Our second annual Christmas Party was held at Urban Golf on the 8th December at Smithfields in London, and what a wonderful way to celebrate a great year of golf with like minded souls. A bitterly cold winters’ day, with the rail strikes planned didn’t dent peoples enthusiasm with Tom & Sam both turning up late for their own party to be met with crowds of faces, some familiar and some enjoying their first Cookie Jar event. A link to our film from the evening can be found here This was however the first time we played competitively. An excitable [...]

words by Sam I’ve been visiting Porthcawl since I was about 9 or 10 years of age, and there is a certain magic about any club that you see infrequently over what is sadly now more than a quarter of a century. Every time I return I find myself saying the same; ‘it’s the best I’ve ever seen it’ by which I do not mean just the course itself but the club as a whole.   Royal Porthcawl which is situated in the small seaside town between Cardiff and Swansea happens to be famous the world over for their annual [...]

A week to remember in the desert. An event long standing on the European tour, now given a facelift under the DP rebranding, the Dubai Desert Classic gave us exactly that - a classic Sunday that has kick-started the season for many golf fanatics. This excerpt will start at the end and work backwards. Alongside the pod brought out this week, this post will hope to peel back the layers to provide some extra insight in to the top performances this past week. Beauty and the beast In that theme, let's start with the last two standing on Sunday afternoon; [...]

Preface A few weeks ago, I was plodding my way down the 12th hole at Blackwell admiring the renovation work to the green site as part of the winter programme when Richard Pennell (@pitchmarks on twitter) from Woking Golf Club called me out of the blue. My initial thought was that I was in trouble for something I had said, but after some premature apologies and general well wishes between us Richard quickly got into the reason for the call. He wanted to write more about golf… An art form within the game which is sadly in decline, he asked [...]

Words by Sam Of the many hallmarks of the quintessential British Golf Club - the musty smell in the locker room, tongue and groove panelling in the bar, hair combs drowning in blue barbicide next to a vintage bottle of talcum powder in the shower room - one small golfing tradition seems to be in decline.  Kummel, an aniseed and caraway infused liqueur has been loitering around our clubhouses, keeping golfers hydrated, stomachs-settled and their first-tee nerves at bay for over a century now, but there is a serious cloud hanging over the future of this famous spirit [...]