Ep162: The Ryder Cup US & Europe Final Teams, Mark Reviews Royal Melbourne, and Why Tiger Should Join The Champions Tour

With the Ryder Cup teams for the US and Europe now a lock, a little later in the show we discuss the makeup of the teams and who will win. Mark says the European team is very strong, and tips them to win, Nick feels it will be close and the crowd may play a role.

However, we start today talking about one of, if not the, greatest courses in the world - Cypress. Stunningly beautiful, and the venue for this weekends Walker Cup which is not being shown in Australia, much to Nick and Mark's chagrin. Yes there was much chagrin to go around. Chagrin wherever you look.

Nick talks about one of his favourite books called 'The Match', and explains the premise....fascinating. Mark reckons it should be a movie and on the off chance any Hollywood type people listen to the pod (we realise it's a small chance) can you possibly make a movie out of it? Hang on.....our mate Michael Peña is back in Australian in a couple of weeks, maybe we can hit him up to lean on his contacts.

Mark played Royal Melbourne at the weekend and gives a report on the course condition, the fringes, the greens and the trees. He reckons it'll be ready for The Australian Open, and look a million bucks, possibly except for one aspect, which he highlights. There is another thing about Royal Melbourne that he thinks is not right, and refers to some golf architects as 'mad'.

We discuss the pathways news from last week, very exciting. Ernie Els comments about Tiger and the Champions Tour, Nick and Mark both feel it's a good move for Tiger and explain why....and in other Tiger-related news, Charlie Woods got a hole in one at the weekend! We have a listen to it.

Nick is excited about the some of the European tournaments coming up, and chats through them.

Touch of Class for BMW this week comes from the LPGA and features Miranda Wang with a fantastic performance in Boston. Given her surname, cue predictable and obvious Caddyshack joke!

On The Ryder Cup - Mark makes the bold call that Betr don't know as much about this kind of golf as Nick and he do, and that he reckons we'll do a multi that will absolutely rinse Hummer and the team at Betr.

Into the Top 5, thanks to Betr, and today it's on the top 5 vistas in golf featuring fauna (and such). Why 'and such'? No idea, Mark said it, we couldn't figure it out. Nick talks about the famous cypress tree at Cypress Point.

PING globals from Nick, plenty going on to run through.

And lots of feedback covering 'Chokers', Steve Williams, Caddies, some stories on Thomas Bjørn after Nicks comments last week, and on Lyndsay Stephen. Plus a whack for Greg Norman from a wolfpacker....ouch.

And Nick's masterclass today is on the 'Pinky Drill'.

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.