Talk Birdie To Me

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'.

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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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A fun weekend mini today. When we say fun, it was fun for Nick and Dan, less so for Mark as an awkward question is posed to him about the dress code at a certain golf club that he may be extremely close to and fond of. He dances, manoeuvres, and tries to answer as well as he can. And then Nick tosses in another awkward question towards the end of the pod.

Good fun, just not for Mark, on this weekend mini.

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Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen are fired up to improve their games in 2026, but also to improve the games of Wolfpackers this year - doesn't matter if you play multiple times a week, once a week, once a month, or rarely - if you do these 4 things, your game is guaranteed to improve and you will shoot lower scores.

A couple of the tips are putting focused, one is wedge-play focused - and number 1 is a must-listen....it is so deceptively simple, you can do it immediately, it costs zero, and Nick and Mark are giving...

So in December Nick O'Hern made a comment about 'smelly opening holes', in other words those opening holes that you just feel uncomfortable on. So today, we thought we'd discuss a few notable ones - obviously it's, generally, unique to each person of course.

However the #1 smelliest opening hole is one that both Nick and Mark are in vigorous agreement on - and that is The Lakes in Sydney. They explain why, and discuss a couple of difficult experiences there.

Mark lists off a couple of other Australian courses with smelly opening holes...

After a break through January and a fantastic collection of holiday mini's, Nick and Mark are back today with a massive first pod of 2026! So much to discuss, we barely know where to start, so we've decided to just hook in and see where the chat goes.

By the way, Nick has come back physically injured - or at least he was, and he's on the mend. Mark has come back emotionally injured due to an issue with his handicap. So both are tender. Dan's fine.

We start with the big news a...

Well this is exciting. Today for Hostplus we're hosting a legend - Australian golfing superstar Peter Senior joins Nick and Mark for a chat about his brilliant career, what he's doing now, and his plans for the next phase of life.

Pete talks about his tournament wins, the ones where he came close, and his time on the Troppo tour. We specifically ask about 1989 which was a year where everything went right. Pete describes that year as having a 5 or 6 week period where he believed he could not hit a bad shot, it was a real...

In our summer series of Talk Birdie To Me (or our Winter series if you're a Northern Hemisphere wolfpacker) today we revisit a momentous day in Australian golf, for all the wrong reasons.

In 2002 The Australian Open tournament was cancelled during the first round, during perfect weather. Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen were both playing in the tournament, in separate groups, and Mark was caught right in the middle of the action.

It was so bad, that pros were shooting scores in the 90s on a par 71 course. Extraordinary. Nick and Mark explain...

Great question from wolfpacker Pete in Western Australia who is after some clarity on what exactly 'compression' is, he has heard Nick and Mark talking about it, and has read different things about it. Pete is after a bit of clarity on what he calls this 'mystical thing called compression'.

He's correct, it is a bit mystical, and Nick, Mark and Pete discuss it at length today on a Talk Birdie Mini.

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Wolfpacker Michael listened to Nick and Mark's Top 5 rules to change this week and had one to add to the list. He left us a voicemail at the Talk Birdie website here.

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Ripping question from wolfpacker Mick in the UK today. Mick has asked, what would the Top 5 golf rules that Nick and Mark would each change if they could.

Many are similar, however Mark has one that Nick (and Dan) disagrees with and is quite controversial.

See what you think of their lists, although the numbers jump around a bit, and in classic Nick style his ends up being a Top 7. Who'd have thought.

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A message from wolfpacker Tony today who is visiting Melbourne's sandbelt next week to play Peninsula Kingswood, Yarra Yarra and St Andrews Beach across 3-days. Wow...what a trip that will be! However, Tony has never played the Sandbelt, he is a 20-handicapper, and is after some tips or insights from Nick and Mark on what he should keep in mind to have an enjoyable experience and play as well as he is able.

Nick and Mark give some thoughts on the courses and how they play, discuss how Tony should consider length in his shots...

Wolfpacker Ian has written in with his criteria for a golf course to be considered great, and asked what Nick and Mark would regard as key requirements to be considered that.

They each list their Top 5, not entirely dissimilar unsurprisingly, but a couple of nuanced differences.

A fun summer (or winter in the northern hemisphere) today on Talk Birdie To Me.

