INTERVIEW: Mark Allen - 13 April 2026

0:00Well, after a record couple of first days, he was in total control. Then all of a sudden, a game turned southward. Rory McElroy, it was just an entertaining masters, kept a lot of friends up to early hours of the morning and to tell us all about it. From the top of the 30 to me podcast, he's our friend Mark Allen. Welcome. Jimmy Rory, nice to be talking golf with you boys. It was lucky with the hell of a tournament again and for Rory McElroy now to have a career grand slam and also six majors and two masters in a row. That puts him into an echelon of golfer that is just out of this world. If he gets there, there'll only be three people in front of him and that's Jack, Tiger and a fight called Walter Hagen. So if you can get there, I mean, he's a special kind of guy.

1:03There was a lot of talk about the fact that the guys that have joined live just aren't golf hardened if you like. Did you see that? Did that Augusta expose that? Can I tell you this boys? And I know that live golf had laid it works so well when it comes to your shores. It means it is a brilliant event. But I'm telling you the rest of that circuit is very low key for you. And it's just music. Same plays week in, week out. The courses are set up for birdies. And I have no doubt at all. I've no doubt at all. It would be like playing state league footy and then trying to get a few guns, drag a few guns in the state league but then you get up to the AFL games and you're playing at the MCG. The crowds are enormous every week. It's just a different ballgame. And we talk about Ring Rust in boxing. Honestly, round one, if Fred Couples didn't have a quadruple buggy on the 15th hole,

2:06then the Champions Tour players, all the old boys, would have beaten the live golfers in round one. And that is just so telling. In the end, the live golfers only beat the Champions Tour guys by a couple of shots. I mean, it just shows you to me that it is a week tour. Yeah. Took him 17 years to win one and two years, he's won two Macaroid. We're talking about Augusta. And it's the fourth ever with Jack Nicholas House. These names Nick Fowler and Tiger Woods going back to back, you know, put four and a half mill in his tin tank. Talked me through his shot on the 8th, on the last. I mean, God, that came off the tee. Nice, didn't it? But he got on the second was brilliant. Yeah, let's just talk about the first two rounds. I mean, it's just like a team in the first two rounds and was leading by six. That third round, he hit the ball poorly. See minus stuff. Everything was going left on set. They know he went to the driving range and he tried to work out

3:09something. What he could do. And he was trying to hit little fades with the iron. Now, he was he was in front, but he was only in front with probably a B minus game, Peter Green. But look, where came crunch time today? The real Rory Macaroid stood up. The tough, hard and professional Rory Macaroid stood up. And when it was time, he hit that driver straight on holes like 1011 and 13. He did it. I mean, and they were magnificent drives that set up a victory. But the real difference came at the 12th hole. Now, that hole with the pin on way on the right. Everybody aims just over the center of that trap. And the reason you do it is in case you push one. And he pushed it. The seven feet. No one hit it closer all day. And he kept that seven footer in. And from there, we all had our hearts and our mouths, because typically he doesn't make it easy. You know, he doesn't just storm away with it, like tiger woods used to in that situation.

4:12But look, he hung on that drive on the last, honestly. And goodness, he had a two-stroke, a two-stroke LED, up his sleeve. Otherwise, we would have been headed to another playoff for goodness knows where if that ball bounced up a tree. Cameron Young's third round certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons, didn't it? I was a brilliant round of golf. And look, this guy can play. It's funny, you know, when that pause at the top of his golf swing, like it did at the players' championship at Sawgrass last month, when it's going well, it looks unstoppable. But today, that big pause. I don't know. Just didn't quite look the same. Didn't look like he had the same American troll. But look, it's one bad round. We're not going to poison him with, you know, playing bad all the sudden, under pressure. He's a superstar player. And one of the best Americans have got. Jason Day, the best of the Aussies tied in 12th position. It was a chance there for a while, minus five. God, he's a great player.

5:12Yeah. Yeah, Jason Day. He's almost back, you know. He's been trying to prove to pick up a win this year soon. And he may well feature in the last couple of majors. You know, you got the PGA championship next month. Then the USA for many open championship. They're all like great venues. And the way he's playing, wait, look, I want to say that. The way he's swinging the club and the way he is putting, there is no reason why a golf course like a Rotter-Mank and also Shinnikar Kills, but they will really suit him. Those two courses will suit him down to the ground. So look out for Jason Day. He just needs a little bit of confidence on why he'll go. Yeah, he's not far away. I mark really appreciate your coverage. Might always a friend of show and we appreciate your time. No worries, boys. And don't worry. Battles will get off. How are you doing? Good, man. You're representing in Mark. From the talk, Bertie, to me, podcast Australia's most listen to golf podcasts. Give it a chance. Mark Allen covering Augusta.

6:13Good.