Chasing Pars Golf Podcast

(Ep 109) Benjamin Follett-Smith

We are back for the start of the Player Interviews again on Chasing Pars Golf Podcast in association with Golf Tips Checker. In this episode Craig is joined by current Challenge Tour/Sunshine Tour pro and a 2x winner of the Cape Town Open Zimbabwean Ben Follett-Smith!
We start off finding out what Ben likes to do in his down time off from the Tour life which includes Pints & Coffee. We find out what life was like back in Harare, Zimbabwe growing up while Ben picked up Golf because of his Dad at Age of 2/3. Ben would play sports growing up being a semi decent Cricketer & also played a little bit of Rugby and we have fun seeing who from tour would make it into a Rugby side (Quite a few South Africans). We find out about his growing up with Wildlife and a Pangolin is Ben's favourite animal! 
 
Ben Follett-Smith has 4 big wins in total as a Pro & is a 2x winner of Cape Town Open in 2019 on Sunshine Tour & last year in 2023 on the co-sanctioned Challenge Tour/Sunshine Tour. Also a winner of Big Easy Tour Challenge 9 - Kyalami in 2018 & Notts Hollinwell in 2020 on Clutch Pro Tour. Ben underwent a scholarship in 2013 at The State of Mississippi and was a part of the 2016 Eisenhower Trophy for Zimbabwe & also was a part of 2018 World Cup for Zimbabwe alongside Scott Vincent in Melbourne as a Pro. Ben chats about finally gaining some consistency on the Challenge Tour last year winning in Cape Town, having 6+ top 10s & making Rolex Challenge Tour Grand Final at Alcanada where he finished T19th but narrowly missed out on a full DP World Tour card ultimately finishing 23rd overall in the Race to Mallorca standings although Ben takes a lot of positives from that going forward. 
 
I'd like to thank Ben for taking time to come on and chat I wish you all the best for 2024 Season in your quest to the DPWT.

Season 2024 & 2023 Recap

Hello and Happy New Year from a new look Chasing Pars Golf Podcast where Craig & new co-host Craig Edwards go over what type of players we are looking at for Kapalua Plantation Course for this week's The Sentry as well as go over the LIV events of 2023/Majors of 2023/Make some predictions for Majors in 2024 & name a few DP World Tour players we ate looking out for in 2024.
 
Craig Edwards is an experienced Golf Bettor/Tipster with a host of experience in Golf Betting Articles & Golf Journalism and I'm looking forward to seeing what we have planned for the future!
 
This show is now brought to you by Golf Tips Checker which is the biggest compiler of Golf Tips on the Internet for PGA Tour & DP World Tour events. We are happy to be in alignment with Golf Tips Checker!

(Ep 108) Manuel Elvira

In this latest player journey episode of Chasing Pars Podcast where Craig was battling through the flu. Craig was joined by recent DP World Tour card holder Manuel Elvira who graduated from the Challenge Tour last season with 10 Top 10 finishes with 3 2nd place finishes including in last seasons sparkling run resulting in finishing 3rd overall on the Race to Mallorca standings gaining his DP Tour Card for 2024 season.
We look back at how Manuel got into the game, the challenges of having an older brother 9 years senior (DP World Tour winner Nacho Elvira), how he made the decision to go to States & do a Scholarship at University of Central Florida where Manuel would win 3x NCAA titles while at UCF as well as getting the call into 2016 Eisenhower Trophy at Mayakoba in Mexico & being a 3x European Amateur Team Championship participant for Spain where in 3 tries would finish 7th in Chantilly, France in 2016, Winners at Diamond CC in Austria alongside Adri Arnaus, Angel Hidalgo & Alejandro Del Rey as well as finishing 5th in 2018 at Bad Saarow in Germany. Since turning pro in 2019 life on tour has never been the easiest with stop/start finishes in 1st 3 years between Alps Tour & Challenge Tour. In mid 2022 Manuel would get new club system fitted as well as gain a new coach that would transform his game 18 months later to the DP World Tour stage. In the opening swing in South Africa Manuel would finish T12th at Joburg Open/MC at SA Champs & T32nd at Leopard Creek for Dunhill Champs.
A player with plenty of potential to go far if he can keep up his current form & performance levels. All the best to Manuel for 2024!