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So this Talk Birdie Mini is quite special, for reasons that we won't explain - you'll need to listen.

But it's a fantastic story with a great twist. We won't say anything further - but please have a listen, and enjoy how this one unfolds!

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Happy New Year to you and yours, we hope the year is wonderful for you and you hit em well all year!

We kick it off by seeing how the boys New Years Resolutions, if they make them, are going. Not well as it turns out.

Onto the Mini though. Wolfpacker Shane has recently returned from a fantastic golfing trip to New Zealand where he was looked after (along with all the other players) beautifully, which inspired him to ask a question of Nick and Mark. When they were on the tour, what...

This is fun. Today we chat with the 1993 Singapore Open Champion and wolfpacker Paul Moloney who has a couple of great stories.

He starts with a story about a one on one masterclass essentially that he had with Seve Ballesteros in Paris, and recounts what Seve was practising and aiming to do with his putting. Fascinating insights. And then a story about playing on Madeira Island with Gabriel Hjertstedt and some of the hairier moments in getting onto and off the island which has quite a unique climate, and airport.

Mark recounts one...

Scott Laycock is a Tour Pro with plenty of stories and after a recent pod where Nick and Mark spoke about Rory's airswing in The Australian Open, and their experiences with airswings, Scotty left a voicemail about an airswing he had at Victoria Golf Club as a Pro.

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Feedback pod today and we start with a video call from wolfpacker Bill in Florida. Bill is planning a trip to Australia, and is keen to play some courses on the sandbelt - he's after some advice on courses that he can both get onto, and won't break the bank. Mark has a ripping idea that Bill accepts on the spot! He's also curious about when the weather in Melbourne might be most suitable for golf....as any Australian knows, trying to predict Melbourne weather is a little like picking lottery numbers....but Mark has a recommendation nonetheless.

This is fun. Today we chat with Darius Oliver from Planet Golf who, among others, designed Cape Wickham. His current project is very special, a new course on the cliffs at Kangaroo Island in South Australia.

We start with Darius talking about what makes Kangaroo Island so special, he says that it gets in your blood and mentions a New York Times comment that it is like 'a zoo without fences' due to the abundance of wildlife on the island.

Nick and Mark ask about his philosophy in designing this new course and...

Another Talk Birdie Mini, as we get thisclose to Christmas, and we chat with Mike from Bundaberg who has a slightly different view from Nick and Mark on technology in golf and how it is being used to manage scores and pros monstering courses.

Mike reckons there are ways to do it outside of technology changes, and he puts his case to Nick and Mark to get their thoughts. He also makes an excellent point about when Augusta tried to 'Tiger Proof' the course, which backfired completely.

Keep your comments and questions coming...

After a question last week about golf pathways, we discovered that Acushnet (who operate Titleist and FootJoy) have 18 PGA Pros working for them in various roles around Australia and New Zealand, and we thought it worthwhile chatting to one about their path and how it came about.

And Emma Larson is the perfect person to talk to. Emma works for Acushnet in the Melbourne office, made 11 Australian teams and was at one point ranked #1 in Australia - so she's got some serious chops! Emma drops in to talk to Nick and Mark about her story from...

There's been plenty of controversy around the proposed changes to the Moore Park golf course in Sydney, and in our view there is no valid argument to reduce the golf course. The facts don't stack up. Today on a Talk Birdie Mini we have some feedback from wolfpackers on the plan, and Nick and Mark give their view.

Neither Nick or Mark have played the course a lot, however they know the area well, and they know the numbers of people who play it - Moore Park is the most popular public golf course in Australia.<...

Feedback pod today with some great questions for Nick and Mark.

Dan has a question about whether Kingston Heath can handle big crowds for next years Australian Open. Nick and Mark discuss that, and how the course will prepare for the big hitters, will the course be changed to accommodate them?

Keith has written it to mention that Bill Dunk, who Dunk's Island at Royal Melbourne is named after, recently had a birthday and he felt Bill should be acknowledged. Nick and Mark agree and decide to reach out to Bill to get...

Mark has come in excited today. After lending a mate a driver 35 years ago, it was returned this week! He's stoked....but 35-years, sheez....can anyone from the Wolfpack beat that timeframe for a bit of golf gear loaned out and returned? He was also given a ball that he autographed many years ago and brings it in to show us.

