150 – A Milestone Podcast

hello and welcome back to the cookie jar golf podcast
you are Bruce Fitzpatrick I am indeed and today you are joined by I’m joined by Tom Mills hello and Sam Williams
gentleman pleasure 150 episodes Landmark for the 150 if you thought we’d
go wrong I mean in the interest of absolute transparency this is uh something that
we really well you know we should we might as well admit it because it’s hilarious and you know this is a recap pod we’re going to be doing a little bit
of back slapping but it did take us three false starts to get to to get to this point where we’re hopeful that all
three of us are coming through loud and clear all right I’m checking I’m checking my channels we are now all all three of us in and it has taken us well
when we do take a trip down memory lane I think there’s a good opportunity to talk about some of the pods that never aired as well yeah
and various things but um yeah in the year of the 150th open at
St Andrews we have a 150th podcast which is almost exactly in a little bit smidge
more than two and a half years after we started fourth Cadence I don’t know what that works I
am weeks but it’s pretty yeah the open week helped didn’t it with sort of Twitter it got us up about six or seven on the
numbers but um yeah and also sad times last podcast in the biscuit Mill yeah yeah for those
who are unaware the biscuit meal um are affectionate um for referring to Tom’s what you call
this sort of study it’s yeah it’s my office that’s where I work out of um and it’s are you I think you coined
the biscuit Mill it was it’s because we are cookie jar you thought that our our home should be the biscuit meal
something I actually I mean can we just address this now I don’t think cookies and biscuits are even slightly related I
think they are essentially the same thing aren’t they yeah I think both go well with a cup of tea and you know some sort of sweet like
you know sweets yeah well yeah well it is no more after we’re moving home week to week it’s not
that we’re packing up cookie jar before people think this is the last 150th and last podcast this would be a blowout wouldn’t it this
is it although I have no point so I thought God 150 and then I think we just knock it on the head and just drop the mic and walk out then
um we have grown though which is nice it is
that’s the thing like we started this what did we say 4th of January 2020 4th
of January which is just a go Rogue didn’t you I mean we talked about it in the Blackwell bar
I want to say November time and then I think we just kind of cooled off a bit over the festive period thought yeah I I
was probably thinking yeah we’ll sort of come to our senses that was a that was a bit of a weird idea
it’s okay you know we’ll have we’ll have a nice time with our families and and sort of just go back to just playing
regular Golf and not indulging these weird fantasies in the new year and then all of a sudden fourth of Jan you guys just went rogue and uh released a
podcast it’s on Spotify you can search it it’s there and there’s me and you I had no ideas how to use the microphone
so for the first about 20 episodes you can hear everyone’s echo in the room
because I didn’t have to turn the other ones off yeah yeah um but no I mean it’s amazing like
without going too much back slapping I mean thank you Jens what a pleasure getting to 150th with you but also not
be remiss not to thank the listeners the you know what was essentially known now tens of thousands of listeners that tune
into this podcast um Lord Knows Why obviously with huge amounts of time on their hand but we are
ever so grateful that you do because um I think we should just do it like a gif of Bruce taking his hat off and
giving the the ball wave to the crowd and everything like that definitely and another little bit of Niche content I
would like you to do a little nostalgic film with a biscuit mode before it breaks up oh I don’t know I don’t know just because I know you haven’t got
enough on your plate with moving house I just feel like it would be good to load that austerity talk us through the structure then Thomas so we’re gonna
have a look at a few different things today I mean it is a semi backslapping episode but actually we’re at stage now where we had it like
you just said a lot more listeners than we had when we started and there’s going to be some things that people don’t know about and maybe maybe Point people in
certain directions but let’s be fair a lot has changed in the world of golf since January 2020. yeah one of our
first ever podcasts was about the new handicap system and like with Sam clapping yeah about
how what was you know because the whs and how many cups isn’t like two and a half years later I think I
just about understand it yeah it’s a bag of spanner still though isn’t it let’s be honest it was a bag of spanners when
it was look before when it was launched remember it got delayed I remember it was launched when we were in uh that was
our first proper tour really wasn’t it our first yeah Hotel we’re up there waiting to see
you’ve got to scratch and it felt Hollow didn’t it yeah it was a bit of a strange one and um I remember we just played
Castle Stuart and we all rolled up your whs come on what you you know what have you come through as and then it didn’t
take in the course rating and then it did and it was jumping around I mean we were all moving three shots here and there
um yeah that that’s funny though I totally forgotten that you know world heavy yeah
and if I’m honest I actually still don’t fully understand it I mean I’ve played the game for noon of 30 years now and
for the first time ever I’m now standing on a t-box and of course I’ve not played unsure what my handicap is and whether at the
end of the round you might come now the whole aim was to simplify it has done anything but simplified recently we were
up uh upper gullum and uh we played gallon three I think and we went down to that little starter place which is
across the road from from gullum one and the clubhouse and went down to the starter box I went in there you know have a quick
chat with the starter yeah it’s all going to go oh how’s it going yeah right should we should we find out what we’re
playing off and they were I would say 12 A1 sheets all different colors with
different like like because obviously they got three courses as well so it was just like staring at it they were like
12 A1 cheats I have no idea what I’m looking at let’s just what’s your handicap index eight all right I’ll buy
off that it’s crazy stuff but there’s so much stuff and the thing is you’ve sort of sprung that on us on the Pod a bit here Tommy you’ve done a bit of research
which I maybe haven’t done but you know the obvious stuff like covid I mean live
