Talk Birdie To Me

Well we start today chatting about the incredible Hannah Green, a superstar who just keeps getting better. And at the outset, Mark explains why he is ashamed about something he did at the weekend to do with Hannah's win. Nick and Mark discuss her performance, not only this week, but the year so far, and how good her swing is. Nick reiterates his view that she'll win a major this year which he has been saying for months now.

Then. LIV. Well what a few days it has been. After Ryan French at Monday Q revealed that he had solid information that LIV was in trouble, the internet exploded, the media jumped on it, the golf world chatter went next level. In fairness, Scott O'Neil from LIV has said the rumours are untrue, and has said that he feels that national opens may be the new pathways. Mark picked up on Scott's comments about how he speaks to players about LIV, and felt it was a poor selling approach. Nick suggests that the model has always been unsustainable financially.

There were rumours about Bryson looking at options during Masters Week, and Mark says if Bryson and Rahm were to leave then LIV is definitely all over. Would the PGA welcome back some players, if so who, and where would the others go? Nick and Mark feel the DPWT would be the obvious path.

For Hostplus, Nicks 'That's a Plus for Golf' is the BMW PGA moving to The Lakes. He feels it's a great move.

Speaking of BMW our Touch of Class this week goes to Matt Fitzpatrick for how he handled the crowd support for Scottie Scheffler - it was almost like an away tournament, with the crowd right against him, and he handled it beautifully.

After the Turn, for Betr, it's our Top 5....this is an interesting one. It was to be Nicks turn, however he's passed the baton to Mark who lists the Top 5, in his view, mistakes that LIV made, and in classic Nick style he adds a 6th one one.....this Top 5 has a reprise though, as we touch on some of the things that we feel LIV has done well.

PING globals from Nick, as always plenty of golf around the world to discuss and we take a couple of sidetracks when Mark plays some audio from what we miss (in Australia) through receiving the world feed, Mark has noticed something about Tour Pro Brian Gay's appearance which he finds odd, and Nick has found an updated picture of the 'pool' at Memorial Park Golf Course.

Feedback for Southern Golf Club - we've had a heap on LIV as you'd expect, but rather than read it out we touch on the themes. No doubt over the next few weeks, we'll have plenty of opportunities to chat LIV as the situation progresses. Lots of other feedback though: a Gary Player correction from last week, commentator comments, the World Feed, Marks Australian Masters (possibly illegal) Top 5 performance, and a comment on Tiger vs David Duval and slow play.

And for the Golf Clearance Outlet, a great Masterclass from Mark, inspired by Matt Fitzpatrick, on chipping on Couch (Bermuda) grass.
We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:

Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partner
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 Southern Golf Club.
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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 partner
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 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 partner
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 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 partner
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 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 partner
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 Southern Golf Club.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.