Birdie Banter : The Golf News Podcast

Quick 10 minute recap covering the last two months in golf with a few laughs.  Happy Holidays! See you back in January with our weekly shows. 

Brendan Steele won the 2016 Safeway Open closing out with three birdies in a row to grab a one shot lead over Patton Kizzire.  We go over our weekly Par 5….Steele’s victory, can he do it again with his short game? Patton Kizzire putted lights out but got tense at the wrong time.  Can Paul Casey ever close?  Phil grabs another Top 10, is he primed for a big year? And last but not least, Alex Noren won for the third time in eight starts at The British Masters, what can we expect from Noren this year? Plus a little Portugal Masters and CIMB Classic preview and Boomsticks and I agree that we both love Ian Poulter even though he’s a US Ryder Cup assassin. Listen in!

Tiger Woods withdrew from the Safeway Open days after committing to play the event. Is this the end of Tiger?  Del and Johnny Boomsticks banter, Johnny thinks Tiger will never win again, where Del makes a bold statement about when and where Tiger will win again.  Plus we’ll talk about this weeks Safeway Open in Napa, California and The European Tour’s British Masters at The Grove.

Tyrrell Hatton played the last two rounds of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship lights out, 16-under, and tying the Old Course at St. Andrews record of 62 on Saturday.  He had a 40 hole stretch of bogey free golf and was in control of the tournament all day Sunday in the final round.  It was his first European Tour victory and moves him into fourth place for the year end Race to Dubai.  While Hatton was winning in Scotland, Brandt Snedeker was also putting on a great display of golf in Fiji, winning the Fiji International by nine strokes and only recording three bogeys all week.

The annual Sports Illustrated anonymous golf survey is out and we got some great topics to go over, like, will Tiger Woods ever win another PGA Tour event? I think so, and so does 42% of his PGA Tour peers and even more on the Champions Tour.  We will give you a brief recap of the shortened 54-hole Zurich Classic and a preview of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship.

The Tiger Woods watch is on, Birdie Banter’s Tiger Meter has it at a few weeks out after he registered for the U.S. Open, played five holes at the opening of his new course BlueJack National this week, and the reports of him practicing 4 to 5 hours a day at his home course.  Tiger still moves the needle, we will give you a recap of last weeks Valero Texas Open, and a little preview for this week’s Zurich Classic in New Orleans. Plus a recap of SB2K16, the spring break trip everyone is talking about!

After all the hype heading into Augusta and The Masters it was looking to be a MAJOR letdown after 63 holes, then the improbable happened, Jordan Spieth hit two balls into the water at the Par 3 12th hole and like everyone always says, The Masters doesn’t start until the back nine on Sunday!  That was so true this year, as Spieth collapsed and the young Englishmen Danny Willett showed nerves of steel with a 5-under final round to win the Green Jacket and the 80th Masters Championship.  A well deserved win for Danny Willett.  We’ll give you highlights of The Masters, this week’s golf headlines, and a preview for this week’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town.

It’s finally here, THE MASTERS! The best tournament of the year and Birdie Banter has an amazing Masters preview for you! We’ll go over the top golfers heading into The Masters, their history at the tournament, this year’s form, audio clips from their Masters press conference, and much more.  We’ll rank our Top 10 golfers for the week, give you Dels Pick of the Week, and some sleepers for all your Masters pool. Do not miss this episode.

Jason Day won the Dell Match Play last week, back to back wins, two weeks in a row and he is now the number one ranked golfer in the world.  Adam Scott and Jason Day now have a combined four wins on the year, and it’s certainly the year of the Aussie so far.  It wasn’t easy for Day, he had a back problem early on in the week he had to overcome, plus he had to go through Rory McIlroy, and Louis Oosthuizen.  The win puts him in great shape heading into The Masters.  This week we have the Shell Houston Open, the last chance for players to get their games in order before Augusta, and speaking of Augusta, Tiger Woods has not said that he is not competing at The Masters this year yet, so we may get a Tiger sighting at Augusta in the coming days.

Jason Day won the Arnold Palmer Invitational with his C-game, WHAT? Impressive, impressive victory for Jason Day.  Its been the year of the Aussie, first Adam Scott now Day.  This week we get the World Golf Championship DELL Match Play, my favorite event of the year other than the Majors.  I’ll break down each group, the single elimination round of 16 and give you a winner of course, Dels pick of the week.

Its been five years, but Charl Schwartzel has finally won on American soil again after his breakthrough victory at the 2011 Masters.  He beat Bill Haas in a playoff at the Valspar Championship and my question is, Why doesn’t Bill Haas win more? Social Media was in the spotlight this week, both Jordan Spieth and Ian Poulter got into social media arguments with fans, Arnold Palmer will not hit the ceremonial first tee shot at The Masters, amateur Lee McCoy turns down $300,000 and Republican Presidential hopeful John Kasich only watches Golf Channel.  Plus, the Arnold Palmer Invitational preview and as always Dels Pick of the Week.  