(Ep 107) Martin Simonsen

In tonight's episode Craig is joined by DP World Tour & Challenge Tour professional Martin Leth Simonsen calling in from holiday in Texas! Martin is a pro since 2015 playing from Aalborg in Denmark the same place as Lucas Bjerregaard & a graduate of the University of Texas El Paso playing in the same fields as the likes of Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth & Bryson DeChambeau. We learn of how Bryson would just come out with the most random stuff! A 2x European Am Team member for Denmark in 2014 at Linna in Finland & 2015 at Halmstad GC in Sweden losing in the final to Scotland that year. Martin alongside his good pal Niklas Norgaard & Nicolai Kristensen competed in the 2014 Eisenhower Trophy together in Japan with was won by USA (DeChambeau, Hossler & Denny McCarthy) other notables include Jon Rahm, Thomas Detry, the dangerous trio of Corey Conners, Taylor Pendrith & Adam Svensson as well as the 2 long sons of Italy Matteo Manassero & Guido Migliozzi. Martin reveals how Matteo was delighted for him winning his tour card even in his own struggles and is fastly the nicest guy on the tour and how great it is to have Manassero back playing well again! Martin would win Challenge Tour card in 2019 from the Nordic Golf League and a DP World Tour card in 2022 after finishing 14th overall in the Race to Mallorca standings for the season gaining full playing privileges on the DP World Tour for 2023 winning his only career title as a pro at Kaskada Golf Challenge in Prague at -20 beating the talented Marco Penge by 4 shots going wire to wire all the way! Although injuries and poor form happened in 2023 for Martin there is a sense of optimism that 2024 could be a great year on the challenge tour as Martin looks to win back his DP Tour Card for 2024/25 season!
I hope you enjoy!

(Ep 106) Colin Ramsay (A Golfer’s Bucket List of Scottish Golf Courses)

In the 2nd episode of the week I am joined by Colin Ramsay the Author of the best selling Golf Book 'A Golfer's Bucket List of Scottish Golf Courses'. Colin tells us how he started playing the game back in 1971 & still going strong at 67 years young! Colin explains how the idea of the book came from a constant phrase said at all the different Clubhouses of that's another Golf Course ticked off the list. Craig tests Colin's knowledge on Regional parts of Scotland and asks for top 2/3 courses in that region with a great discussion also about St Andrews and the current state of it being pretty much overpowered! I absolutely loved doing this one and I absolutely love Colin's enthusiasm for the game still. At a whopping 282 courses played over Scotland in 550+ courses I wish Colin every success in achieving his goals of playing every single golf course in Scotland!
I hope you enjoy it!

(Ep 105) Alfred Dunhill Championship (Craig Edwards)

We are back doing tournament previews after a couple months away from doing it and Craig is joined for the first time by former Snooker pro & now Golf Writer & Tipster Craig Edwards @EdwardsTips on X. The 2 Craig's go at it about Burmester & Niemann winning in South Africa & Australia respectively while looking at how the LIV players are getting easy exemptions back onto the Tour that they walked away from. We discuss the massive talking point of World #3 Jon Rahm now confirmed going to LIV Golf and we discuss how that might play out along with going over some of the new DPWT graduates from Challenge Tour & DPWT Q School Finals as we say who we fancy to go well out of the graduates and who we think will be a first time winner in 2024 on the DP World Tour! We then make our picks for Alfred Dunhill Champs this week at the iconic Leopard Creek in Malelane, Mpumalanga the home of Kruger National Park.
Be sure to Follow @ThomsonGolf94 on Twitter for more. Thank you Craig for a fun episode!
Enjoy!

