- Canterbury Golf Club in Kent has launched a range of apparel and accessories built around its red and black chough emblem.
- The chough has featured on the club’s logo since the club was founded in 1927.
- The range has been created ahead of the club’s centenary celebrations in 2027.
Canterbury Golf Club has turned to a bird to mark its 100th birthday. The Kent club has launched a one-off range of apparel and accessories featuring the red and black chough that has sat on its logo since 1927. The aim is a distinctive sub-brand that works as well in town as it does on the first tee.
The collection was created ahead of next year’s centenary celebrations.
Why a chough?
The bird is borrowed from the City of Canterbury. The historic city crest carries three choughs and three leopards, and the club’s founders lifted the chough to signal their ties to the cathedral city and its heritage. A century on, the club says the bird stands for the community and tradition within the membership.
General manager Alan Holcroft called the club’s long association with the chough an obvious basis for the range and a way of marking the centenary.
“It is immediately recognisable to all our members and through it, engenders a sense of belonging and pride in being part of the golf club so much so that it has already become very popular amongst them, whilst it has also been well received by a lot of visiting golfers,” said Holcroft.
That chimes with the thinking of George Peper, whose book The Best Logos in Golf ranks 100 of the game’s most iconic club emblems. Peper told us that golf logos have become badges of belonging, and that the best of them create a connection to a place, its history and the memories of playing there. Heritage, symbolism and backstory were among the seven qualities that guided his panel’s judging. A medieval civic bird adopted by a 1920s club has all three in abundance.
The Colt connection
The course is the real calling card. Canterbury’s 18 holes were laid out by Harry Colt, whose 100-plus designs include Wentworth, Sunningdale, Rye and Camberley Heath. He also played a major role in redesigning Muirfield, Royal Liverpool and Royal Portrush.
Colt first routed Canterbury as a downland course. Over the decades, oaks and silver birches planted along the fairways have given it more of a parkland character, though a little gorse and broom still appears on some holes. The par-71 layout measures 6,272 yards across undulating ground. Its challenge comes from a mix of open par-5s, tight par-4s and testing par-3s.
Top 100 Golf Courses ranks Canterbury 13th in Kent. That is a decent position in a county with almost 100 courses spread across the Garden of England. The club also has a Toptracer driving range, so visitors heading to East Kent can warm up properly before taking on Colt’s routing.
For more information on Canterbury Golf Club, click HERE.
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Simon Bale
Simon Bale is the publisher of Golf Today. A low single-figure handicap golfer, he was previously a major shareholder and course reviewer for Top100GolfCourses.com for over a decade, starting in 2010. Through this role, he developed extensive knowledge of golf course design and architecture while playing more than 300 courses worldwide.