Here, we look at some great golf club crests and logos from the UK and the USA. Some will be very familiar to you, others maybe less so. Some have been selected for their style, others for the clear message they deliver on their course or club. There are many other great crests out there and this is a subjective selection of 10 of the best...
Royal Cromer Golf Club
Royal Cromer Golf Club in Norfolk boasts one of the more heraldic and most attractive crests in the game. It originates from the Cromer family crest – a family that came to England from Normandy following the Norman invasion of 1066. Featuring three birds, as does the Cromer town council crest, the golf club (fittingly) added a pair of crossed golf clubs as final flourish. Royal Cromer Golf Club was established in 1888.
Portmahomack Golf Club
Portmahomack or Tarbat Golf Club may be one of the lesser-known wee tracks in Northern Scotland – It’s a nine-holer in a striking location on the south side of the Dornoch Firth. It’s well worth a visit and they are proud owners of one of the most stylish logos in golf. A simple yet aesthetically pleasing design that features the date of their establishment, a golf ball with flag and the amazing, Stevenson lighthouse at Tarbat Ness which was built in 1830.
Sleepy Hollow Country Club
Sleepy Hollow Country Club has a fabulous logo or crest. Not just because it’s fun to depict the famous headless horseman of Washington Irving’s gothic horror story, but also because it’s a fantastic design with contrasting colours and white and black lines defining features of both galloping horse and its decapitated rider.
Merion Golf Club
A very simple but very effective image that shows what Merion is all about – History and difficulty. We see the date of the club’s inception, a sprig of pine to indicate the natural elements of the historic course and the famous wicker-basket topped poles that are such an iconic feature at Merion.
Sunningdale Golf Club
The most famous tree in British golf – The great oak tree outside the clubhouse at Sunningdale Golf Club. Even without the name of the club beneath it, golf lovers wouldn’t fail to recoginse that tree – It’s Sunningdale!
Pinehurst
Pinehurst’s iconic Putter Boy had to appear in this list of 10. His first incarnations date from the early 1900s when Frank Presbrey created a young boy to appear in advertising that he called, “The Golf Lad.” It wasn’t until the 1970s that his current name “The Putter Boy” caught on. He’s one of the most famous boys in golf.
St Enodoc Golf Club
How straight it flew, how long it flew, it clear’d the rutty track. The great poet Sir John Betjeman loved golfing in St Enodoc and is buried in the graveyard of the church pictured in the club logo. It’s another beautifully stylised image that gives a hint of both golf course and coast. It reflects the history, the beauty and there's a suggestion of the poetry of the beautiful Cornish course.
Royal Dornoch Golf Club
Royal Dornoch’s crest features one of Scotland’s rarest animals – The Scottish Wildcat. The historic Royal Dornoch Golf Club's coat of arms, authorised by the Court of the Lord Lyon, includes a wildcat, the crest of the earls of Sutherland. In the past, Royal Dornoch Golf Club has contributed funds to try and help protect the species.
Seahouses Golf Club
Another lighthouse to make this list of 10 great club logos. This time it’s Longstone Lighthouse in the Farne Islands of the coast of Northumberland. Seahouses Golf Club, founded in 1913 was a nine holer up until 1976 when it was expanded to 18. The club’s logo is another great example of simple, linear design.
Augusta National
The iconic Masters logo is probably the most recognisable in all of golf. It’s an enduring feature of the great tournament and a simple, stylised, and highly appropriate image showing a map of the USA featuring a hole and flagstick at the (approximate) location of Augusta National. There may be a little artistic license with the exact geography of the US mainland but the softer edges work beautifully with the classic Masters font.