(Ep 104) Alan Tulleth (DP World Tour Caddy)

After a 2 month extended break due to a few issues & reasons Chasing Pars returns for your enjoyment as Craig is joined by DP World Tour caddy Alan Tulleth who is the current caddy for Englishman on the DPWT 2022 Challenge Tour Race to Mallorca Champion Nathan Kimsey. Craig & Alan have a laugh and joke about all things as we find out how he got the call from David Law to caddy on the Challenge Tour to getting the nod to become the caddy of Nathan Kimsey a month or 2 before the season ending win in Mallorca to finding out about Alan's experience of caddying for the number 1 ranked Amateur player in the world Gordon Sargent at this year's Walker Cup event at Alan's home course of St Andrew's.
Definitely recommend this episode as we figure out the bond between a player & caddy!
Thanks Alan welcome back any time & I hope you all enjoy!

(Ep 103) Monday Q Info (Ryan French)

In this 2nd episode of today I am joined by the well renowned figure Ryan French also known as Monday Q Info. We talk about Ryan's journey into setting up Monday Q Info page and with it becoming an incredible amount of success covering stories of players that some people might have never heard of & explaining how hard the Monday Qualifying system actually is to get a chance at qualifying for a PGA Tour event. We learn about how players view Ryan's coverage of them & majority of them seem to appreciate the support given! Towards the end Craig gives a run down of this week's Solheim Cup being played at Finca Cortesin in Malaga we dive into the teams & the team profiles ahead of the return of the biennial team competition!
Thanks to Ryan for coming on
Enjoy the show

(Ep 102) Cazoo Open de France with Mike Miller

It was a dramatic win by the vastly improving Ryan Fox to become the 1st Kiwi to win BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in this becoming a Rolex Series winner! Fox showed great grim & determination from a triple bogey on Sunday at the 3rd to birdieing 8 of last 13 holes to become champion. On the PGA in the 1st regulation season event at Fortinet Championship it was a maiden PGA Tour win for the popular Sahith Theegala who played brilliantly throughout to win by 2 from S.H. Kim! This week Craig is joined by the popular figure of Mike Miller @SmartGolfBets who has built a reputation over the past decade for being a dedicated form addict and provide you with form sheets from around the tours. Craig & Mike go over this week's Open de France which was the scene last year of one of the best approach shots at 18 you will ever see from Guido Migliozzi to win by 1 to Rasmus Hojgaard! This track in Guyancourt is notoriously one of the toughest courses on the DP World Tour schedule with accurate irons and good scrambling the key to success in Paris! The host of 2018 Ryder Cup won by Europe and the 1994 Eisenhower Trophy as well as the host course next year for the 2024 Olympics Le Golf National has well known reputation & is multiple players favourite golf course on tour including previous podcast guest Jorge Campillo!
Thanks to Mike for coming on, enjoy the show

(Ep 101) BMW PGA Championship preview with Bryan DeCorte (Axis)

It's the flagship event on the DP World Tour where all the top European players of the world including every single member of the 12 for Team Europe for Marco Simone flock to the well renowned Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey for the next edition of BMW PGA Championship where Shane Lowry held off Rory McIlroy & Jon Rahm last year to add a Rolex Series crown alongside his Claret Jug! Who will win this epic event? Craig is joined for the first time by Bryan Decorte also known as Axis DFS on Twitter calling in from Michigan! Craig & Axis go over Vincent Normann's victory at Irish Open what the future holds for Swedish Golf (Aberg & Normann winning back to back weeks) as well as talking Rory McIlroy before going into BMW PGA Championship where it's such a stellar field event this week!
The PGA Tour also returns for the first event of the new fall season in Napa, California at Silverado for Fortinet Championship which last couple of years has been dominated by Max Homa who is in the field again to try win it for 3rd time in a row!
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Enjoy!