviously this weekend is LIV Adelaide, which as usual will be crazy - Adelaide being consistently LIV's best event.Brandel Chamblee made some controversial comments about The Players this week, Nick and Mark discuss and respond to his comments, around the field, the prestige, and Mark asks Nick if he could choose, which one major would he like to win. Nick also gives a recommendation for a restructure of the Women's Majors.Mark watched the Waste Management tournament in Phoenix and loved plenty of it, but was disappointed with two things. He explains.He has also brought in a ridiculous photo regarding aim point and straddling the line - it is truly insane we'll put it on socials, and show it on the YouTube show. We decide that were straddling the line to be banned, and it should be, that would be a plus for golf, and we reckon our friends at Hostplus, who are mad golfers, would completely agree.Oh dear.....the Chili Dip that was seen around the world from Colin Morikawa. We've all done it, but most of us not on international television. We discuss using the leading edge and 'hands of gold' when chipping. Nick and Mark watch the video, and give their thoughts on his technique.After the turn, following a chat about the OWGR points, we look at what you get for each tournament and if it is equitable. Then, for Betr, Nick's Top 5 is the Top 5 Chili Dips in golf....there are some classics, and a couple of very heavy hitters in there!Feedback for Southern Golf Club - we read a couple about Elvis, there were plenty, lots of comments on the Top 10 list - including a ripper of a suggestion from wolfpacker Jack who'd love a Top 10 Public Course list....which we reckon wolfpackers are better to suggest as there will be bunch we've not played. So....let us know what you reckon are your favourite public access courses, shoot a message through via the website, a voicemail, or comment on socials....you might have 1 suggestion, you might have 5, or somewhere in the middle, doesn't matter....give us your views and we'll compile a list.Nick runs through the results in the PING Globals - plenty of golf, the season is away with a bang. And during them we have a look at Tour Pro Chris Gotterup's swing - Mark has noticed something and wants to discuss it. Nick also has another killer Scottie Scheffler stat....this is becoming a habit, maybe we need a stats theme song opener?And predictably, Mark tries to search something on Grok and it goes pear-shaped....We wrap the show with a Masterclass for the Golf Clearance Outlet from Mark inspired by Colin Morikawa's awful chip at the weekend.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
As U2 famously said: 'there's been a lot of talk, maybe too much talk' about Top 100 golf course lists, and last week there was another addition that caught Nick and Mark's eyes. Golf Australia Magazine gave their Top 100 Australian courses list, you can see it here. Like all lists, there is a degree of subjectivity to it and there's plenty on this list we agree with, and plenty we'd question, but that's part of it.Having said that, we decided to do the official Talk Birdie To Me 'Top 10 Australian golf course list'.So today Nick and Mark list their Top 10 Australian courses. We'd love your feedback, whether you agree or disagree, and if there are any standout courses that belong in the Top 10 that weren't AND what course you would remove to put it in there.We won't list them here, but we will list the state breakdown:On Nick and Marks list is:6 courses from Victoria;2 from Tasmania;1 from New South Wales;and 1 from South Australia.mmmm this could get controversial...We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Dee left a voicemail regarding the Peter Senior podcast which, if you've not heard it, is well worth going back to. Dee's comment is specifically around Pete's wonderful King of Spain story, one of the all time greats, so we decided to revisit it and play that particularly story again after Dee's voicemail.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A feedback pod today with some great comments and questions to run through.We start with Graham who heard Nick's advice last week about not aiming for the flag, and he explains where he aims. Nick and Mark talk about they do, and did when they were on tour. Plenty of feedback on Marks 'gimme' theory from a couple of weeks back.Bean disagrees with Mark and explains why, Andy says gimmes are a slippery slope, Gary believes unmissable putts are too subjective, Peter accuses Mark of a double standard, and Robert reckons the main issue with gimmes has to do with beer. Phew....After the turn, Tom in Arizona has a request for content on the pod...it's a nice idea...! Arthur disagrees with Mark that the BMW PGA should move from Brisbane to Sydney, he wants it to stay where it is. Kevin is a new wolfpacker and is working through the prior episodes and has a question about something Nick and Mark discusses in episode 7 (?!?!?!??!), back in 2023!!!! Welcome aboard Kevin!And then to Duncan. Oh Duncan. He has messaged in defending Monty, and risking incurring the wrath of one Mr Mark Allen.Dave agrees with us from last week that Scheffler is a gun, but says he is not yet run the same conversation as Tiger - and provides some stats to support this. We discuss if Scheffler will get to ten career majors or not.And a couple of final comments from Darren, and Malcolm, both of whom enjoyed the chat with Peter Senior (it was great fun). We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
