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 spo...

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, bu...

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. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners: Hostplus, Talk Birdie...

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 sli...

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...

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...

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. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners: Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official...

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..... Prediction #7: Nick predicts who will win at Shinnecock Hills and explains why thi...

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.... 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 comf...

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 weeke...

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...

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 exp...

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...

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 wen...

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 i...

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...

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 . 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...

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 thou...

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 h...

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. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ...

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! 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 1...

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, wh...

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 Hjert...

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. We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners: Hostplus, Talk Birdie To Me's official retirement partner BMW, lu...

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....