The Firm & Fast Golf Podcast · Shane Derby

Tea & Biscuits with Sam Williams from the Cookie Jar Golf Podcast

·1 hr 14 min·4 clips

Sam Williams says the best part of golf is arriving at a new club and noticing the clubhouse, pro shop, and locker room smell.

1. The Firm & Fast Golf Podcast episode centers on Sam Williams talking about the Cookie Jar Golf Podcast and its five-year run. 2. Shane Derby hosts Sam Williams, who is the co-host and co-founder of Cookie Jar, and Sam explains why that show matters to him. 3. The conversation asks how a 2020 golf podcast from Blackwell Golf Club became a platform for golf history, architecture, and travel. 4. Sam says Cookie Jar began with four members of Blackwell Golf Club in the West Midlands of England. 5. He says the early idea was simply to start a golf podcast, not to build a show around James Braid or other deep-history topics. 6. Sam points to COVID arriving around episode four or five, which gave the team time to book commentators, photographers, and players over Zoom. 7. He says the lockdown period helped them reach guests who were at home and available to talk. 8. Sam names Mike Clayton and Lucas Michel as turning points that pushed the show toward golf course design. 9. He mentions a podcast on the history and evolution of golf course design, from penal to strategic, and links that to Woking and Richard Pennell. 10. He says Cookie Jar realized that those learning conversations were the parts they enjoyed most. 11. Sam describes Blackwell as a club with about 190 members, a tiny clubhouse, and a course that is "a very tough course on the brain." 12. He says Blackwell is a very easy walk, usually a two-ball game, and normally takes about three hours. 13. Sam says the club has no towels for more than 50 people and the bar tops out at about 55 or 60 people. 14. He explains that the course diaries series is built around the feeling of arriving at a new club and noticing details like the clubhouse, locker room, and pro shop. 15. He says those episodes help a listener understand a club before playing it, especially when members or historians add local context. 16. Sam talks about the Netherlands trips with the foursomes club of Holland and names Hague, Kennemer, and Duin as examples of the variety there. 17. He says courses like Royal Liverpool, Muirfield, Birkdale, Hoylake, Painswick, Knighton, and Blackwell reward repeat visits more than one-off rounds. 18. The interview feels relaxed and conversational, with Shane steering across travel, club culture, and the practical grind of production. 19. Golf listeners who like club culture, architecture, and travel stories will get the most from it. 20. Listeners wanting a short, purely technical golf lesson may skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Firm & Fast Golf Podcast