Understandably, what initiates your interest is the name associated with a particular golf club logo. But soon you sense that other forces are in play, that artistry and creativity are magic dust particles tweaking your intrigue.
When it’s a good one, well, let Brad Faxon explain what you discover.
“The best logos aren’t about showing off; instead, they should be about connection; about memory; about history; about the love for the game.”
Faxon wrote those words for the foreword to a book you will find thoroughly enjoyable. That’s because "The Best Logos in Golf" brilliantly presents a big-screen feel to that small, yet beloved, slice of this treasured game; that finishing touch that unites club members; that intricate detail that makes others nod their approval and say, “I’ve been there.”
The golf club logo.
That the task of writing this book – which was the idea of a trio of logomaniacs named Clay Jackson, Lou DiLorenzo, and Gee Aldridge – was taken on by George Peper is arguably the key to why it is such an enjoyable read.
Now the editor of LINKS Magazine, Peper for 25 years was the editor of GOLF Magazine and he has authored more than 20 books. Masterful when it comes to providing details and diligent in his quest to ask why and search deeper, Peper in The Best Logos in Golf was intent on telling the backstory to how these logos came to be.
Which is how we were told that the logo for The Kittansett Club (Marion, Mass.) should not be called a seashell. “It’s a scallop shell,” said Peper. Makes sense, given that in the 1960s “95 percent of the scallops came from (nearby) New Bedford.”
In researching how Monterey Peninsula CC settled on its brilliant logo – a sea serpent embracing a flagstick (right) – Peper was fascinated to read of the 1925 discovery of a “sea monster” on a beach in Monterey Peninsula. “Google it,” he laughed, and sure enough, The Californian on on June 4, 1925 reported that a frightening sea mammal had washed ashore.
The point isn’t that what was washed ashore was later discovered to have been large part of a beaked whale; the point is, Peper’s keen reporting skills in this book provide consistent proof that what great logos have in common is that they tie the club to its surrounding.
“(The logo) tells who we are and in golf, perhaps even more pointedly, it tells where we belong,” he wrote.
Of the 100 logos, 76 are from golf clubs in America and Peper chose to present them in 10 tiers of 10 clubs. Two of the logos in Tier One – Myopia Hunt Club and Boston Golf Club – most definitely checked the boxes to a list of seven criteria Peper and his colleagues judged by:
Distinctiveness, heritage, design quality, timelessness and simplicity, symbolism, versatility, and backstory.
Back in its infant days when it was hosting the first of four U.S. Opens (1898) fox-hunting was part of the landscape at Myopia and the backstory includes fond recollections for legendary head professional Bill Safrin.
“When I first started in 1980, the logo wasn’t very good, to tell the truth,” said Safrin. “On clothing it looked more like a plunger and a rat.”
Pickering was a popular sportswear provider at the time, very much seen in golf shops across the country. Safrin worked with them to clean up the Myopia logo, which prompts a laugh. “When I took the job I was told, ‘Don’t put anything in the pro shop because no one will walk up the hill.’ ”
He ignored that advice and the change was dramatic. Year after year the Myopia logo got cleaner, the 1990s brought a greater awareness of the elite logos in the game and it only grew exponentially over the next two decades.
From sales of $5,000 in 1980, his first year, the sale of logoed-items in Safrin’s finale year, 2016, reached $500,000.
Unlike Myopia, Boston Golf Club didn’t have a history that dated back more than 100 years. It did, however, have members with a keen sense of history and a desire to improve upon two logos that had not really worked after the club came on line in 2005.
During a discussion one night, a member’s suggestion that the “Boston” angle be explored ignited a wave of enthusiasm within another member, Ed Maher. He knew Boston was synonymous with the revolution and the birth of America so he charged forth. “I was obsessed,” he said of visits to the Boston Historical Society and the Old State House, which was built in 1713, and is the city’s oldest standing building.
What Maher settled on was a flag with nine stripes, five red, four white. It was the Sons of Liberty flag, and on those nights when patriots named Paul Revere, John Hancock, and Samuel Adams called a meeting, they hung the flag as a notice. Sort of the “calendar invitation” 1700s style.
Convinced he had found the logo that fit seamlessly into the culture and community of Boston Golf Club, Maher designed the flag with a sort of tattered look, a nod to the forefathers. The beloved owner and visionary who was the force behind BGC, John Mineck, would die tragically in 2007, “but he did see the research come together and loved it,” said Maher.
There is much to enjoy about The Best Logos in Golf because the backdrop to stories about 100 elite logos is extraordinary. Read the engaging account about Tom Coyne’s Sullivan County Golf Club or why the members at Bedford Golf & Tennis Club adopted the Bumblebee in its logo. Peruse the fascinating landscape of Fishers Island or discover how Bobby Jones is so tied to Highlands Country Club in North Carolina.
As if to proudly point to the area where it sits, the Fishers Island Club logo identifies the entire island just 2 miles from Connecticut in the Long Island Sound.
Countless logos prominently feature animals, from the sea lion at The Hay (Pebble Beach), to the Natterjack toad at Dooks (Ireland), to the Yale Bulldog (Connecticut), to the Arctic terns (Brora in the Scottish Highlands), to the New Zealand fairy tern (Tara Iti), to the squirrel (The Country Club).
The epic logos are even more so when they are explored by Peper, giving us more about the witch (Salem CC), the headless horseman (Sleepy Hollow), the siesta (Pasatiempo), and the story of how head professional Bill Kittleman inserted a wicker basket atop a flagstick (Merion) to create a true icon as it went a long way in bringing golf club logos into a new era.
“In today’s digital world the logo has become the key catalyst of brand recognition,” writers Peper, adding that “logo creation in the 21st century is a $10 billion business.”
Serious stuff, eh? Well, logos most certainly are, though the premise to making and branding the good ones never loses sight of the fact that they can be light-hearted so long as they stay true to the golden rule. “They have to have distinctiveness and creativity,” said Peper. “But they (remain) a personal thing.”
One of the greatest testaments to the ease and charm to which this book comes at you is this: After reading backstories about 100 different logos, you crave for even more. So the book grants you this, too.
That’s because you can read how the “logo lads” came up with the idea for this book. Jackson, DiLorenzo, and Aldridge have forged quite the enchanting story. Then there is a tribute to Johnny Chops Logo Guidelines, which is famously posted inside the locker room at Maidstone.
There are 65 of them under the heading of “When you’re not a member of club logo” . . . and here was a favorite, coming in at No. 7:
“The sum total of course rankings must be more than 20. Example: Don’t wear Pine Valley and Cypress Point at the same time (1+3 = 4).”
Peper gets good laughs out of the rules but doesn’t himself have any guidelines that he follows. Except, that is, for this. “You can’t overdo it,” he said.
His book follows that rule splendidly and he’s left with a measure of satisfaction, mostly for the Logo Lads. “I’m glad their idea has come to fruition,” said Peper.
You'll be glad, too.
