Why Aaron Rai 'Makes Mark Laugh', Ludvig Åberg's Consistency, & the Tour Pro Who Shot 12 on a Par 4

Todays pod starts with a discussion about Aaron Rai, clearly an excellent player, and a big win at the weekend in Abu Dhabi for him - however Mark tells Nick that Aaron 'makes me laugh', and he explains why. One of the reasons is wearing two gloves, and Nick explains why he does. That said, a fantastic win at the weekend by Aaron, at a course Mark describes as a 'fake links course', and he has a theory on what any 'fake links course' needs to do in order to improve the look of the course. He compares the Yas Links course and how it looks to how Tara Iti and 7 Mile Beach look. We discuss the tournament and the 'brutality' of the course, and look at some of the stats from a number of players. Plenty of great performances. Mark brings up the World Wide Technology Championship, and in particular one Tour Pro who made the cut and had a shocker on one of the Par 4 holes shooting 12. Ouch. Tour Pro Ian Poulter spoke with Rick Shiels this week and listed his Top 6 golf courses in the world, there was one he listed that made Nick and Mark laugh, with their view being it should not be on any Top 6 list....but they have a theory as to why Ian put it there, which we investigate. Mark tells a couple of stories about escorting Ian around the hospitality tents when he was in the country for the Australian Masters and talks about how Ian was to deal with. For BMW our Touch of Class is Ludvig Åberg, the vision is spectacular and you'll see it on our YouTube show, but Nick and Mark talk through it and explain why it is so good. Inspired by Aaron Rai, Mark's Top 5 today for Betr is the Top 5 (or is it Top 20?) things that Pro Golfers laugh at Amateurs for doing. Plenty of results for Nick to run through in the PING globals today, and one result next week which will no doubt get a run - is Marks performance in the mighty Box Hill Pro Am this week....he is forecasting a 64 so we'll watch with interest. Heaps of feedback on our Gary Player mini, we read out a couple. Plenty of comments on the discussion around technology in golf and how to address the flow on effects, and a couple of comments and our poll result on the LIV changes from last week. And todays masterclass for watchMynumbers from Nick is inspired by Moe Norman, and what Nick has taken from Moe and is incorporating into his game. More Talk Birdie To Me content: Short Videos here:    • Short Clips | Talk Birdie To Me Podcast   Masterclass Videos here:    • Masterclasses | Nick O'Hern & Mark Allen |...   Full Shows here:    • Talk Birdie To Me Podcast   Follow our Twitter: https://x.com/TalkBirdie_ToMe Follow our Facebook:   / talkbirdietomepod   Follow our Instagram:   / talkbirdietomepod   Follow our TikTok:   / talkbirdietomepodcast   And subscribe on YouTube: https://rb.gy/q981j Talk Birdie To Me is hosted by fomer world #16 Nick O'Hern and Tour Pro Mark Allen who played the British Open at Carnoustie.