And then onto the pod. Both Nick and Mark have been hearing from people consistently about just how good The Australian Open was, Nick has written a blog article about it on his website and...

A fun mini today, Pat from Nashville has sent a couple of videos of his swing through for Nick and Mark to review. If you're listening, obviously you won't see the videos however we talk through what we're seeing in detail so you will definitely get the idea and the tips and comments will make sense.

Nick and Mark are very impressed with Pat's swing, he's self-taught aside from a few lessons from his GrandDad, has been playing for 3-years, and is off scratch.....seriously impressive stuff. He is a lefty, and Nick and Mark discuss...

Feedback pod today with some ripper questions and comments from the Wolfpack.

We start with a comment about the OWGR points and the discrepancy between The Australian Open and Tiger's Bahamas event. Then Brian has a question for Nick and Mark about 'green spotting' during tournaments.

Last week Mark raved about Royal Adelaide, and there was plenty of feedback on those comments - the vast majority agreeing with him. There was also a fair bit of feedback on Nick's most 'interesting' hole in ones (or is it holes in one?) and there were...

What a weekend......The Australian Open was sensational, and we are going to spend the next hour reliving it.

Mark is in Queensland with the family, Nick and Dan at Titleist and FootJoy HQ in Melbourne, so the show sounds a tad different today. Onto the AO. Nick and Mark loved it. The Australian Open is back, and it was an event that everyone involved, and golf fans broadly, should be very proud of.

Mark says last years Open was a 2/10 rating, this years was an 8/10, and he has a Top 5 later in...

A very exciting episode today, we are hosting the legendary Ian Baker-Finch, Australian golfing superstar, former CBS commentator in the US, and the Chair of the PGA of Australia.

This is a wide-ranging and open chat with Nick and Mark, starting with Mark asking Finchy about winning the NSW Open by 13 shots in 1984 !! How did it come about that he played it so much better than anyone else?

Finchy reveals some behind the scenes information about the famous St Andrews Greenkeeper story.

The late, great Peter Thomson was renowned for...

The Australian Open starts tomorrow, and today Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen are live from Royal Melbourne. We start with a special guest - Tour Pro Elvis Smylie has dropped him and Nick, has just come from a weather briefing and runs through for Elvis what they've just found out about tomorrow's weather. Warm and Windy......the warmth was expected, the wind was not.

We ask Elvis how he's planning to play the course, and how the greens are playing in his practise runs. Mark has had a couple of spies watching a number of players...

It's Australian Open week, and we're excited...but...we start by chatting about the BMW Australian PGA at Royal Queensland. Fantastic win by David Puig, and an exciting tournament to watch. Mark asks Nick how the LIV / DPWT arrangements work and how Puig will manage his schedule now. Both Nick and Mark raved about how Puig constructed his tournament.

Without any notice for Nick to take cover, Mark comments that he loves the commentators, but he has an issue with how the coverage is put together, and he launches in with poor Nick completely unawares.

The BMW Australian PGA last weekend was excellent, and this week our attention turns to The Australian Open at Royal Melbourne.

We start with a chat about the weather, it has been very wet in Melbourne, although the forecast for the day prior to the Open is for a hot and dry day, nonetheless the course has had plenty of moisture, what does that mean for it? Nick and Mark discuss.

We run through some of the field, and Mark wants Nick to give a view on how some of the big boys...

Today on a Talk Birdie Feedback pod, we have some comments from wolfpackers about Nick and Marks discussion a week or so ago in which Mark said that Brooks Koepka would not get back to top form unless he returns to the PGA tour. Some had a different view, and felt there was context around his form over the last couple of years that was relevant.

Nick comments that for some players (Bryson) LIV feels a great fit, and muses that he feels Rahm might prefer to be back on the PGA Tour.

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A Talk Birdie Mini today, no time for a longer pod as Nick is commentating at the BMW Australian PGA and Mark is glued to the TV watching it....but we can sneak a mini in!

Today, after Mark saw a tweet from a guy called 'Rick Golf' (Twitter page here) on how golf carts have 'destroyed' US Golf, he wanted to discuss carts with Nick.

Both Nick and Mark are 'walkers' although Mark doesn't mind using a cart for 9 holes if he's playing 18, but both enjoy the walking element of playing golf...