Australian Golf Legend and part of the Talk Birdie To Me Podcast, Nick O'Hern, joined Scott Cummings and Tim Gossage ahead of the Genesis Scottish Open as the Open draws near.
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SEN WA Breakfast
Scottish Open Preview with Nick O'Hern (11/07/2024)
Ryan Reynolds here for I guess my hundredth mint commercial. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use, but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year, and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. - It's got us open at the Renaissance Club ahead of the Open Championship at Troon in Scotland, because that's the 152nd open. And one man who knows all about big time golf is, of course, our next guest. And we talk of Nick O'Hurne. Nick O'Hurne, a great West Australian now resides on the East Coast. We won't hold that against him. And of course, part of the year, talk birdie to me podcast and a whole lot more. He's an expert, and you can see a lot of his stuff on socials. Hey, Nick, appreciate your time. We're getting serious ahead of the championship. - Yeah, good morning, guys. Certainly are. It's a big week, obviously. And I think the biggest news was Rory McElroy made an appearance after what happened at the US Open. So can't wait to see how he played. - Yeah, and he's jousting with a few that questioned his pattern and the like. I mean, let's go back to that. He had a chance, and everyone sort of, it was a choking performance, and it's not the first time it's happened. Tell us a bit about the demons inside a golfer's head when you've got the chance to grab a big event like that and a dozen, and you sit away for a couple of weeks and you mull over it. What's that like, Nick? - Yeah, the first two or three days and you do beat yourself up pretty good. And you relive every moment, basically. It's one of those things that's just hard to let go. And the only thing that's in your favor is really time. And I think in his press conference, he said, well, you know, the first few days were tough, but after that, he was okay. And he dealt with it. He said, so I have a feeling they're still there. You never forget those sorts of things. But I think the best thing for him is just to get back out on the golf course and put back the balls, so to speak. And see how he goes. He certainly is a Scottish Open at the Renaissance Club. And this is where all the big players come to sort of play sort of this type of golf. Links sort of golf for golf and the expectation of going on to Trune, of course, for the 152nd Open. A lot of blokes who play predominantly on the PGA tour come in to do this. How much of an advantage or is it to be on the European tour to play these courses more often? But you have a look at the lineup, Nick. And it is certainly based on most of the players coming off the European tour, off the PGA tour. Yeah, for sure. But the good thing now is with the Scottish and the Irish Open. But although that's not counting this year, because they've moved it because of the Olympics. But they're playing those on links golf courses now. So it's such an advantage to play a links course before you play an open championship. Whereas before back in my day, we'd go play Lachloman, which is another American style. So you're basically going from one style to the next. So it is a big advantage. For sure, I just keep playing these link style courses. And then that playing that often on the European tour, to be honest, it's really maybe at the end of the year that Dunhill and the odd event maybe in Belgium or things like that. But most of the courses they play in the European Parkland. So I think the Americans are teed up nicely for it. Hey, Nick, great to talk to you, mate. This is like the queens of Wimbledon. And obviously, they're playing the Renaissance Club. Do they pick a course in a lead-up event like the Open? That's similar, or really, that play similar to where they're going to play the Open, obviously. Of course, in the Open, it's a real true. Now, similar is a Renaissance Club to a true. Well, I've never played there, but it looks as though it's a similar link style. You'll never get anything similar to true. And I mean, that's one of the great links courses going around. It's-- you'd almost have to play Turnbree or St. Andrew's or Hoelike or something the week before, if you wanted to get something similar. But they'll get the feel of the bump and runs that they have to play. The top bunkers, you've got to avoid all the little things I'm playing in a bit of breeze, hopefully, if they can get that. So they used to do that really well in the United States, where they play a tournament in Houston the week before, and they'd set the course up exactly like, I guess, the week before, I guess, that we played the Houston Open. And guys felt like they'd already