biggest talking point well let’s take this sequence but there’s so but there’s got to be so many little niche things
you know what I mean like yeah whether it’s Beaver Brook you know like a clubhouse burnt down some stuff
there must be no but think of the numbers that would have happened in the gut no because like we are the a bit
more Niche aren’t we you strip it away from the big headlines some people’s golfing worlds must be so different to
two and a half years ago it’s just such a big time Horizon yeah um I mean you talk of Cove in there and obviously it
feels like it almost feels like six or eight years ago that we started the podcast because
kovid I think for everyone has had this weird Time Warp effect where everything just feels everything pre-covered it
feels it feels like another lifetime again really but um yeah I mean starting out the podcast
when we did 4th of Jan and just starting with a fairly steady pace and then I remember the magic number seven
was what we always talked about wasn’t it you know if we can just get through couldn’t break through seven episodes
then we’ve managed to avoid the Fate that befalls most other podcasts or attempted podcasts which is that they
get seven you just run out of steam and you never pick it back up um so we got through seven Arnold seven
was Arnold Palmer at that yeah[Music] that’s the one that sticks him out I can’t remember hardly any of the non-gest episodes early doors I would
say that was the most important podcast we did during the climate yeah because we’d had a we’d had a good run at doing
six or so I’ve been pretty pretty rigorous with this and then covid was really really biting then
you’d gone on we’ve got to come back to this that cruise holiday you had oh my word so you went on a holiday with your
wife every flight was being grounded and clearly the writing was on the walls and
you still were hell-bent no we’re flying there and we went on some Cruise
in my version of this is that I went on this Cruise holder thinking it’s gonna be safe because I’m on a boat and I took
my like probably Circa 10 month old to Barbados we got off this flight and we
got on the boat and it’s taken forever and and I was like oh I can’t be finally here but now we get sort of 10 days
we’re in the evenings the child has looked after and we can go out and get sloshed so that’s this is going to be
quite good fun and then there’s a tanoi comes over you know like half asleep and it’s like oh yeah covid
is actually a real thing and we’re going to turn the boat around and drive back to the sail back to Southampton it’s
going to take 10 days and you’re gonna be stuck on the boat for 10 days I was like but we’d already said we’re gonna pod
but then we were going to put and I looked at the pot and it was like 12 minutes long like what are they doing it was like short and sharp but I just
knew we had to crash through that we are obviously not going to go from 8 to 150 now
we all met here I think we had to lock because at the time we didn’t have zoom technology going I mean the Advent of
that Christ that’s that’s been really helpful when you think of what we’ve achieved through podcasting but you wouldn’t have had that without covid
really because Zoom wasn’t really a big thing I know we’re looking at his Squad cast stuff that thing was garbage that
was just gone do you remember Squad cast which is basically an audio software that was Bloody expensive so you could
do remote podcasting Zoom came along and it was redundant it wasn’t really interested wanting to
over service it like we normally do we’d gone for Squad cast hadn’t we and I I just remember vividly what I remember
vividly about Squad cast is there were quite a few people who struggled to join none of our guests could get on it they had to use Chrome one I remember is like
the three of us had gone on I think um and we were waiting to do a podcast with Mike Clayton it was the first
podcast we’ve done and he popped up on this broadcast thing and uh and I I
think his wife was there in the background she was like oh what are you up to he’s like oh I’m just doing another podcast but I can’t seem
to get it to work and like it’d come through loud and clear everything yeah we were like yeah Mike yeah
but that is mad isn’t it yeah so yeah that’s probably too much
back slapping in here but that’s that’s mad to think now that the stuff that we’ve managed to
yeah we’ve got like a full floating media bus now you know we’re kind of doing the stuff on the Move remotely together it’s good even for 150th though
we takes three-fold starts before where we hit the record come on that’s a rarity give me that that’s a rarity we’ll come back to your performance
appraisal yeah um we should definitely get into that at some point so yeah but I mean there’s just so much has changed
isn’t it so much has changed and then we’re just going to pay any lip service to live golf and the shark and the changing
of the entire golf landscape I do think I mean these are all time capsules
aren’t they that typically to use your words Bruce have not aged well we’ve been some of those early ones do not age
well you talk about not aging well I mean right off the bat episode two Return of the Mac was talking about Brett McDowell winning in Saudi Arabia I
was not party to that podcast so I wasn’t aware um I mean that’s age like milk really hasn’t it if we’re looking at it now
what’s the real show live golf is that people tend to like say you picked up like an odd few listeners here and there
that maybe you know listen to like course Diaries or if you happen to be on like Air Canada’s language podcast or
whatever that you end up that’s someone says oh let’s look at cookie jar oh number one pilot and they always go back
to number like they listen to Pilot and then they hop forward
there’s that gluts of episodes before we get to Lucas Michelle which is just dish water I mean it’s nine episodes of just
sorry not Lucas yeah
interestingly no longer as a club he came on the podcast as a club Support Officer
um and obviously a pal of mine and all of us now but um yeah it doesn’t even work in that anymore now he’s
dead yeah yeah so if you’re at harleyford to the cookie jars first guest uh you’ve
got some questions for us it would write to do some awards in this this podcast I think yeah okay so I’ve just thought I’d
pull out a few little um I’m gonna jump around because I think
um you’re concerned about the amount of back slapping so let’s just I’m just gonna attack hard straight away most
ignorant remark okay oh there’s a vegan tenders on there yeah and I don’t think we probably know the full extension yeah yeah I mean this
