Rebranding a member-led Golf Club without alienating its core : Carus Green Golf Club
This rebranding case study explores how The Brand Chap supported Carus Green Golf Club, a member-led golf club undergoing a dramatic physical and commercial transformation, without losing the warmth, loyalty, and joy that defined it. The challenge was not simply to modernise the brand, but to guide an emotionally sensitive transition that balanced legacy members, new audiences, and long-term ambition.
Outcomes at a Glance
Clear alignment between long-standing members and the club’s future direction
A repositioned offer that broadened appeal without diluting the core experience
Increased confidence in communicating change internally and externally
A platform for sustainable growth built on accessibility, not exclusivity
Project Overview
Client:
Carus Green Golf Club
Sector:
Leisure, Sport, Hospitality
Primary Service:
Rebranding
Supporting Services:
Brand Strategy, Sub-Brand Creation, Marketing, Digital Marketing, Signage
Engagement Type:
Sensitive, member-led rebranding during major expansion
Timeframe:
Initial rebrand (4 months), followed by ongoing strategic support (10+ years)
The Situation
Carus Green began life as a small, nine-hole golf club built on farmland, with a modest clubhouse and a close-knit membership. Over time, the leadership team partnered with investors to transform the site into a state-of-the-art, full 18-hole golf course, with ambitions far beyond its original footprint.
At the heart of the club was a genuine love of the game and a belief that golf should be welcoming, joyful, and accessible, not intimidating or exclusionary. However, as with many small member-led clubs, change brought anxiety. Long-standing members were understandably cautious about growth, visitors, and the fear of losing what they already valued.
Initially, the assumption was that the existing logo and identity would simply carry forward. Fortunately, one member of the leadership team recognised that this moment of change required deeper thinking. The scale of the transformation meant that brand, storytelling, and positioning would play a critical role in attracting new players, visitors, and members from surrounding clubs, without fracturing trust internally.
The Rebranding Challenge
This was not a cosmetic branding exercise. The real challenge sat in retaining and respecting the existing membership while reshaping the brand, message, and scale of the operation to support significant growth.
A generic branding approach would have focused on visuals alone, or leaned heavily into location and prestige. That would have been easy, but dangerous. The risk was alienating loyal members, creating internal resistance, and undermining the very spirit that made Carus Green special.
The rebrand needed to act as a bridge, not a rupture: honouring history, rewarding loyalty, and simultaneously opening the doors wider than ever before.
Our Approach
We framed the work through the lens of human psychology rather than design trends.
The first priority was understanding what existing members were feeling: anxiety about change, fear of dilution, and concern about being pushed aside in favour of visitors. Alongside this sat a second audience: golfers from neighbouring clubs who were open to something more modern and welcoming, and a third group of people who had always been curious about golf but felt excluded by traditional club culture.
Rather than amplifying prestige or positioning Carus Green as a “Lake District golf club”, we deliberately chose restraint. We avoided making the brand feel overly exclusive or visually ostentatious, even though it would have been easy to do so for portfolio appeal. Instead, we focused on warmth, accessibility, and a genuine love of the game.
Judgement mattered more than aesthetics. Certain elements of the original identity were carried forward and reinterpreted, creating continuity without nostalgia. Strategic decisions around membership structures and legacy recognition were woven into the brand thinking, ensuring that loyalty was not just acknowledged but actively rewarded.
This clarity of thinking created a precise and grounded design brief, allowing the visuals, language, and environment to align naturally with the desired experience.
The Outcome
The outcome was not just a new brand, but a shared sense of direction.
All existing members were retained and felt valued as part of the journey. Over time, many became active advocates for the transformation. New members joined from surrounding clubs, drawn by the balance of quality and accessibility, while first-time golfers felt welcomed rather than judged.
Visitor numbers increased significantly, and the brand provided a stable foundation for long-term growth. Over the following decade, Carus Green expanded far beyond the original course, adding restaurants, golf academies, a state-of-the-art driving range and teaching facilities, as well as holiday apartments and residential properties on site.
Perhaps most importantly, the leadership team gained a deeper appreciation for the power of early, thoughtful brand strategy. The rebrand became a reference point for decision-making, storytelling, and future development, shaping opportunities that may never have surfaced without that shared clarity.
Services Involved
Brand Strategy
Sub-Brand Creation
Marketing & Digital Marketing
Signage & Environmental Branding
What next?
If you’re navigating a rebranding challenge where legacy, loyalty, and growth all need to coexist, we’re happy to talk it through.
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