Talk Birdie To Me

The Open Championship is here! What a tournament, what a history. And today Nick and Mark preview The Open.

Mark asks Nick about when he played in The Open Championship in 2008 and Greg Norman led at 54 holes, tied for the lead with 8 holes to play ...and he was retired and spending his time playing tennis !!

As usual we have a look at the power rankings, and we start with a convo about Tommy Fleetwood - this is his home course, and Nick says there is nothing like local knowledge of a course, and Mark says he is the best player to not win a major, so it could be a good weekend for him.

Nick notes that Min Woo's iron play is looking much better, and his short game is on point. Mark says this course suits Min Woo, and he is one of the best stinger players he's ever seen, and he deserves to be considered the leading Australian in the field.

Mark talks about how this course has seen plenty of great putters win, seems to suit them. Nick isn't looking forward to seeing Tom Kim play, describing him as 'brutal' to watch (in reference to his pace).

Scheffler is #5 in the power rankings, and Mark feels he knows why that is the case. Nick's 'concern' about Scottie this week is his putting.

Rory #4 in the power rankings, Nick saw a funny piece of footage featuring Rory this week which we have a listen to. Matt Fitzpatrick...he is red hot, both Nick and Mark are huge fans and reckon he's set for a big weekend.

Mark cannot understand why Morikawa is #2 in the power rankings for The Open, Nick can and explains why. Nick goes on to explain the strategy for playing this course.

With the tournament finishing at a similar time to the World Cup Final, Nick tells Mark that there is a contingency to adjust tee times if England are in the final to avoid the situation of empty stands, or cheering from the stands as people keep an eye on the World Cup.

And before the turn we discuss some of the fun, new markets Betr have on the tournament, there are some crackers if you want to whack 5 bucks on a couple. And what will our Talk Birdie Betr multi be? We kick it around before the turn, and decide after. We text Hummer live, and get the odds back in record time. You can open a Betr account at their website here, or on the app, and you'll find out multi on the Betr Specials section.

Enjoy The Open !!!
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;
Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;
Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;
The Find My Player app - follow every player on every tour;
And Southern Golf Club.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we've got a guest wolfpacker on our Talk Birdie To Me Monday Mini - Nigel from 13th Beach Golf Club in Victoria who is having some pretty serious, and long-term issues with his driving. But before we get into that, the more pressing issue is whether he can give us an update on the duck spring roll debacle at 13th Beach, where they were serving duck spring rolls in 3's rather than 2's or 4's. Crazy talk.

But then, onto the serious stuff. Nige is a good player, he has gotten down to as low as 1.5, but at the moment his driving is killing his game, and he doesn't know how to fix it. That's where Nick and Mark come in. Plenty of fact finding questions and conversation to try and nail down the issue and the options. Nigel is very open about what he's doing poorly at the moment, so that's handy.

We give him a few things to go away and work on, and Nick and Mark want to have a 'part 2' chat in a few weeks where we look at some video of Nige which he has homework to get to us.

Mark makes the slightly bold claim that if he and Nick can fix Nigel's driving yips, we'll be national heroes....Nick wants a statue. Possibly a statue of Nick and Mark outside 13th Beach Golf Club eating a duck spring roll would be on point.

A fun Monday (well maybe not for Nigel) but if you're having any yip type issues there might be a couple of tips you pick up.
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;
Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;
Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;
The Find My Player app - follow every player on every tour;
And Southern Golf Club.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's Friday and that means a Friday Feedback pod. Plenty of great comments and questions for Nick and Mark to discuss today.

01:00 Following our conversation a couple of weeks ago about women golfers who were (or are) absolute flushers, there's a couple of suggestions on golfers we missed.
03:00 Nick and Mark discuss the importance of not focusing so much on the quality of your good shots, but the quality of your bad shots....they explain.
04:00 Our discussion about local rules really has sparked some comments, and yes gimmes come up again (much to Marks frustration)
05:00 Mark notes that in the US it can be quite different, mulligans and gimmes are almost negotiated for.
05:50 Last week Mark talked about 'airspace' on a particular hole being out of bounds, we get a message from Ray in the UK who had the same thing at his club
07:00 An idea from Mission Hills on how to manage gimmes
07:30 Ian has a comment and question about YouTube golf tips, he may have misunderstood a recent conversation on the show, but that's okay, we have a chat about it.
10.30 Are bunkers still hazards, or are they too well groomed?
11:30 Radar - A fun story about the great man.