is one where if only we could make it a bit more interactive well I guess we could invite listeners to say now actually
guys this takes the prize enough I don’t think Plastering all over
social media some of the most ignorant remarks in the jar I don’t know they can come through privately yeah yeah just to keep us honest but I I think one man’s
meat is another man’s poison I mean I remember when we did the uh where did you get your sayings what have you never
heard I’ve never heard that one one man’s mate is another man’s poison can’t put the same things like in the tube
yeah you’ve got to have these things um outages I think they’re cool though maybe I don’t know um
I I think that our podcast on the way back from Centurion at live for instance where I
thought best way to talk about this was to actually just park the political side because I think everyone was quite bored of that I remember a very angry person
sending me a sending us a tweet saying you know basically referencing Jamal
khashoggi um and sort of going look you know just just abhorrent you know you’re just
paying just completely disregarding it it’s like well no actually I thought it was quite a calculator move to say that I don’t really want to get wrapped up in
a political discussion about this we want to talk about the event see I think some things that are ignorant are ignorant to other people but there are
some obvious contenders but just just quickly on that and I know like because I think it’s it’s just nice the Pod
again and the conversations flow like that don’t they isn’t it weird how we were getting attacked by that but there
is more and more I feel recently that people have started to try and steer
clear of all the politicism and and the live golf thing is
I think becoming more and more accepted you can understand how people are still going to be like smashing their head against
Twitter and and telling you that that you’re wrong but I do feel that wave is changing I think it would be nice if we
got Scott Fawcett charged up about yeah tournament scheduling as he is about
goal strategy because that man is a hand grenade on Twitter uh I don’t want to dig our own grave
here but um and we’ll just walk past the yeah politicism as a newly coined term of the
jar which I’m quite enjoying actually here is that not a word I’m pretty sure it’s not a word we’ll walk past that one
because I think what you’re driving out there is right Tom and I think we are we’ve been fortunate in that we’ve
probably avoided getting involved in too many Twitter sort of back and forth debates over fairly
you know quite often it’s fairly insignificant um issues I mean you know we are
um golfing perverts is like as Sam likes to say particularly when it comes to course architecture but we’ve not had any massive fallouts so far on Twitter
or Instagram over you know the use of a template hole and whether Seth Rainer would be abhorred by you know successful
stuff feels like things have to be edgy like you say things have softened down it’s weird how the world goes with Liv
it’s because it’s now clearly here to stay the headlines and the just the quick
takes on it they know it’s not going to work now I think people have appreciated the subject is a lot more nuanced
um but returning to uh returning to the most important can we just can I just highlight because I know this is going
to try and use one that’s not going to win it because I know the one that you’re gonna say is going to win and
it’s me but um
I do like one of the early uh pods we think about maybe two or three where um
we used to sit in the biscuit Mill right here where we are and we’d have the golf on uh on silent in the background and
like I think Lucas Herbert one and um you pronounced to the world that he was
French Lucas I got it mixed up with Benjamin
but I think it’s been an interesting few weeks on European tour hasn’t it I mean we’ve had uh it’s really good to see um
Westwood win it’s really good to see Lucas GMAT come back is it Lucas a bit
did you see the last hole but it speaks to a lack of golfing
education yeah I mean I think you maybe need to do it which we are let’s be honest we are still developing every day
is a school day in the jar that one I’ll own it bad form yeah that
was that was unacceptable yeah I’m gonna give you my two possible candidates for this award
I think we know what Toms is but I’m gonna I’m gonna come back to that Bruce made a remark which I which I thought
was either was close to ignorance do you remember when we were talking about um
golf post lockdown I’ve got no idea what the episode is I’m sure you’re gonna have a bunch of the episode number here
I think anyone’s coming here and you should have said yeah but I don’t really feel like it is that busy I don’t I’ve
not noticed any ability to get a tea time did I say that yeah so this is when
we moved to the tea time model and there was strict rules around going and playing and like courses were just heaving post lockdown it was like the
first people could leave the house now you know we’ve always said this on the Pod we’re very lucky to play at Blackwell which is quite a small Golf
Club rural England doesn’t have actually that many members so access to golf is plentiful and there’s a lot of
non-playing members there you taking that as your small sample buyer barometer I mean yeah you should dig
that one out oh yeah that was it Bruce I might add to Bruce’s one is um just well
you’re gonna find that one right sounds like something I could have said
I think we also did a pod uh back in the day that um I think I can’t remember why
we’re doing it but it was kind of like our likes and dislikes of golf Room 101 was a good point is that what it was
that was good and then Bruce kind of got sucked down a Vortex of like yeah I just really like shirts
I really like uh long socks I’ve seen from we were on some quite big hitting
issues okay uh down the etiquette side of
things um not having a shirt tucked in I think is uh just not and not a nice sight by any
stretch and something that’s easily rectified no cows cow you’re not liking that at
all no I agree with you I was just saying yeah big Nona
yeah it’s just it’s just easy the easy thing in the world isn’t it like buy proper fitting clothing that you know
has adequate breathability in warm temperatures and just tuck it in you look so much neater and tidier doesn’t
it um but then again we’ve got the big polo shirt on and it’s hanging down sort of
halfway down to your knees it looks pretty bunk doesn’t it hmm
but then again I guess actually now that I’ve said that out loud I see that some people might just come back at me and
say well you’re the kind of Stuffy individual who’s stopping the game from being attractive to younger generations
