Is This the 'Best Logo in Golf'? You Be the Judge

The Merion Golf Club has hosted numerous competitions, including five U.S. Opens. | Credit: Wikipedia

This time of year always serves as the stretch when my sports enthusiasm becomes as difficult to contain as the Golden State Warriors’ offense. With the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments nearly upon us, the tennis calendar uniting both tours in Indian Wells for the BNP Paribas Open, spring training contests proving we are in for an amazing slate of diamond duels, hockey and hoops clubs making playoff pushes (let’s go, Flyers and 76ers!) and golf greats gunning for trophies ahead of next month’s Masters Tournament, I am not short on means to make myself merry.

With respect to the last pastime, I always find it interesting to see where the jetsetters and we wannabe eagle makers go and how the course overseers represent themselves, even down to their branding. PGA Tour member Zac Blair took such interest to a new level recently, teaming with Fried Egg Golf’s Andy Johnson to dub Merion Golf Club as the owner of the game’s best logo.

The inaugural #LogoMadness competition pitted 64 sites against one another, with Blair and Johnson, whose website addresses course design and other links-related matters, involving their social media followers in the quest to crown a winner. One has to figure that, like the aforementioned hoops pageants where people make pool picks based on such odd factors as nicknames and team colors, their roundup featured some interesting reasons for choosing particular logos, but, contrary to the March Madness bracket, which annually offers fans and money seekers close contests, it bred many blowouts, with Merion Golf Club putting six foes aside to emerge the winner.

Your 2018 #LogoMadness Champion is .... the iconic wicker basket & scotch broom from Merion Golf Club! They took down Winged Foot Golf Club in the championship match. pic.twitter.com/CDnLzUiGvN

— Zac Blair (@z_blair) March 2, 2018

In downing the Mamaroneck, New York-situated Winged Foot Golf Club, the Delaware County space affirms the esteem that has helped it to host five U.S. Open Championships, gain placement on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places and receive distinction as a U.S. National Historic Landmark District constituent. Consisting of what Blair hailed as an “iconic wicker basket & scotch broom,” the winning emblem has stood the test of time, with Golf Digest noting its early 20th-century origins and connection to flagsticks that feature prominently on its East Course.

Though I enjoy mini golf, I am absolutely terrible at the real deal, so the Merion Golf Club is not going to come calling for me to join. Regardless of that, I would have certainly voted for the location to escape the early stages of #LogoMadness, but I think I would have voted for the Pebble Beach, California-based Monterey Peninsula Country Club, which last month hosted the AT&T Pro-Am, in their final-eight matchup. Obviously, Blair and Johnson orchestrated a completely subjective endeavor in polling their social media adherents, and, frankly, their move was a masterstroke. Clubs are always seeking distinction for their ambience in the hope of drawing local and perhaps national attention. Their logos, at least to this possibly uninformed scribe, likely do not hold as much sway as their greens and fairways, but the friends’ bracket proved that fans strongly value how places artistically put themselves out there for the masses.

Thanks for everyone who participated in @the_fried_egg #LogoMadness we have some giveaway winners we will announce ASAP! pic.twitter.com/z1OeBafJHC

— Zac Blair (@z_blair) March 2, 2018

On another note, way to go, Merion Golf Club, for fostering a little Pennsylvania pride for us at Promo Marketing! We are happy to learn that so many people put you way above par as a destination to play 36 holes—thanks to East and West courses—and make many more memories.