The Cookie Jar Golf Podcast · Cookie Jar Golf

352 - Sam's Year in Review and Eclectic 18

·57 min·3 clips

Sam calls the Olympic Club Cliffs course “the most claustrophobic golf hole I’ve ever, ever played.”

The episode opens with a bit of joking about Sam's growing pile of solo appearances. That turns into a slightly mock performance review before they get to the real point. The year review is built around Sam's eclectic 18 of new golf courses. He took a more public-access route than the host would have done. He says the hardest part was keeping proper notes as he went along. That keeps coming back, because the notes are what make a year-end review worth having. They talk about a course-diaries approach that was meant to be revisited later, not just filed away. The handicap picture is basically flat. Sam thinks he started the year at 3.8 and finishes at 3.9. That is barely any movement. He admits there was a summer stretch where he felt a bit in the wilderness with his own game. He did not feel like he had enough time playing his own ball with proper focus. Blackwell comes up as a place that can make scoring feel absurd when it is baked hard, hot, and dry. On days like that, the numbers stop mattering much and the round turns into survival. They treat that as part explanation and part excuse. The talk also lands on the value of holding out and how that discipline carries across different forms of golf. Match play and foursomes get mentioned as the formats they love most. Even casual road rounds can still be treated as semi-competitive if you want to learn something from them. They circle back to a specific par three that played heavily downwind in wild weather. People were landing the thick end of an eight or nine iron, hitting the top of the hill, and skipping it down. It is described as a rollercoaster hole and a classic piece of ancient links golf. The appreciation is practical rather than romantic. The host keeps nudging the discussion toward what the year means instead of letting it drift into pure memory. Sam stays grounded and slightly self-deprecating. The episode keeps its conversation-first rhythm, with interruptions, corrections, and little side notes doing as much work as the formal summary. It ends feeling like a proper year-end debrief rather than a polished review. The final mood is reflective but not gloomy. It leaves Sam with renewed focus for next year and the sense that the notes, not the heroics, are what will matter.

As heard by us

A plainspoken year-in-golf recap, with 18 new courses, a near-flat handicap, and a reminder to keep better notes.

Sam's year in golf comes across as a plainspoken recap rather than a polished victory lap. He played 18 new courses, moved between a public-access approach and a more selective one, and says his handicap barely moved from 3.8 to 3.9.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a year-in-golf recap with dry banter and public-access course notes.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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