and things so I don’t know what what are your thoughts on it Mills because you’re newer to golf actually and it you offer
a great perspective on this cut at the side of things because it’s such a healing away but
ever made on this part
no but you might you you’re coming at you you’re coming at it from no because I think Sam what I’m trying
to say sam Cal and I are coming at it from like we’ve probably had it instilled in Us by the people who introduced us to the game from like day
dot that you’ve got to have your shirt tucked in and you’ve got to look this way or whatever and you’ve got to respond to the etiquette and you come in
as someone like who you know who who’s all older when they pick the game it might be like well that just strikes me
as a absolutely ludicrous rule that’s just you know needs to be consigned to the ash heap of History okay so I’ll
pick that up battle here
I’d stand by that as we fail yeah no actually I don’t like to see an untucked shirt I I yeah if that is Rose is the
biggest clanger of the podcast no no I I I’m actually in your country do you want to maybe do his nomination I mean I
think we probably share this one our listeners won’t know this yeah I mean I I didn’t end up on the game room yeah I
mean this is the problem isn’t it when you you know the man with all the technical skill sets makes a clanger and then has full editorial control and and
can sort of wash themselves I think it’ll be on The Cutting Room
floor somewhere because we all get together with the Iona
podcast with Iona Stephen and um we had a great chat I believe we were talking
about diversity um accessibility we’ve got four women
towards the end of the podcast um and Tom proceeded to say well you
know like it’s it’s great to see we’re recording this podcast in 2020. so obviously the preceding Autumn um
they’ve been a brilliant solheim cup at Glen Eagles where Suzanne Patterson I believe had rolled in the yeah
to win um to win it for the Europeans and Tom proceeded to say what would it have been
you know six eight months later yeah you know it’s just brilliant isn’t it to see that these some of these events with the
women involved in are just you know attracting a lot more participation what’s that one the the women women equivalent of the Ryder Cup
like did not say it like that and obviously it had to get deleted it was
it was either the female equivalent the Ryder Cup or the women dried up sticks in my head
you were saying that at the moment um golf membership for women is about 15
I mean it’s extraordinarily low isn’t it considering you know that there is some there’s some
great stuff you know with the Ryder Cup the um [Laughter] it was great I I can do some quality editing with the uh the soul Hand Cup
um oh just I just speak before I think I’ll give you it’s a problem
we’ll give you a mulligan on that one we’ll give you a mulligan on that one if you want to re-t that one yeah
I’m off to see it yeah which was just I think that’s got
to take the biscuits hilarious as well though your mid-sentence though and you know exactly
what I’m walking to say yeah and there was this pause where it just disappeared with my mind I was like
the women’s erotica Thomas can you move us on to something
I’d love to move on to something else we can hold our heads I’d really really and that’s a good point it’s not all back slaps like let’s be
honestly many clangers like we’ve all stuck them in there’s tons of them one that’s not so much a clanger but more
just something that I kind of look back at and and just for some reason now talking about all this stuff hit me was
the the Pod we did with Sid Matthews um when uh it was about 45 degrees I mean obviously we’re just coming out the
other side of a heat wave touchwood um in the UK the last few weeks here just been scorching and I remember it
was similarly similarly hot second week or so in 2020 and we recorded this
podcast you said Matthew and it was just like unbelievably hot they’ve done like a little sort of kind of warm-up pod
basically just to kind of be aware of how much knowledge Sid had to share and we just wanted to make sure we could
kind of condense it down and structure it and uh I think it was the podcast itself after where the feedback we were
getting was just absolutely unbearable and to the point where like
he had like an audio relay on it he had a relay game four seconds so when he spoke it was fine but when we were
speaking to him and asking a question like you just couldn’t have your headphones on or because you could hear everything seconds later he was just
like you know you just sounded like you couldn’t speak because it was just so so torturous and I just remember bloody
Squad cast again it’s bloody Squad cast I remember Sam just happened to say thank you again to our unofficial
sponsor of this podcast I don’t think they would be in business anymore if they are they’ve had some serious
overhaul to their design and um structure the product yeah that was [Music] um we’ve got um there’s a few knocking
about um I’ve got the Pod that aged the best and the Pod the age the worst but I’m gonna throw one out there for the age of
the worst uh which is a really fairly recent one it’s uh it’s where we kind of sat down leeway Branch just before the
open and and said what we thought who was going to be in the mix and who what the winning score was going to be
because I think we went for something like two or three under uh and tiger would make the cut and all this stuff
that’s just classic less hey small speed I hope this ages well I love doing takes
though don’t you I enjoy doing the optimism
a nosebleed on the podcast that is just that did not age well typified it isn’t it we’re all thinking Target’s gonna
shoot four under and they’re probably not going to get to 20 under par with the winning score and like well yeah I
mean really you’re quite good you’re quite keen on this concept of PODS aging I mean I’m looking through them now
mixing it up you know June last year I remember that you know the problem is you were always really inventive with
our names yeah we’ve made the Mage really bad no it’s really bad
um what’s age the worst yeah the cookie jar podcast naming catalog or naming
system probably being the one but it’s been tidied up now though we’ve got number of different products now you know what I think’s aged quite well uh I
remember we um we did the Ryder Cup picks didn’t we in like May time
of 2020. yeah that was actually aged really well there’s a couple of bits in there where
there’s some pretty good it was just a great conjecture and obviously it was pretty outrageous but one of those
things that one of the comments that has definitely aged well was Sam saying and I quote I don’t think Phil
