Course Diaries
February 2023
173 – Course Diaries: Kennemer Golf & Country Club
Short bonus course diaries for you this week! Sam sat down with Christiaan & Lucas from Kennemer. Christiaan is a long standing member and current chairman of greens, and Lucas is the head greenkeeper. It's a good chat following on from our conversation with Cees back at Eindhoven about sustainable greenkeeping, encouraging finer grasses to grow and the transition work that the two have embarked on. If you haven't checked it out yet, head on over to youTube to see our latest film from our Netherlands Series in partnership with Footjoy, from Kennemer. 27 holes, with a fascinating history! hello and welcome back to another episode of the cookie jar golf podcast Sam here we've got an exciting episode today a little bonus course Diaries episode so we've got about 30 minutes with Christian and Lucas Christian's the chimney greens at canima uh and and Lucas is the [...]
Tour Journal: Kennemer Golf & Country Club
A continued blog piece to coincide with our filming releases in The Netherlands... in partnership with Day 3 (Morning) - Kennemer Day 3 of the Tour began with a shrill 6am alarm. Nursing sore heads, we quickly got dressed and packed up the car. This was the only day of the Tour where we would (attempt to) fit in 36 holes at two different courses - Kennemer and Noordwijkse, and two of the Jar were doing so on a heavy dose of Calvados from the night before. Thanks to some motivational quotes and general man-management from Tom, we said farewell to the lovely Utrecht house and the rubber hit the road just before 7am. One of the great features of Dutch golf is that these fantastic courses are all located (reasonably) close to one another, and so we were hopeful that in just over an hour’s time we’d be on [...]
171 – Netherlands Tour Pod Part 2
The second instalment of our two part tour podcast from The Netherlands. our time at Kennemer, Norrdwijkse, and Koninklijke Haagsche (just go with Royal Hague - much easier to pronounce)!Appreciate this is a beast of an episode and only Joe Rogan can really get away with 3 hour podcasts, hence why we broke it into two chunks!Big thanks to our series sponsor Footjoy for making this trip a reality, our friends in The Netherlands and of course the clubs who supported this and allowed us to bring you all this content! hello and welcome back to another episode of Jar golf podcast I am Tom Mills and today we are looking at parttwo of our tour Roundup this again is part of the Netherlands series contentwhich comprises of seven films that we're going to be releasing on YouTube and a number of podcasts to go with it again a [...]
170 – Netherlands Tour Pod Part 1
First instalment of our two part tour podcast from The Netherlands. We talk about why we went to visit the Dutch courses, the adventures on getting there, the rounds and the courses themselves and a few good stories along the way. We talk about Rye, Eindhovensche Golf & Utrechtse Golfclub De Pan. Pt II will be with you on Thursday morning, so you won't have to wait long! Appreciate this is a beast of an episode and only Joe Rogan can really get away with 3 hour podcasts! Big thanks to our series sponsor Footjoy for making this trip a reality, our friends in The Netherlands and of course the clubs who supported this and allowed us to bring you all this content! hello and welcome back to the cookie jar golf podcast I am Tom Mills and this is going to be the tour film Roundup [...]
January 2023
169 – Course Diaries: Utrechtse Golf Club De Pan w/ archivist Ernst van den Doel
Our first course diaries episode from 2023 comes from the world renown Utrecht De Pan. One of the finest inland courses in continental Europe and the product of Colt's genius, we got to sit down with club archivist and neurologist Ernst van den Doel. As well as the club and course we also talk about the evolution of golf in The Netherlands / Holland, the primitive game 'Colf' which is still played in bars around The Netherlands today, and the game more generally. Huge thanks of course go to FootJoy as our series sponsor for helping make this possible! hello and welcome back to another episode of the cookie jar golf podcast I am Tom Mills and today we are bringing you the second podcast from our Netherlands series this is coupled with a film we're going to be releasing this evening the utrecht's golf club De [...]
December 2022
157 – The Original 12 Holes at Prestwick with Ken Goodwin and Dave Edmondson
On the 162nd anniversary of the first ever Open Championship at Prestwick Golf Club, we chat through the original 12 hole course, that Tom was lucky enough to play. We talk to club Secretary Ken Goodwin and course manager Dave Edmondson about reviving the routing and the efforts that have gone into it. and welcome back to another episode of the cookie jar golf podcast I am Tom Mills and today I'm joined by Sam Williams and today we're not doing a Sam plays golf Tom played golf today Tom plays golf pressed once I was absolutely gutted I would say Wednesday this week was the most gutting day ever known that you were doing that and we were going to talk about it but the one 50th open celebration obviously the 1860 open at presswick uh the the work they've done to to build that 12-hole course as [...]
November 2022
156 – Course Diaries: Corballis Links w/ Darragh Garrahy
Our latest Course Diaries episode takes us across the Irish Sea to Corballis. Golf has been played at Corballis Golf Links for over 100 years, and whilst its previous occupants may have moved onto to larger acreage further inland, its current use a local pay & play facility just 20 minutes from Dublin airport makes it the epitome of fun, affordable and provocative golf design within easy reach of the capital. Sam is joined by Darragh Garrahy, professor of pace putting and chairman of greens at Portmarnock in Dublin who has been enjoying this local course for many years and who Sam enjoyed playing with back in May 2022! I probably played it twice a year for six years like and it's a fun distraction but I first heard of it because guys from senior top team Jeff and James and would go and practice their shipping there and Bernard [...]
September 2022
154 – Course Diaries: Royal North Devon or Westward Ho! w/ historian Robert Fowler
Sam & Bruce re-live some of the fun from Devon a few weeks ago where they played in the Silver medal (the oldest medal in English Golf) and The Kashmir Cup. 2 parts of a legendary week of golf played at Westward Ho! annually. This is a 2-part podcast with Sam & Bruce talking about the course specifically and trying to figure out why the links split opinion so heavily, as well as our interview with club historian Robert Fowler who wrote the history book for Royal North Devon as part of their 150th anniversary year. Robbie is great fun, and someone who has been around RND for pretty much all of his life. Amazing to think he actually shook hand with JH Taylor back in the late 1950's! Royal North Devon is the oldest golf club in England that still occupies the same land it was built [...]
153 – Course Diaries: Church Stretton
Church Stretton: Course Diaries Rugged, provocative and downright memorable. Three terms I would use to summarise a visit to Church Stretton. It’s a course that has been on the wish list for some time now, and a recent Instagram poll back in August, when we asked where people would like to see a future Course Diaries feature, made me get in the car and head out to Shropshire to see why. I came in anticipation of minute greensites stitched into the hillside and an abundance of quirk, and whilst Church Stretton didn’t disappoint in that sense, the quality of the architecture on offer far exceeded my own expectations. In Edwardian times, the town of Church Stretton was nicknamed ‘Little Switzerland’. It’ll take you all of about 30 seconds to realise why on the drive in (another club with the somewhat unimaginative road name of ‘Links Road’) and the [...]
151 – Course Diaries: Delamere Forest
We get back into the swing of course diaries this week. Sam visited Delamere Forest a few weeks back - located just south-west of Manchester - it’s a Fowler/Heathland classic. Delamere is a long way from the Surrey Sandbelt where you would usually expect to find a course of this ilk and it boasts some incredible elevation change, natural green sites and bunkering on a piece of land that feels just about as removed from everyday life as you could hope for! Next week we’ll be recalling East Lake and getting into the weeds on all things from the professional circuit. hello and welcome back to another episode of the cookie jar golf podcast I am Tom Mills as always and joined with me today is Sam Williams greetings Thomas what a warm morning it is it is we're sat outside jarhq in the sun and we've had [...]
