After last weeks Talk Birdie Mini where Nick and Mark selected their 'dream teams' consisting of one player from each of Australia, the US, Europe, and an International to face off at Royal Melbourne Composite, en-route to the tournament, there has been an incident rendering all 8 players unable to play, and the venue now out of action.

So, excluding the original selections of Shark, Karrie, Tiger, Jack, Seve, Faldo, Player and Locke - Nick and Mark need to select their team to come off the bench.

Listen to them muse, discuss and decide live on the pod.

We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:

• 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 watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What a week....big week in golf, plenty to discuss. We start with a chat about one of our favourite young players, Elvis Smylie who nearly won the French Open at the weekend! Absolute gun.

And Mark tells us about giving some advice to a couple of golfers at his club last night, he explains the tips he gave them with their putting and runs them by Nick - does Nick rate the tips? Mark certainly does, suggesting that, were it to exist, he deserves a Nobel Prize for Golf based on the advice he gave. You be the judge. In a nutshell is was around 'changing the goal of the shot in your mind'.

Mark also recommended that you become a 'plonker'. We won't even try to explain, we'll let him do it on the pod.

Ryder Cup chat, it's close now, and if you're not on board our Betr multi, give yourself an uppercut, as we reckon it's a shot. Details on yesterday's Ryder Cup preview pod, or at the Betr website here.

Both Nick and Mark saw a video this week of Tour Pro Nakajima pulling out of a drive, it was strange. We discuss. And Nick tells a story about a Tour Pro he played with who made a habit of doing it, he names the player.

Then...after Mark had an intervention over his social media arguments a month or so back, he's at it again, having fights on Twitter. Nick and Dan raise his behaviour and ask for an explanation....and he gives it. It's do with golf architects, course design, trees, and he lines up from the back tees and has a red hot crack.

Calming it down, for our great friends at BMW, the Touch of Class was something involving Steve Alker at Cypress. It was indeed a touch of class, and we explain what happened.

After the Turn, Nicks Top 5 memories, thanks to Betr, are his favourite Ryder Cup memories - good or bad. Mark wants to know yours, has Nick missed any? He missed Marks fave, which he explains.

Onto Feedback for Southern Golf Club - masses of feedback on our Lucas Parsons chat last week, most good, some bad, we hand-picked a few - including a massive whack for Nick and Mark from one wolfpacker....sheez... Also feedback on iron covers, Mark's LIV Monday Qualifying idea, and a shoutout to a Tour Pro making a comeback after serious illness.

Nick runs through results around the world in the PING Globals, with another great stat this week....he's making a habit of these stats, might be a new segment....and Marks masterclass is on bad lies.

Phew !!

We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:

• 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 watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well it's here, the week before one of the great golf weekends - the Ryder Cup. But before we get to our preview, a reminder about our Talk Birdie To Me Golf Day at Links Golf and Wellbeing at Hope Island on the Gold Coast, it's now two weeks away (Wednesday October 8th), Nick O'Hern and Mark Allen will be playing the tournament along with 80 or 90 wolfpackers. A few tickets left here. The prizes are brilliant:

FootJoy vouchers;

⁠Titleist GT Driver and 3 wood with a custom fitting with a Titleist Fitting Specialist;

⁠A set of custom fitted Vokey Wedges fitted by a Titleist Fitting Specialist;

⁠A couple of dozen Pro V1 golf balls;

Golf Clearance Outlet vouchers

Luxury Escapes vouchers

And the hole in one prize from Luxury Escapes: a week at the Pullman Maldives with return flights for two if you if you don't mind! Conditions apply, but there is only 3 conditions - pros ineligible (Nick and Mark you're out), only one prize - so if two aces are hit we do a random draw, and it applies on the 17th hole, which is a gettable Par 3.

Fun!

Now onto the pod. Nick and Mark are previewing the Ryder Cup, and Mark's first recommendation is to download the Ryder Cup app, it's brilliant. Nick talks about his memories of playing in Europe and feeling almost a part of it, as all the European pros wanted to be involved. Mark has a feeling the crowd, despite the US component being parochial, will lean European as there have been huge amounts of tickets sold to Europeans apparently.

We discuss the pay controversy and the difference in approach between the Europeans and the US teams, Mark believes this is bad karma for the US and it will 'bite them'.

As usual for a big event, we're putting a Talk Birdie multi on and working in our favour is that Hummer from Betr doesn't know a lot about the Ryder Cup, so we shot through our very gettable multi without any context for him and, in a moment of weakness, he whacked it up.

Multi is:

• Scheffler to not have a winning record for the tournament, into;
• Europe to lead going into day 3, into;
• Europe to win.

7 bucks. Get on board here under Betr specials and if you're not a member, it's a 60-second sign up process. We are confident, but of course there is no guarantee - so if you can't afford to lose it, don't bet it.

We wrap up our Ryder Cup preview pod with some comments from Nick on how they are setting up Bethpage and why, and Nick outlines what he believes the US always get wrong in the Ryder Cup.

It's going to be a ripper, we can't wait !!!

We're live from Titleist and FootJoy HQ thanks to our great partners:

• 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 watchMynumbers and Southern Golf Club.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.