Mickelson’s golf really Stacks up just before he wins the pig that was like a year later we won the PJ a year later
but now he looks pretty
he waited long enough it was bound to be he was bound to be correct at some point yeah but I actually think one that’s
aged that we’ve got a few we’ve got a few pods that are age less that really can’t you know we can’t
really get wrong like the guests ones like the Geo one for instance is just it’s brilliant I went back and we
listened to it recently giovaliante I would say it’s more true that’s my number that I’d say it’s more true now than it was then almost but I tell you
what I haven’t listened to recently and I’d love to go back and listen to it actually it was episode 28. which is a
brief history of course design now we had to go away and do a boatload of
research for this because none of us really had a clue what we’re talking about I think we appreciated architecture yeah about like being able
to understand and talk it was like we separated it all up and I did the old Tom years uh Bruce you did Golden Age
golden age uh you did I was like left with the Dark Ages like post-world War II late 70s
like Trent Jones to Pete died basically just steer clear it was the overriding principle and uh he wrote golf holes
which by the way we we’ve we should give Carl a huge mention because certain things have happened oh yeah we started
this podcast with four of us as and Cal was was one of our quartet
and and just over time with his work commitments and the things that he couldn’t do he couldn’t couldn’t really
commit the time to anymore so he wanted to step back and just enjoy from afar but big shout out to cow Wing hmm yes yeah
and we’ve still got a microphone here fourth one just sat spare yeah who knows the custodian of that mic one day but
but he’s now currently traveling traveling the world Carolyn as he travels oh got their own is in Peru
yeah yeah yeah he’s like oh this is this this is the
tea at Pinehurst you’re like what are you doing there just came by it’s a little too busy like that I don’t know just took it you know do you know one of
the first things in Oregon was he went to the Mackenzie Golf Bag Factory I mean that’s the sort of to use your
word Bruce anorax thinks that yeah it is yeah yeah the level of anorak knowledge that he brought was actually through the
roof he’d like he’d know we went to that live event and Carl came with us and he’d nudgy and go there’s
um I I would say the one that’s aged the best for me is giovaliante I would say it’s aged it’s better and if you listen
to it today than when it was initially released once money entered uh entered running
like times went down they didn’t get better they got worse uh and so when
when people are driven by you call it rewards or extrinsic motivators it
compromises performance at the highest level and you think about what Ben Hogan one time said he said golf is the
livelihood in doing the thing that I love to do I don’t like the glamor I just like the game and that’s separation
between glamor and the game is what made Hogan great it’s what make type makes tiger great and so made Nicholas great
it’s for if you look at the profile of all the great ones in every domain this is true in basketball as well the purity
of the relationship with the craft itself is what leads to Excellence why tiger plays golf still it’s it’s their
oxygen it’s what they need to do and when you pursue golf for the right reasons and I’m not saying that rewards
are bad you can be Mastery and ego but if you are more ego than Mastery you’ll
never achieve your highest goals do you think that’s because you know now you can understand it more no no I think now
if you look at the backdrop of the game because the whole thing is about that which actually we I don’t think we did a
huge amount on that sort of like the game type stuff until maybe more recently but he talks all about this
like idea it’s a craft and people are obsessed with the golf and and just the actual intrinsic game itself rather than
the rewards and then you look at that now within the backdrop of live and it’s been so hard to get up for live
like I feel like I’ve given it the best sort of like most open-minded me I could
bring to it whether that’s open-minded or not but it’s just like watching exhibition golf it’s not there’s nothing it’s
soulless and and he he just summarizes that beautifully way before Liv was ever a
thing or the premier Golf League or anything really was was being talked about at any great length and I just
think it’s a fabulous podcast yeah he speaks incredibly eloquently doesn’t he and um yeah he was brilliant in fact so
much so that Lang wanted to do Eric Hans Lang wants to do a pod with Geo put them
in touch and we need to hold him to this he committed to do an ad read on our on his show if you get him get the Monster
Jam and of course you know in fact I think Sam is we’re really going to get Bruce to flex his lexicon on this
so you’ve got to write all the content um well yeah and I guess just a little
follow-up because it’s worth smattering in some little personal milestones and you know
um Live Events but special significance I guess of that podcast with Geo Sam is that Mark the arrival of uh little
Charlie Williams yesterday walked around first time ever watched me play golf that was absolutely
this is going to be a theme for his life he’s gonna come watch me play golf Charlie can’t speak yet in any great
length he can string a few words together but I knew he was thinking that was the most rewarding thing he’s ever
seen yeah as long as he’s from the news because it’s so firm and depart I absolutely smoked one down four and it’s
got I’ve got 85 yards to the middle of the green that’s a long way for little Charlie to walk there I know I know but
I mean obviously I didn’t Sorry Charlie can we Pace this one out please I actually because I’m sure this is so
naive when it comes to golf so it’s actually quite soft underfoot right now as well um yeah but I mean that’s crazy to think
you know I would love to have been on that podcast um the product was actually better without mail clearly but
I love I love I love hearing about your book but can we like can we just talk about my mindset when I’m stood over a
six footer what should I be thinking what are your other Awards uh we’ve got
favorite pods favorite films best Story I mean we all know that Jonathan yarwood
was one of Bruce’s favorites it’s still the funniest podcast I think that follow-up after Geo I mean that is
just David Brent no scheduling skill behind that whatsoever there’s no there’s no narrative between the two
that you can join but that was a variable where was GA like about 17 or something yeah I’m pretty sure I’m pretty sure
yeah we have been 20. no no the a is 20.