It was a star studded leaderboard at the WGC-Cadillac Championship, Rory McIlroy couldn’t hold onto his lead, Phil, DJ, and Bubba couldn’t break through, but the Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Adam Scott did it again, winning the Cadillac Championship one week after he won the Honda Classic.  Back to Back weeks, impressive! We’ll give you a Valspar Championship preview, why Adam Scott shouldn’t change caddies for The Masters, some Masters favorites, and why Olympic Golf will probably suck.

For the second time this year Del knocked his pick of the week out of the park, Adam Scott won the 2016 Honda Classic, beating Sergio Garcia by one shot.  Once again Sergio chokes on a 54-hole lead, it’s really a bad mental block for him.  Adam Scott is playing some great golf lately, we get some more Tiger updates, and this week the PGA Tour stops at Donald Trump’s golf paradise, The Blue Monster, Doral, in Miami for the WGC-Cadillac Championship, 48 of the top 50 golfers in the world are in the field including the Big 3, Spieth, Rory, and Jason Day who will all be playing together in the opening round on Thursday. Will one of the Big 3 be victorious this week? Del thinks someone else steals the show.

Bubba Watson won the 2016 Northern Trust Open, yay! Totally being sarcastic.  Rory was in the hunt but lost his game on Sunday.  Tiger Woods is back in the news, we have conflicting reports on his back, plus Phil Mickelson said no one comes close to Tiger in his prime.  Jordan Spieth shot a 79 on Thursday at Riviera, yay! Not being sarcastic, the golden boy is starting to lose his swag. Del tells you why you need to go out and buy the new TaylorMade M2 driver, Honda Classic Preview, and Dels Pick of the Week.

Vaughn Taylor won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am on Sunday after Phil Mickelson missed a five foot putt to force a playoff.  It was Taylor’s first win since 2005, a win he thought never would happen again.  Phil played great, but in typical lefty fashion, all everyone had to say was “Phil being Phil,” he could’ve closed the door on any come from behind victory with a strong start on Sunday but he had trouble out of the gate before turning it on late.  Bill Murray broke cell phones, Jack is having a Ryder Cup dinner, we’re getting Rickie vs. Rory under the lights, Nike piggybacks on Fowler’s look, Gary Player speaks too soon, and the Northern Trust Open Preview with Dels Pick of the Week.

We got a Thriller in Phoenix at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on Sunday with Rickie Fowler and Hideki Matsuyama playing an exciting and electric four hole playoff that Matsuyama won after a Fowler mistake, the same mistake he made on the same hole, the 17th, in regulation. Rickie was very upset about the loss, but Matsuyama definitely deserved the win.  Bubba Watson put his foot in his mouth and is inducted into a new Birdie Banter group, Joe LaCava, Tiger Woods caddie gave us a glimpse into his and Tiger’s relationship, an AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am preview and as always Del’s pick of the week. 

Brandt Snedeker had one of the best bad weather final rounds in the history of golf on Sunday, winning the Farmers Insurance Open in monsoon like weather, 40 mph winds, rain, it was impressive.  The win now moves Snedeker into second place in the FedEx Cup standings, and he’s off to a hot start this year with a win, 2nd, and 3rd place finish.  Jordan Spieth backpedals on a statement from last week, Phil gets pissed at the new kid, Waste Management Phoenix Open preview, and Dels Pick of the Week is looking to get back on track after he missed his first cut of the year last week.

Jason Dufner, Del’s Pick of the Week for the CareerBuilder Challenge last week came through for a big win, his first since the 2013 PGA Championship, Rickie Fowler won in the Middle East at the Abu Dhabi Championship beating world number one Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy, Fowler is now the fourth ranked player in the world and the big three might soon turn into the fantastic four, Jordan Spieth complains about being “burnt out”, The Farmers Insurance Open preview, and don’t miss Del’s Pick of the Week, looking to go back to back, belly to belly!

Fabian Gomez recorded an impressive playoff victory at the Sony Open over Brandt Snedeker.  It was a big win for the Argentine and he’ll be making a push for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.  Phil Mickelson made a 17 year old play for money, EurAsia Cup results, a big week in Abu Dhabi with Spieth, Rory, and Rickie Fowler and the PGA Tour’s CareerBuilder Challege preview.

Jordan Spieth won the Hyundai Tournament of Champions over the weekend in impressive fashion, we’ll touch on that and Del’s take will be a little different than everyone else.  Some golf news headlines, the Eurasia Cup is this week, a tune up for the European Ryder Cup team, Spieth overtakes Tiger as the top earner in Golf, Stevie Williams pissing off another golfer, and we’ll also give you a Sony Open Preview and Del’s Pick of the Week,