Sam Adams did Golf Writing; Now he does Comedy

Longtime writer moves to comedy full-time

By Jim Bebbington

For more than 30 years comedian, sports journalist and golf writer Sam Adams of Denver has been working multiple careers.

He has been chided by Tiger Woods for being in the way of his next shot. He has caddied for Charles Barkley. He interviewed a then 6-year-old Wyndham Clark for a story on Clark’s first hole-in-one. He turned a fairway walk-and-talk with Kevin Costner into one of his many cover profiles for Colorado AvidGolfer.

But now Adams is ending his side gig of journalism to focus on his stand-up career.

Adams, who is 64, started writing about sports shortly after he moved from Cleveland to Denver in the 1980s. He worked as a clerk for a downtown insurance company when at lunch one day he walked cold into the offices of the Denver Post and asked if they would be willing to give him a try as a sportswriter.

Sam was assigned part-time work as a night sports clerk, calling schools and coaches across Colorado and writing up tiny box scores from high school games. That is not the most fulfilling job in journalism.

“Just when I was ready to quit, they sent me to cover a high school basketball game played at McNichols Arena,” Adams said. The usual preps sportswriter sat beside him eating popcorn and told Adams “We just want to see what you can do.”

And thus, a sports journalist was born. He moved over to the Rocky Mountain News when Denver was one of a handful of cities in the country that had a robust two-newspaper fistfight going on every day for readers.

Adams flourished. He went on to cover the Broncos and had to hurry up and get his first passport so he could cover the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympics. He saw and wrote about some of the region’s best games over the past 30 years. He branched out into broadcast, and up until this past winter had a regular gig talking Broncos on live Sunday morning TV.

“People always associate me with media first and think standup is some little thing on the side, when in reality since the Rocky Mountain News closed in 2009 standup has been my main thing,” he said recently.

“Sam wrote more than two dozen CAG cover stories, bookending them with pieces about John Elway (June 2002) and Justin Simmons (June 2022),” said former editor Jon Rizzi. “Between those came a pageant of other Broncos, but also Sanctuary owners Dave and Gail Liniger, TV anchor Ron Zappolo, the inimitable Paige Spiranac and others. As his editor and friend for all those years, I always marveled at his skill at securing the story.”

But finally, something had to give. To be part of Channel 9 GameDay Live’s Sunday live show, he couldn’t go far for his comedy work. He began doing standup in 2001, but by now has a full-time comedy career of events, standup tours, cruise ship gigs and concert openings.

Now, the bard of AvidGolfer is moving on. We wish him the best.

“My main thing (now) is getting better at golf,” he said. “I’m confident this will be the year I come close to breaking 90.”

For more information on upcoming shows and tours, go to SamAdamsDoesComedy.Com

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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