Talk Birdie To Me

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 diffe...

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 ov...

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 ...

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:

• Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partner
• BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;
• Titleist...

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 s...

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 ...

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 Wic...

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...

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 ab...

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 h...

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 ...

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:

• Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's...

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 receiv...

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 hi...

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 star...

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 - unf...

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 refer...

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 ...

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 ...