[20] JULY 2019 FEATURE GOLFNEWS.CO.UK
n o i r u t n e C COME S Words by Nick Bayly
O F AG E
Six years after it first opened, Centurion Club has developed into the epitome of a modern golf club, where its members enjoy first-class service and stunning clubhouse facilities to match the quality of its world-renowned championship course
T
he reasons for golf’s declining popularity are many and varied, but among those that encouraged the owners of the Centurion Club to set up shop on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead in 2010 was golf’s failure to keep up to speed with the lifestyle demands of the modern member. The lack of a genuine service culture, draconian dress codes, endless tee time restrictions, treating female members as second-class citizens, and a diminishing pride in the presentation of golf courses and clubhouses, many of them worn down by years of under-investment, gave the team behind Centurion hope that a club that dared to do something differently could not only survive, but positively thrive. Located a few miles west of St Albans, and just a few minutes from junction 8 of the M1, Centurion has shaken up the traditional private golf club model by offering a genuinely five-star membersonly experience, while remaining both affordable, yet refreshingly unencumbered by the stuffy and elitist attitudes that many high-end private clubs insist on adhering to. Representing a blueprint for how a golf club for the 21st century should be operated, Centurion has been open for the best part of six years now, and in that time has built up a 600-strong membership that is enjoying a fast-maturing golf course and the kind of facilities that you’d expect from a five-star hotel. With that ethos, it will come as no surprise that you’ll find no club captains or green committees here, and you’ll certainly find no posters explaining the dress code (there isn’t one), and there is a refreshing absence of noticeboards. It’s access all
areas, with not a ‘keep out’ sign in sight. While the 18-hole golf course – more of which later – has been open from the beginning, as it were, the clubhouse, as is often the case in new builds, came later, with the impressive two-storey structure that spans the entire length of the large pond that guards the right-hand approach to the course’s closing hole, opening in 2016. The £5 million edifice is the icing on a particular appetising cake, the likes of which are no doubt being baked by the club’s expert team of chefs, who have turned the impressive ground-floor restaurant into a destination not just for golf club members, but for diners from all over the region. Saturday cream teas are a virtual sell-out, as are Sunday lunches, while Friday and Saturday nights always require a reservation to secure a table. Michelin-starred Jeff Galvin, who is a member at the club, helped set up the restaurant, and although he is no longer directly involved, his ethos and commitment to quality remains very much intact. And while you can still get a damn fine bacon sandwich – on a toasted brioche bun, of course – in the relaxed surroundings of the upstairs sports bar before your round, downstairs in the more formal 80-cover dining room, the seasonally-changing menu offers a slightly more refined culinary experience. It’s a clever part of the clubhouse’s design that it disguises its true purpose with such skill. All the golfing elements – the locker rooms and the golfer’s bar and lounge, are located upstairs, tucked away from the more public spaces, while the ground floor wouldn’t look out of place in a boutique hotel. Walk into the side entrance, and past the pro shop
■ ABOVE: THE TIGHT ENTRANCE TO THE GREEN AT THE PAR-3 17TH LEAVES NO MARGIN FOR ERROR, BELOW: THE 18TH IS A TESTING PAR FIVE WITH THE GREEN ANGLED ACROSS A POND
– which is more akin to a boutique emporium – and you’d be hard-pressed to know you’re in a golf club at all. There are no endless rows of wooden noticeboards and not a silver trophy in sight. It’s a light and airy space, that moves seamlessly from one area to the next, feeling intimate, yet spacious, and above all, relaxed. Elsewhere within the building there are separate rooms for private dining, conference spaces, although only members and companies with connections to the club are allowed to host corporate golf days here. And while the main entrance at most clubhouses are often cluttered with a haphazard scattering of trolleys and golf bags, here, all of the accoutrements of golf, including a small buggy fleet, are hidden
