Rochester & Cobham Park Golf Club
Rochester, Kent. A Repton parkland course in the deer park of Cobham Hall, with veteran oaks, an Alison design refined by Donald Steel and a family link to the Earls of Darnley.
Rochester & Cobham Park Golf Club sits in the grounds of the Elizabethan Cobham Hall estate near Rochester in Kent. The club was founded in 1891 as Rochester Golf Club, and settled at Cobham in 1919, after its original site became unavailable and the 8th Earl of Darnley leased the club the Deer Park at Cobham Hall. The current Earl still serves as Club President, a family connection that stretches back more than a century.
The course was designed in 1920 by Colt, MacKenzie and Alison, with C.H. Alison leading the project, and Donald Steel carried out a sympathetic redesign in 1997 that added seven new holes and USGA-specification greens. It is a par 71 of around 6,650 yards, laid out across a historic Humphry Repton parkland landscape with veteran oaks more than 600 years old alongside beech, chestnut and hornbeam. The fairways are generous, the greens subtly sloping and the short 17th offers a tempting risk and reward. Bernard Darwin praised the sense of space, noting that the golfer never feels crowded.
Rochester & Cobham Park has been used for Open Championship Regional Qualifying and Kent Amateur Championships. National Club Golfer ranks it 39th among the best parkland courses in Great Britain and Ireland. Visitors are welcome by arrangement.
Tee times at these private clubs need to be arranged in advance, and Golf Tours London can build them into a bespoke itinerary and organise transport between your hotel and the course.
