Talk Birdie To Me

We've been getting plenty of feedback and questions lately, so we thought we'd do a bonus feedback pod for a bit of fun.

And we start with wolfpacker Dave coming out of the blocks hot with a whack for Nick and Mark over their comments a week or two ago about what a 14-handicapper would shoot at Augusta.

Todd from the UK asks whether any region in the world has more quality golf courses in a concentrated area than Melbourne, Nick and Mark can only think of one possible contender.

Darren has some observations and questions around the sounds off the club that pros make in tournaments and why it is different? Mark tells a story about seeing long hitter Jason Zuback in action and the sounds he made.

Peter has written in - he agrees with Mark (and Nick's) stance on cheating, however has a bone to pick with Mark about it.

Rebecca messaged us about her Dad, Neil, who has broken his age now 300 times !!!!!!!! Wow!!!!

And we wrap on a question from Alex....who makes the statement that he feels the PGA Championship is the 'least' prestigious of the majors, and if Nick and Mark had a choice would they rather 2 PGA Championship wins, or 1 win from another major. The boys give their view...and they each have a slightly different response to the question.
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;
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.

A Monday Mini today from a wolfpacker with an unpronounceable name (or is it...), however the comment / question that this person has for Nick and Mark is about the merits of adding a 5th Mens Major, but theming it as a retro major.....everything as it was 30-40 years ago. Nick and Mark discuss how it might look, the gear, the equipment, the rules, the clothing....it's a fun chat. It will never happen, but it's a fun hypothesis to explore.

Nick says that, in the event it were to happen, it would lengthen the gap between the top pros like Rory and Scheffler, and the more average pros and that if you give them a few weeks to get used to the gear, they'd nail it. Mark makes the point that the equipment then, particularly the driver, helped pros like The Shark dominate.

Nick also raises some news on Tiger's young bloke Charlie that he saw last week, which we chat about - relevant to this mini as Tiger had Charlie learn on old style blades so he had to learn to find the sweet spot, it meant he lost to some players early, but the skills it formed were excellent.

A fun Monday Mini today !
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;
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.

Owen from Axedale in regional Victoria was listening to Nick and Mark talking about 'Shambrose' last week, and called in to explain what they do at his club....sounds like a fun way to do it! Have a listen to Owen's voicemail.
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;
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.

Friday Feedback today, and for some reason they always seem a touch looser than the usual pods, tis the nature of a friday....

We start with a message from Teddy in Thailand, we did a mini last week on Teddy's grip issues, and he writes in with some more info, and Mark received an email from Ben Jackson the honcho of a grip company with some info on their Thai distributor - who happens to be based where Teddy lives! What are the odds!

We start with some feedback on Marks outrageous behaviour of watching lawn mowing videos last week when we were trying to record the pod. Strangely, most wolfpackers seemed to not have an issue with it....we may have misjudged the room on this one (to Marks happiness). For some reason we then merge into more snooker chat....seriously Talk Birdie is on the verge of jumping the shark Fonzie style.

But then onto the real stuff. Couple of comments on the discussion last week about whether all handicaps are created equal, one of which is a sort of compliment from Dean who agrees with Nick and Marks views, but then goes on to whack the boys over the recent Talk Birdie Top 20 Golf Course list. Leads to a chat about Queensland courses, and Nick and Mark list their fave Queensland courses and why. No surprises as to Nicks.

Steven from Western Australia has a story on Monty which brings much joy to Mark, and then a couple of comments on the ball striking of Ángel Cabrera, Nick and Mark discuss what it was like to watch him hit the ball, and to play golf more broadly.

Al is a lefty, and is after some advice from Nick about how to maximise the influence of his dominant hand, he's a former cricketer who came to golf late, and is struggling a little with the right hand placement.

Bruce has noticed something Tour Pros do that he finds frustrating, and is keen for Nick and Marks thoughts. Greg agrees with the boys Rory McIlroy comments following what he said about Royal Melbourne not being 'fit for purpose'. Athol has heard our chats of recent pods on the Ryan Ang situation and has a whack for Nick and Mark over it.

Aaron heard us wondering about Links Kennedy Bay last week, and wrote in to clarify where the course is at, which leads to us discovering that Nick is planning a trip to WA next year and not only has he failed to secure Mark and invite to Long Island, but he's not bothering to see if Mark and Dan want to come along! Sure it's a family wedding, but let's not let that get in the way of a golf trip!!!!

By the way, speaking of golf trips.....don't forget to suss what our mates at GolfLoot have for you to win....see it here. Well worth the membership.

And we wrap with some comments from Alan on the number of clubs in the bag.

A fun Friday Feedback pod, hopefully we can get through the shows next week with zero lawnmowing and snooker chat....
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;
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.

Well this is very special. Dottie Pepper is a legend in the golfing world, a wonderful player with a stellar record, and a groundbreaking commentator and today for Hostplus, we're hosting Dottie on Talk Birdie To Me.

We start with Nick and Mark asking Dottie to tell us how she got into golf as a youngster, and her story about how it started, given her Dad's background as a Pro Baseball Player is fantastic. Her setup at home was pretty helpful!

Nick asks her about being the leading player on her high school team with one very important detail that makes it even more impressive. And Mark has always been interested to watch the leading amateurs in tournaments, and is keen to hear what that was like for Dottie as that amateur.

Dottie tells a great story about playing qualifying and making a significant error in the 9-holes she played....and why her sister contributed significantly to Dottie's 'breakthrough moment'.

Nick and Mark have said for some time that the Women should probably have only 4 majors, and they ask Dottie her view. She agrees - and names the tournament that she believes should be dropped as a Womens Major.

Mark observes that the womens game is so strong at the moment with the depths of fields fantastic, and asks Dottie if she agrees and if so why the womens' game is so strong these days. She highlights one particularly player who she feels is particularly impressive.

After the turn, we chat about her commentary. Dottie explains how she developed her commentary approach and skills, and shares the advice she received from Mike Tirico and Judy Rankin which helped her.

Recently Aaron Rai wowed the world with his performance to win the PGA Championship, particularly on the final day, and Mark asks Dottie where that ranks in terms of the greatest golf she has seen played. She tells us....but.....she also tells an amazing story that we were unaware of about Aaron Rai's Dad on the final day of that tournament!!!

Back to commentary. She was given some advice once about what never to do when commentating Tiger Woods....she shares that with us. Dottie also tells us a couple of great Tiger stories from her experiences with him, and she talks to us about what it was like being the first on course commentator at the 2020 Masters - quite the achievement!

And we wrap up a wonderful conversation with Dottie, for Hostplus, by finding out what her plans are for the next stage of life, whenever that may be. When the time comes to retire, what does she hope to do.

We are quite sure we speak for everyone when we say that we hope Dottie Pepper retiring is a long way off yet!!!

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;
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.