Rochester & Cobham Park Golf Club

Rochester Golf Club, as it was originally named, was established in 1891 with a 9-hole course located at Oakleigh Farm in Higham. The club then moved to the Deer Park in Cobham Hall just after the Great War, after obtaining a lease on the property from the landowner, the 8th Earl of Darnley.

Hugh Alison, a partner in the short-lived design company of Colt, MacKenzie & Alison laid out the 18-hole course for the club and everything proceeded well for more than seventy years, until plans for the Channel Tunnel rail link resulted in the relocation of the clubhouse and the introduction of several new holes.

Donald Steel was the architect chosen for the major development and he built seven new holes, made changes to the other eleven holes, including the upgrade of all the greens to USGA standard. Planning restrictions allowed only indigenous hardwood trees to be replanted so the property now features fine arboreal examples of beach, chestnut and hornbeam.

Today, the course measures 6,597 yards from the back tees, playing to a par of 71. Feature holes include short par fours on the 4th and 17th, the longest of the four par threes at the 213-yard 16th (with sand to the right of the left to right sloping green), and the 443-yard closing hole, where the fairway gently turns left off the tee towards the home green.

Rochester & Cobham is now a proud member of the R&A's ‘Open family of courses,’ having embarked on a 5-year stint as an Open Regional Qualifying venue in 2021. As the club rightly points out: "this is a great indicator of the quality of both the layout and the course conditions".

It was announced at the start of 2023 that a course masterplan had been submitted to the club by architects Mackenzie & Ebert.