yeah y’all would come because I remember he’d been in the chamber for a while yeah but I’m 29 and you were like this
is so salty this stuff that he’s saying I’m really nervous about putting it out this is what we had about the square
root of zero people listening to the podcast yeah but I mean if you go back and listen to 29. I mean there’s a sound
bite in particular well we really need to share yeah I won’t even give it any introduction I’ll just I’ll just roll
straight into it so my mum said to me I’m the best coach no one’s ever heard of and I was quite
proud of that really because to me it’s not about me it’s about them it’s not about my ego it’s about helping them and
I think too many people do it the other way around it’s too much about them and not enough about the player so I was quite happy to be in the background
and just keep achieving success and and just getting good at what I thought was good at what I do and
um yeah just kind of went from there I coached five USGA Champions I coached to win on seven
tours around the world you know amateur number one a junior number one
you name it I’ve kind of been there and done it to some extent so I’ve enjoyed going around the world I’ve traveled all
over the place Jesus I’ve been to 40 or 50 majors and I’ve coached on almost every continent around the world and
I’ve gone around the world on someone else’s dollar and often in a private jet so that’s pretty good from a campus dating skegness can I offer up an award
best pod location that we’ve done okay
um where where have we done a pod where’s the German being sat in that um oh
terrible from the name of our host to fail fail me at this moment but cruden Bay
oh yeah good Jordan white oh yeah with uh what was his name the guy massive shower very kindly put us up in his head
it’s basically a house we rented it’s like a 10-bedroom townhouse you know his daughter played um
Collegiate golf something played a big event at Pine Valley there interesting really yeah
um yeah there’s all that Pine Valley stuff on the walls as well so you’d you’d say that that Conservatory Croydon Bay
nice view it was up there we wouldn’t get it for me yours I struggle so so much with recency bias
so right now the best email but it was quite cool um bumping into so I just like at St
Andrews when I had I was like walking around with pod gear on my back like like I was a Ghostbuster
and I bumped into Don Mclaughlin from Allison and that was quite cool because he I
just we were just basically walking across the Fairway and John saw me and he waves and I waved and we walked across and remarked a bum you know he’s
obviously um the course manager up at Wallace so he was like talking about the course things like Christ it’s just I’ve got
the Pod here let’s go and we want to sat at the stands above the second green and
that was quite cool I think that was that was quite nice I mean I felt a bit like a weirdo with microphones and people around us watching us and
um that was quite a cool location a quite a cool thing to do that and it kind of that was the first pod that I
did up there and it kind of was like a big culmination of like everything had been before it so that was quite nice
getting the media crowd saw that kind of yeah again Mass I really struggled with recency buyers I quite enjoyed doing
that Royal Aberdeen Clubhouse Wilma Jordan that was awesome that was lovely once in the clubhouse are really nice
it’s like the Paul Craven one you immediately the only thing that just we
were just a bit pushed for time we left it a bit late in the day so like we were sort of rushing a little bit which has
actually been an incredibly popular episode I thought the podcast with um Peter Dawson up on the top of the uh of
course Hotel was good actually as well just kind of looking oh yeah okay across yeah that wins I mean that was that was
right let’s get this stuff yeah okay with the stands they were starting to get up there and it was like oh my God I
don’t think there’s time right there at that point were they because he was saying you know when he stands quick yeah that was awesome there mental you
just forget that you forget the light yeah someone said to you in 4th of Jan 2020 when you’re doing Corona Calamity
and return to the mac and be like oh yeah can you just time you again sit down and do you know hour and a half with Peter
Dawson in the old course hotel and yeah yeah he’d be like yeah probably probably wouldn’t have expected that a
storytelling Galore there were a few watershed moments I think you did well to rain being in certain parts because I remember very early doors being like we
need to get more Instagram followers we should buy a dozen logo advice golf balls and give those away and do a
giveaway and you’re like yeah just play the long games
yeah that’s gonna be amazing
it’s been around locations and travels and stuff though we’ve done some cool like we visited some cool places to do
filming as well and there’s been some pretty cool places that we’ve managed to get to
yeah I mean obviously I think my first trip when we went and got locked jaw up in Scotland by doing like eight courses
in four days yeah I mean again you know you guys I obviously are due to
literally starting work two weeks prior I wasn’t able to do your little Surrey trip that you lined up and then also the
trip out to Northern Ireland to do Port Russian County down so I can’t speak to those experiences but for me whenever
we’ve gone North the Border it’s just like oh you just it’s like a cathartic
experience isn’t it I mean the first trip we did excuse me when we went to Castle Stewart
that was the first time any of us have played it we were like wow this is this is amazing I mean it started breaking through the sun started breaking through
on like that 18th hole because it’s been a little bit overcast we don’t really got rained on we were like oh my God how good is this golf course you just feel
like the air is just different it just has a different smell or like taste in the back of the mouth when you’re up there and you’re like oh my God we’re
actually it was almost Serendipity the boat of guard didn’t happen for whatever reason it was just like a yeah like then
we had that Sun at Castle Stuart and stuff and it was but I mean we’ve been amazing but actually it’s just a touch on that castle Stewart thing I like it
talk about Serendipity I mean like we just for those people don’t know we