If you saw or read about what happened to Calum Hill in Bahrain at the weekend, you'll no doubt have found it as difficult to watch as we did. He had a very tough weekend, completely lost his game and it didn't end well for the poor fella. We had a couple of messages from wolfpackers about it - Josh on email, and Gordon on voicemail - the thrust of the messaging was how do we prevent happening to us, what happened to Calum.Firstly Nick and Mark chat about the weekend in Bahrain for him, Mark didn't see a lot of it, Nick saw plenty and runs through the various scenarios that played out. In the end, it comes back to routine, and Nick and Mark explain why that is the case, and how you should look to construct yours to ensure what happened to Calum doesn't happen to you.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Phew it's a big show, so much to get through!We start today by discussing the phenomenon of Justin Rose. Nick and Mark both love how he plays, his attitude on the course and his focus off it. They explain why. Nick recalls playing with him as a young pro and even in Justin's difficult earlier days on tour, his attitude was always great. Nick gives Justin the BMW 'Touch of Class' today on the show, and shares a great story about his partnership arrangement with Morgan Stanley. We look at some of Justin's stats from the Underdog Golf Twitter page.Mark found the seemingly relentless coverage of Brooks Koepka at Torrey Pines at the weekend amusing. He reckons they showed nearly every shot of Brooks, and has a theory as to why.News broke last week after our main pod that Patrick Reed was leaving LIV, Nick speculates as to the reasons why and we discuss who they might replace him with.Bahrain at the weekend....goodness. Calum Hill had a pretty tough time. We touch on it, but we'll come back tomorrow and do a mini discussing what happened to him and how you can prevent it happening to your game.Okay...we need to discuss this. Keegan Bradley is out of control. For viewers on YouTube we watch an extraordinary clip, which Nick and Mark commentate through on the pod. His aim point technique is 'terrible' and Mark says that Keegan needs to be 'shamed' for it. He gives his solution to the problem, Nick has a different one and gives his. Both agree it's out of control and the PGA are allowing it to happen. Mark says that if this can be fixed, then it's a real 'plus' for golf.Another bad look for golf was the LPGA opening tournament in Orlando. Weather issues sure, a shortened event, the course was unplayable until it wasn't. The whole thing was a mess. That said Nelly Korda played incredibly.Marks Top 5 for Betr today is the Top 5 farces in golf....one player makes two appearances ! And Nick and Mark discuss refusing to sign another players card when they knew he had cheated.And then - we're about to hook into the PING Globals, and our great mate, David ,The Ox, Schwarz, wanders into the studio unannounced! So of course we have to chat to him.....he has a couple of ripping stories from his golf club - one about the disastrous spring roll situation, and another about the time the drinks cart was cancelled on a 40-degree (celsius) day. He also tells us about our mate Scotty Cummings getting his first Ace !!! Always great to see The Ox.Anyway back to the PING Globals, and there's been a boatload of results over the last few days and Nick runs through them. Into some feedback and we start with a brutal one....a member of the pod gets a serious whack from wolfpacker Daniel. Plenty of other feedback on the dress code conversation, and a wolfpacker who tried Marks 'tip of the century' last week to great success.And we wrap the show with a masterclass on taking spin off the ball from Nick O'Hern for Golf Clearance Outlet.Fun show today!We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Patrick Reed is a controversial player, has been for a long time. Tour Pro Scotty Laycock has an incident that he saw involving Patrick in 2021 at Torrey Pines that he says is the worst he ever saw. He explains what happened, and why he found it so galling in a voicemail for Nick and Mark.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today we bring out the crystal ball, and if Betr were framing a market on these predictions you'd want to get on board! Nick and Mark have 7 predictions that they (well Mark anyway) are guaranteeing will happen in 2026....rock solid, ironclad guarantee.Here's a heads-up on some of what they've setting in stone.....Prediction #7: Nick predicts who will win at Shinnecock Hills and explains why this person will win.#6: Mark has a prediction involving LIV Golf.#5 Nick names an Australian player who he says will definitely win a major this year.#4 Mark names a different Australia player who he says will win a major this year!#3 Nick names an Australian player who he says will crack the Top 10 this year....guaranteed.#2 Mark has a technical prediction for the game.And #1.....Nick has a prediction about the Presidents Cup, and a rationale to go with it.So there you have it. 7 things that you can take to the bank that will 100% happen in 2026 !En route through the predictions, Mark tells a great story about Seve Ballestoros and a divot, following Dan revealing he was hit by a Ryan Fox divot at Royal Melbourne when he got a little too close to the action.We'll check in with the list in December and bathe in the glory of our successful predictions.We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;PING will help you play your best;Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;And watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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