{"id":18190,"date":"2026-06-09T04:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/18190\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T04:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T04:39:17","slug":"100-year-old-kent-golfer-still-playing-at-canterbury-golf-club-says-i-will-carry-on-as-long-as-i-can","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/18190\/","title":{"rendered":"100-year-old Kent golfer still playing at Canterbury Golf Club says: \u2018I will carry on as long as I can\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An evergreen Kent golfer is still in full swing aged 100 – and has no intention of putting down his clubs.<\/p>\n

Christopher Martin is easily the oldest member of Canterbury Golf Club and Driving Range and continues to play a couple of times a week.<\/p>\n

He walks unaided, carrying a heavy bag of clubs, can drive the ball up the fairway – and remains a remarkably accurate putter.<\/p>\n

He told KentOnline: \u201cI will carry on playing for as long as I can.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy doing it. It’s nice to get outside.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge to play as well as I can, despite getting old.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can’t hit the ball nearly as far as I used to but I just keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Christopher\"ChristopherChristopher Martin, 100, playing at Canterbury Golf Club<\/p>\n

Mr Martin credits his longevity to staying active and having a healthy lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was young, everybody smoked, which I never did,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always have walked quite a bit other than playing golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think golf has kept me physically fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I used to walk several miles and in the past, when I was a bit younger. I could walk around in the morning and in the afternoon, so it’s really good exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Christopher\"ChristopherChristopher Martin, from Bridge, remains a remarkably accurate putter aged 100<\/p>\n

Mr Martin, who lives in Bridge, is two months older than David Attenborough and a year older than Canterbury Golf Club itself.<\/p>\n

A celebratory lunch was held for him last month. Club captain Nigel Fluet presented him with a certificate granting him honorary membership and a letter giving him free golf whenever he chooses.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin said: \u201cIt\u2019s a great pleasure being given that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Club general manager Alan Holcroft said: \u201cChris is quite unbelievable and he belies his age in every way, not just in the fact that he continues to play golf.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the perfect advert for the benefits of the game, keeping you youthful and extending your lifespan.<\/p>\n

\"Christopher\"ChristopherChristopher Martin, 100, with his bag of clubs at Canterbury Golf Club<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also gives you the opportunity to regularly see lifelong friends and, of course, to meet new ones in the relaxed atmosphere of the clubhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christopher Martin has been a member of the club since 1974 and is one of the longest-serving.<\/p>\n

He was born in Canterbury on March 26, 1926, growing up in Challock and attending Ashford North Central School.<\/p>\n

After leaving school, he briefly worked on the railways and then became a General Post Office (GPO) telephone engineer.<\/p>\n

During the Second World War, as a teenager, he did firewatching in London, where his aunts lived, and post-war did National Service in Germany.<\/p>\n

\"Christopher\"ChristopherChristopher Martin says playing golf has kept him fit\"Christopher\"ChristopherChristopher Martin, 100, in full swing at Canterbury Golf Club<\/p>\n

In his working life, Mr Martin had periods abroad, such as working for the British Embassy in Lebanon, where he met his wife Nadia.<\/p>\n

Later, he was in Nigeria working for British Telecom (BT), the GPO\u2019s successor on the telecommunications side.<\/p>\n

Back in east Kent, Mr Martin lived in various places such as Canterbury and Herne Bay, most of the time working for BT.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin was married to Nadia for 45 years. She died in 2004.<\/p>\n

He has a son, Roy, and two granddaughters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An evergreen Kent golfer is still in full swing aged 100 – and has no intention of putting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[458,44,1089,7593,7592,599,7594],"class_list":["post-18190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-canterbury","tag-golf","tag-human-interest","tag-kent","tag-quirky","tag-spotlight","tag-syndicate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}