Some of you may never of heard of Alister Mackenzie but it’s likely that you have already played on a course designed or influenced by him and never known, but his contribution to golf and golf course design spans across decades and also four continents.
So who was Alister Mackenzie?
Alister Mackenzie was born 30th of August 1870 in Normanton, Wakefield to Scottish Parentage. He attended Queen Elizabeth Grammer School in Wakefield, before goin onto Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge where he followed his fathers footsteps as a medical doctor graduating in 1891.
Alister served as a medical surgeon with the Summerset Regiment in South Africa during the Second Boer War. It was during his time spent during his wartime service he became interested in camouflage which was used by the Boers.
During the First World War, he served in the army but this time he enlisted not as a surgeon but as a camoufleur. He gave lectures on the subject and started to specialise in the subject.
(image source https://alistermackenzie.co.uk & https://alistermackenzie.org/)
He was a member of Ilkley Golf Course during 1890 to 1900, then Leeds Golf Club from 1900 to 1910. He was also a founding member of Alwoodley Golf Course from 1907 where he was the club secretary and also the club captain and he remained part of the committee until 1930.
His first recognition for course design came in 1914 when he won a golf hole design ran by Country Life, this spurred him on to take an active contribution / interest in course management and improvement on his own clubs.
(image source – wikipedia)
He Chartered the Old Course at St.Andrews and by 1915 he was a member of the prestigious R&A. It was the next steps which made Mackenzie the Golf household name for course design.
He left Medicine and started a full time career as a golf course designer in the United Kingdom, and released his first book on course design called Golf Architecture in 1920. He starts to make the connections back to his old career suggesting that ” there is an extraordinary resemblance between what is now known as the camouflage of military earthworks and golf course construction”.
In terms of an actual player, He described himself as a “good putter, but a mediocre ball striker”. This would be true until he moved to California in his late 60’s when he had his golfing epiphany, where with improvement in his ball striking enabled him to start achieving high 70’s to low 80’s across 18 holes.
As mentioned he moved to the United States in the late 1920’s, where some would say he did his most famous and remembered work on some of the world’s most finest courses.
Famous Courses designed by Alister Mackenzie
1927 – Lahinch Golf Course (Lahinch, Ireland)
1927 – Meadow Club (Fairfax, California)
1928 – Cypress Point Club (Monterey Peninsula, California)
1929 – Crystal Downs Country Club (Frankfort, Michigan)
1931 – Royal Melbourne Golf Club (Melbourne, Australia) Pasatiempo Golf Club (Santa Cruz, California)
1933 – Augusta National Golf Club (Augusta, Georgia)
Obviously the one course that stands off the page when you read it is the Augusta National which is the home of the Masters.
(image source https://www.prime-events.co.uk/venue/augusta/)
Alister Mackenzie passed away in January 1934, just two months before the inaugural Masters Tournament. After his death an unpublished manuscript on golf and course design was discovered and published as The Spirit of St.Andrews in 1995.
With which golf course having a home in Leeds and covering Yorkshire it’s such an honour to be able play on some of the most historic golf courses and play his legacy courses, all of which still heavily have his influence.
Below is a list of all his courses in the Yorkshire Area.
Golf Courses in Yorkshire designed by Alister Mackenzie
1907 – Alwoodley Golf Club, Leeds, England
1909 – Moortown Golf Club, Leeds, England
1913 – Dewsbury District Golf Club, West Yorkshire, England
1913 – Garforth Golf Club, Leeds, England
1913 – Headingley Golf Club, Leeds, England (renovations)
1913 – Horsforth Golf Club, Leeds, England (renovations)
1913 – Sitwell Park Golf Club, Rotherham, England
1914 – Oakdale Golf Club, Harrogate, England
1921 – Cleckheaton & District Golf Club, Bradford, England (new course)
1922 – Sand Moor Golf Club, Leeds, Yorkshire, England
1924 – Temple Newsam Golf Club, Leeds, England
1925 – Low Laithes Golf Club, Wakefield, Yorkshire, England
1931 – Bingley St Ives Golf Course, Harden, Bingley, West Yorkshire, England
1932 – Pontefract and District Golf Club, West Yorkshire, England which incorporated a number of classic Mackenzie greens
Spend a little time researching his work and understanding his craft, then book around at one of the golf courses above and take a walk back in history.
