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 this person will win.
• #6: Mark has a prediction involving LIV Golf.
• #5 Nick names an Australian player who he says will definitely win a major this year.
• #4 Mark names a different Australia player who he says will win a major this year!
• #3 Nick names an Australian player who he says will crack the Top 10 this year....guaranteed.
• #2 Mark has a technical prediction for the game.
• And #1.....Nick has a prediction about the Presidents Cup, and a rationale to go with it.

So there you have it. 7 things that you can take to the bank that will 100% happen in 2026 !

En route through the predictions, Mark tells a great story about Seve Ballestoros and a divot, following Dan revealing he was hit by a Ryan Fox divot at Royal Melbourne when he got a little too close to the action.

We'll check in with the list in December and bathe in the glory of our successful predictions.

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.

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:

• 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.

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 weekend mini.

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.

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 must-listen....it is so deceptively simple, you can do it immediately, it costs zero, and Nick and Mark are giving an ironclad guarantee it will improve your game.

And in classic Nick style he adds in a fifth one, but it's a good one, grab a subscription to his website 'Play Your Best Golf' there's a heap of videos there that will help you, subscriptions are very reasonably priced - however for Talk Birdie To Me listeners/viewers, Nick has an offer available until Valentines Day of 30% off. Here's the link: https://www.nickohern.com/ and the discount code is TBTM30.

Let us know how you go with the tips!

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.

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 explain why, and discuss a couple of difficult experiences there.

Mark lists off a couple of other Australian courses with smelly opening holes, and one international. Nick lists a few international courses and one on Melbourne's sandbelt. One of Nick's, a US course, was not only about the opening hole but the entire course ! And one was a course where he played a US Open at, finishing 20th, with an opening hole he just did not enjoy.

And it provides an opportunity for Nick to tell us the story about the one time in his pro career he was DQ'd, and another Tour Pro was (in part) to blame.

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.

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 with his handicap. So both are tender. Dan's fine.

We start with the big news a fortnight or so back about Brooks returning to the PGA, what it means, the impact of it, and Nick talks through the PGA 'Returning Member Programme' and what the criteria is. Mark discusses the rumoured offer that may have come, or may be coming, to Bryson - the numbers are mind-bending. Nick says that ironically, given they're not the best of friends, Brooks leaving has given Bryson huge leverage.

Mark has gotten in trouble over the break and is not allowed to name his 'source' in the US of much of his rumour and scuttlebutt. He can still reveal said rumour and scuttlebutt, however he just can't name the source.....if you've been listening for a while you will know who that is. But....Mark has said that his mail is that whilst the PGA paid the fine that was on the table for Brooks, they also made the same offer to Jon Rahm and Bryson DeChambeau. The plot thickens

We discuss Elvis Smylie signing with LIV. Nick is good mates with Elvis and Mark wants to know if Nick knew it was coming and kept it from us. Nick is curious about the fine situation - Elvis has told Nick he'll be playing DPWT events, so who pays the fine? Particularly as LIV are now now longer paying Rahm and Hatton's fines. Mark estimates what he thinks Elvis has signed with LIV for. It's a boatload. On fines - Rory had some comments last week about them, and we have a listen to what he said....particularly in the context of The Presidents Cup.

Back on Elvis - Mark says having no money concerns is likely to help Elvis' game. Nick disagrees and says often having that much cash can have the opposite effect on a player. Speaking of money. Scheffler has cracked $100 million PGA Tour earnings. Wow. And his stats from 2025 are exceptional, Nick runs through them.

Mark raises The Australian Open date (again!), given the next couple of weeks is precisely the time that he feels it should be on, and he explains why he feels that way again, saying Golf Australia should be in a room with Brian Rolapp to organise it, at the very least make the effort to explore it.

And we head to the turn by remembering last weeks Hostplus Guest pod with Peter Senior - huge feedback on it, it was a ripper. If you've not yet heard it then go back in the feed and listen or watch, it was a lot of fun. Particularly a certain story involving Spain. And we had a lot of minis over the break - if you were busy with family stuff or away, understandable, but worth catching up when you can - the majority are quite short and easy listens.

After The Turn, for Betr, Nick lists the Top 5 things that were surprising to him over the break....unintentional, but there is a LIV lean to the Top 5 including a whack from both Nick and Mark for one particular thing that LIV did recently.

Thanks to BMW - Mark's Touch of Class today is great, it's a young gun (18-years old!) from the US who did something amazing last week, he's got a bright future ahead of him, Mark explains what he did and why it was so impressive. Unfortunately Nick then takes the pod down a risky path putting our podcast license at risk.

We get back on track with Hostplus' 'That's a Plus' for Golf, we've given that to Brooks Koepka's return to the PGA as an indication of the best players coming back together. And speaking of Hostplus, if you have a guest you'd like on the pod - let us know!

Mark's talked a big game with the Masterclass today. Tip of the year, maybe of the century. You decide. And then Nick brings us home with the PING Global results , plenty to run through.

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 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 went right. Pete describes that year as having a 5 or 6 week period where he believed he could not hit a bad shot, it was a real purple patch.

Nick talks about one aspect of his game that he changed directly as a result of watching Pete, and he talks about being a 'victim' of Pete's brilliant run of form at one point.

Pete talks about a time in the late 90s when he, in his words, lost enjoyment of the game. He explains how he got it back and who the person was who helped him do so, and 'resurrected my career'.

And then after the turn.....what happened in Morocco when, for a moment, Pete claimed that he was the King of Spain. Arguably one of the best stories ever. And he talks about getting sprung wagging school 4-days a week, only going on Wednesdays, to go to the golf course.

A fantastic chat with Peter Senior, it was a real joy to host him for Hostplus on Talk Birdie To Me!

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.

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 in the middle of the action.

It was so bad, that pros were shooting scores in the 90s on a par 71 course. Extraordinary. Nick and Mark explain, from their different perspectives, what happened on that day and why golf legend Peter Thomson was the saviour on the day.

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.