were supposed to be going to boat Garden but then like a month’s worth of rain in like the day before maybe like an hour away and we found the lady there and
she’s like oh yeah of course it’s closed mate and then like we phoned up Jamie darling shout out huge shout out Jamie
Dahl and he’s done a lot for us on the online um Scotland with off began and all those
guys and they’re like oh just crack on going north to Castle Stewart and we were like that’s amazing but I really
hope this isn’t just this wild gag that we’re just driving north whatsoever you can actually pull that on
any up and coming guys in social media and be like yeah guys yeah absolutely boy you yeah okay well sure no problem
we just had head under steamed Castle’s Church better at one-ish be fine we’ll get you out here
don’t call that it’s all sorted for you but Stuart McComb um came out a general manager at Castle
Stewart and remember I was talking about the weather he was like yeah the weather’s a bit bit rubbish
um don’t worry about filming he’s like you boys just go out and enjoy yourself and you know like if you feel like you
want to make something you can but like well there’s not great don’t worry about it but it’s kind of like you know a
credit to the vision that you guys had where you were like yeah well let’s let’s film this anyway and then we
managed to get Gil Hans on the Pod yeah we did that pod with Gil we talked about passing in and how the creation of
Castle Stewart happened and actually Stewart was was outside I was like oh okay yeah there’s not just like I
watched that I remember them watching The Castle Street film being like yeah this lad’s got some Talent here I’ve
done this yeah overcast yeah that was great and we had
a tour film as well [Music] there is a tour in the pipeline for Q3 Q4 well yeah is that correct first can
you confirm it well I mean not book flights yet but I think we’re getting pretty close aren’t we okay to an
undisclosed location yeah I mean we are pushing this for time and it is back slapping but it’s just kind of looking
forward to the color because just thinking about okay you know where we’ve been and what we’re doing and stuff and like we have
been we have moved on progressed a lot we’ve got the social media side of it now yeah
it’s doing quite obviously the things with like the white labeling work and stuff I mean maybe now’s a a pretty neat
Segway to talk about you know the special announcement I’m sure there is a special announcement
before we get there I think it would be remiss to not just give a little performance review each wouldn’t it
because that’s something that we we’ve done typically at the end of the each year haven’t we the mid terms of last
year Sam is the self-anointed CEO of the jar likes to sort of take on this
what feedback to you both collectively well I think taking 150 episodes you
know learnings areas that have been improved I think
we’ve obviously got way better at Broadcasting I still think Jerry’s out I think we can
get better yet at podcast this is the performance review you need to pick us apart I really want you to no that’s good I can feed I can feed off that
definitely I think we should get better I think we could get so much tighter I think we could get and look and this is
this is actually a brilliant you know what you’re doing here this is a great tee up because it segues well into the into the announcement but
let’s just go for the announcements like no no no it does it Segways in brilliantly we need to do more pods with
people I want to get more stuff of people speaking and splice and dice and use it I think we could be I think we
could we’ve got much better at hosting but we can get better yet and it’s not and you realize over time it’s not
actually about knowledge it’s just about confidence in who you’re talking to and being really comfortable letting the
conversation go in a different direction some of the best podcasts we’ve done have been where they’ve gone in a direction that we totally did not
anticipate and where the bullet points that were down before and the things I had in my head drifted off into another
area and I I just think that’s been the that that’s kind of the beauty that you
gotta harness it a bit more I just think I’m starting to listen to more podcasts now non-golf because I find you learn
more from them actually in terms of different ways they approach things I just got loads of ideas in my head but
never have the time to run at them I think we should definitely get headphones for in-person podding or
maybe you can use them for like wow with zoom but for in-person potting we did that when we started no no so like we
now would have headphones on yeah we did that when we started yeah hot and horrible do you know when it’s hot but
do you know why the headphones are there it stops you interrupting one another no it’s a test of levels
I know our levels are good that’s why it took us three goes to start the podcast yeah I don’t know I don’t know how you just
want to look for him I don’t think I’d personally headphones
no but I would like to get some logoed wind cheaters on the on the mics
I think um
um I still find myself lip smacking a bit too much
certain things I’m sure I must have maybe introded a pod before then but
um but before the episode I’m about to mention now but none really jumped mind immediately the first one I can think of
is I remember Sam saying you should lead the Iona pod Bruce because you both went to the University of Sanders and like
you know she’s obviously played like decent level golf you should just lead this one and you dropped it on me with like
five minutes now so I was like uh bloody hell I don’t know what I’m gonna say yeah sure
yeah I think that isn’t as intimidating now I think we could all get more You’re
gonna laugh when I say this and we could all get more comfortable with pregnant pauses and silences
occasionally within the pod s absolutely I talk way before my brain’s
even thought about engaging but yeah good podcast guests sometimes just say it a bit more reflective to you
know give a bit of a bit of a pause too it’s kind of what they’re saying and I
don’t know I think that’s they’re just some soft things there I mean look we’re giving ourselves a performance appraisal but the the only people that should
judge our performance are our listeners um and and I do think that um
you know we’d like to hear from them I guess so it has been I suppose two and a half years of growth
of transformation and changes but I suppose what you’ve been itching to get