After the turn:

14.00 A few messages and stories about the recent passing of Metropolitan (Melbourne) golf legend Brian Twite
17:00 Can golf instructors destroy a swing?
20:00 A story from Graeme about the Dunvegan
22:00 Nick tells the story of how Jack Newton helped him win the PGA Championship at Coolum
23:00 And into a story about Payne Stewart at Coolum

And unfortunately the show ends on a low note with Dan cracking an appalling joke. A possible suspension for him from next weeks show is being considered by the Talk Birdie Team.

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;
Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;
Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;
The Find My Player app - follow every player on every tour;
And Southern Golf Club.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sheez it's a big episode today, we didn't think it necessarily was going to be, but it's ended up being a long one with plenty of good conversation.

01:00 We start with the BMW international on the DP World Tour, won by a 39-year old rookie no less! Nick knows a bit about him and gives some background. Mark talks about how impressive it is, and how for many pros continuing to play beyond a certain point (if you're not making the big bucks) is a huge risk, he tells us how that drive his retirement. And we decide that this DPWT win is a real plus for golf for Hostplus.
03:00 Nick noticed a very tough name for the commentators to pronounce in the BMW International.
04:30 Mark tells Nick what he finds annoying about the DP World Tour.
06:00 The World Cup of Golf. Nick played it. Both Nick and Mark feel it could be great, however it wasn't. We discuss.
09.30 Nick talks about playing the Dunhill.
11.00 Back to the World Cup. How could it be reworked? What format? Structure? Countries? Frequency?
18.00 We stumble onto Vijay Singh and Nick and Mark share stories about playing with him.
20.00 The Open Championship is less than a fortnight away, and Nick loves the Last Chance feature that they're doing.
21:00 Nick awards our Touch of Class for BMW this week to Pádraig Harrington following how he spoke after winning the US Senior Open at the weekend. Hard to argue. Nick has a very funny story about Pádraig's son, and Mark outlines a drill he picked up from Pádraig that he loves.
26.30 Nick explains his favourite putting drill from when he was on tour, and Mark gives some tips for when you're on the driving range.
29:00 Mark raises some stats from Chris Gotterup from recent performances....impressive however you look at them!

After the turn:

33:00 Mark lists, for Betr, the Top 5 players who 'broke the golf rule textbook' yet were still guns. #1 is wild.
40:00 Nick shoots through the Global Result highlights.
45:00 Onto feedback for Southern Golf Club, plenty to run through
46.00 We discuss the history of Tiger's swing changes in feedback
48:00 More on some additions to players who went down rabbit holes, and the some comments from you on the PGA Tour changes announced last week
56:00 And just as we're about to hook into the Masterclass, we get a text, and it's a voicemail from Mick who spotted something over the weekend and is keen on Mark and Nicks opinion.....as it turns out it is one of their pet topics and they're very happy to engage!
1:00:00 And then onto the masterclass for the Golf Clearance Outlet, Nick spotted something at the BMW International to do with iron play, and he talks us through his thoughts.

A fun show, a big one!
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;
Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;
Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;
The Find My Player app - follow every player on every tour;
And Southern Golf Club.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Monday Mini today where we look at a comment, and then a question, from wolfpacker Darren.

Darren has an observation, specifically for Mark, about the 'gimme' conversation of recent weeks. Suffice to say that Darren has a different view to Mark, and it is causing trouble for Mark at his club.

After the fun and games of watching Mark squirm, we move onto the question Darren has for Nick and Mark - which is on how long should you use a golf ball prior to replacing it. Is it different in social v competition/pennant? How often did the boys swap out their balls on tour? And is the benefit of a new ball real, or is it more a mental benefit (or both). We then move onto how often the boys would replace gloves when they were on tour. And back to balls - one thing for pros, but for normys like most of us, how often would Nick and Mark recommend we swap out our balls?

A fun Monday Mini today 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 partner
BMW, luxury and comfort for the 19th hole;
Titleist, the #1 ball in golf;
FootJoy, the #1 shoe and glove in golf;
Golf Clearance Outlet, they beat everyone's prices;
Betr, the fastest and easiest betting app in Australia;
The Find My Player app - follow every player on every tour;
And Southern Golf Club.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.