Talk Birdie To Me

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...

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...

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.

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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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.

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...

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.

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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...

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...

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 West

2 Kingston Heath

3 Victoria

4 Peninsula Kingswood North

5 NSW

6 Royal Adelaide

7 Barnbougle Dunes

8 Cape Wickham

9 Peninsula Kingswood South

10 Royal Melbourne East

So...

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...

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!

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...

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...

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.

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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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

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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...

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'.

...

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.

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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...

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...

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...

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.

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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.....

Rod is a wolfpacker who spends his time between Thailand and Melbourne and has two suggestions for the 'greatest shot ever made', and left a voicemail for Nick and Mark.

Both pretty good suggestions....but will the boys agree? They're harsh judges....

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