out on this podcast is that we are about to go for our biggest transformation and
our biggest change so although Sam has been itching together I believe Bruce Bruce is just more eloquent just Salient
that’s actually that’s the case of death on it well okay it remains to be seen whether it’s gonna
be our biggest change but it is certainly a very very big change because um you know what started out as four of
us and obviously more recently three of us messing around doing a kind of fun sort
of amateur podcast and increasingly videography and realizing that we were kind of
starting to have some success with it and people actually enjoyed listening to it we’re now thinking that
we’d like to officially hire employee number one um boom mic drop
yeah except we’re not finishing there pretty pretty I mean it feels like a big move doesn’t it yeah it’s 100 it’s a
massive move not that you’re sort of handing over your baby but you’re sort of allowing someone else to kind of come in and and help nurture this
everyone always asks you the same question the only question that people say that is the same when we meet them
is they always ask do we do Cookie Jar full time the reality is we can’t do Cookie Jar full time because we don’t have sufficient income to pay all three
of us but we do have sufficient income from from some of the projects we need to to pay for one person
um and not you know we’re not going to be paying them uh you know Chief exec money but the
opportunity to get in on the ground floor at cookie jar is a huge one I think and and there’s quite a bit where
we can see the the business side of what we do some of the agency work developing and growing quite significantly and I
think massively amplify and improve the content we do not being like too disrespectful to some of the stuff
we do but a lot of it is like you know it’s almost hobbyist at times like one I want it to be the best it can be and
it’s frustrating when we don’t have the hours to do that stuff and I think we need someone that can help us get to
that point really yeah yeah in the in the famous words of Kevin Kisner this ain’t no hobby anymore and um anymore
I had to be any more but you know the point is available and the sentiment’s available which is as you say sound like
you know it it’s that frustrating answer that we always have to give when
we’re asked are you doing this full-time and we say no and they said well do you want to do it full-time yes we’d love to
and I think um you know welcoming in a fourth member to help us um
you know grow grow it and and kind of keep nurturing this Vision we have for it it’s just just really exciting time
for us and um it’s huge it’s really exciting I mean we’ve we’ve
been talking about it we’ve been talking about it for a good four five six weeks maybe hashing it back and forth about
what we’re gonna do how we’re going to implement it but if you are interested just keep in in the
old cookie jar adage keep your ears peeled because we will be starting to
put some stuff on social media you can contact us directly but I suspect by the time this goes out the ad will already
be live anyway yeah so we’re going to put it on what a careers link on our page or like just in
something we just will over service it with a workday login
criminal records Bureau whatever crb checks it’s going to be intense yeah more like
an MI5 application um but you know we do want someone who’s you know unbelievably passionate about
the game of golf Above All Else yeah you know that is absolutely Paramount you know the the skills to hold a camera and
to develop and deliver content I think can be learned we want someone that’s massively passionate about the game of
golf understands I think some of the ethos that drives us perhaps a little bit and and wants to apply that within a
context of a career in golf marketing and media and I think then there’s yeah hopefully there’ll be quite a few people
interested in it um that feels like quite enough backstopping for one day but is there anything else that we wanted to cover as
part of our 150th celebratory pod no I think we just got to reiterate you know your earlier sentiment at the beginning
of the Pod Sam just want to thank everyone out there listening to this and those people who’ve listened to previous
episodes um just for supporting us and uh sticking with us the whole way or maybe you’ve joined us more recently who knows
but thank you to each and every one of you out there for um you know giving us some support and
encouraging the the work that we do and the content that we put out there I can’t tell you how much honestly each
and every message really means when we when we kind of hear a little bit of Praise or even just a bit of honest feedback here and there it all
probably the best feedback this is not minces words when it comes to feedback it is all glowingly positive
but he is I mean his emails when you see those drop in it’s always a pleasure isn’t it can we become a bit is that a
breach or is that flagrant breach of gdpr right yeah so shall we just yeah yeah it is yeah
better and then but yeah oh we’re going to be playing with them at uh Royal North Devon so but but that but that
listening question among many others I must admit they really do brighten every day when you get those uh on the inbox
there is one one ask I think uh it makes an enormous difference with 150 podcasts it’s quite a few hours have gone into
scheduling getting guests on editing them launching them um apologizing for the gaffs taking the
victory laps when they’ve gone well it would be very nice if people could find five minutes to go and drop on and
leave a review it makes it a huge bizarrely I would say strangely a a
disproportionate impact to your to what you’re trying to do but if you do get if you do have a chance to get on and leave
a review in Spotify or apple podcast it literally takes a couple of minutes we’d
really really appreciate it it means well to an outsize impact and if you want to send us an email backslapping say how good we are
leave the review but then copy and paste that text into an email and then you’ve covered both bases but equally as they
say feedback is a gift so we’re also very welcoming of the of the negatives young man as well as the positive
um and you know in the immortal words of that one famous golf influencer if you
want to smash that subscribe Button as well then uh yeah you know right this is a joke
thank you very much for listening 150 and here’s the next 150. adios