got used to the grass before they even got them there. So it's a great call to put it on a links course, but it's pretty hard to replicate it. How hard is it for the Americans? Well, when you play PGA, it is most of the courses before majors, I suppose. You can really attack that pin and it'll plop and stop. Very, very different in Europe, isn't it? Totally different style of golf, yeah, for sure. But the one thing pro golfers are very good at is their ability to adapt very quickly. And we saw that when they came down here for the President's Cup of Romel and took them a couple of days to figure the course out. But once they tore it up, and it'll be the same, some of the Americans will be up there again. But it's more the creative guys, like Justin Thomas, Jordan speak, and those sorts of players. Who do you like, Nate? Who do you like first the Renaissance? And who do you see as someone who might not win the Scottish Open, but then building nicely for the big one? Well, yeah, I would love to see Rory win the big one, be open after what happened at the US Open, obviously. But I have a feeling you'll get maybe one of the stronger European plays, or even someone like a Ryan Fox who's been playing in the US quite a bit this year. He loves playing him back in Europe. He had a solid result in the BMW last week and over there in Germany. So he may just pop his head up, you never know. Bobby McIntyre might be looking to go one better than last year. The Scottish crowd will be behind him, that's for sure. But at the Open Championship, it's always hard to go past the Scotty Scheffler type. But I think maybe someone like a Tommy Fleetwood has a good chance this year. He certainly do. There's another name that a lot of people wouldn't know. Nick would you would, but it's the double glover in Aaron Rye, who's come out of Europe and plays in America now. And he's in the top almost in the top 50 in the world. Now, he's been a remarkable transformation. I thought he was just battling around the European to the DP World Tour. He's actually having a presence. He finished top 20 at the US Open, and gloves some pretty good money there as well. He's a really nice golfer that's really stepped up in more recent years. He certainly has, yeah, and he's from Wolverhampton, which is kind of where, well, my mum's from as well over that way. So, yeah, I actually kind of know that area well. He's a unique case. He's very much someone who's got the most out of his ability. He's a bit painful to watch, though, to be honest. He's pretty slow. (laughing) He's the mat miller of the World Tour. Yeah, if you're going to play with a double glover. Yeah, you'd be pointing at me, man. And you know the other dead giveaway. Whenever I see someone with iron covers on, I'm just not sure about how much it is. Yep, absolutely bang on the money. Double glover and iron covers, you'll be like, "Yeah, I'm not playing with you." And he also wears the long compression sleeves. He wears the lot. Yeah, no, no, no, no, not playing with him. You get paired up with him, sorry, Jim. We're going elsewhere. Hey, mate, the Olympic snake, W-A, just proving to be the home of golf in Australia. We've got a quartet of Ozzie's Plumb in G, Minh Wooley, Jason Day and Hannah Green, three out of four West Ozzies, mate. Jason Day's getting in the way. Jason Day's just bringing some maroon to the equation, but we're producing some golfers here, mate. Oh, we certainly are. And there's more coming to... I mean, Kirsten Rudgley's doing nicely on the ladies' European to a couple of young players in Conor McKinney, Hayden Hopewell, who'll be coming along as well. But I can't wait to see Minh Woo and Minh G. It's a shame almost as though it's not a mixed event, because that would have been a blast, absolute blast. But maybe they can create some different medals, you know, a mixed event, a team event, an individual one day. But it's just great to see three of them from W-A, which, hey, even I live in Melbourne these days, boys. I'm still a doctor's supporter, especially when they're put on the ladder. Yeah, no, I swear to do that again. We're going to ask you, you must be happy with them, mate. They're going well. They're going very nicely. Yeah, just sneaking up there beautifully. Just don't do the Rory McIlroy if you get to the big... Oh, I don't do that. Hey. I saw... I saw... I followed Nick here in the course at Royal Once and he had a beautiful bag, beautiful ping bag, ruined it with a massive Dockers emblem right on the front of... Why would you do that to a nice bag, Nick? You've got to have the anchor on there, absolutely. I appreciate your time, exciting time, so getting up the open next week, looking forward to it. Thanks for joining us, Nick. Cheers, guys. There he is, Nico, her, and superstar. And he's all left, he's a chance, doesn't he?