Alister MacKenzie

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Alister MacKenzie (born Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, 1870; died Santa Cruz, California, 1934) was a British golf course designer. MacKenzie was taught at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield. He trained as a doctor, and served in the Second Boer War. He then left medicine and began to design golf courses in the United Kingdom, in association with H.S. Colt. He was not a good golfer, and was one of the first men who had not been a leading player to become a prominent course designer. He published his book, Golf Architecture in 1920, in which he aphoristically summed up his design style: "In discussing the need for simplicity of design, the chief object of every golf course architect worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from nature itself." ^[1] In the 1920s he emigrated to the United States, and he carried out his most notable work there, while continuing to design courses outside the US.

MacKenzie worked in the era before large scale earth moving became a feature of golf course construction, and his designs are notable for their sensitivity to the nature of the site. He is celebrated for his ability to produce holes with an ideal balance of risk and reward, and for his knack of producing courses which both challenge and accommodate golfers with differing levels of skill.

MacKenzie's unpublished manuscript The Spirit of St. Andrews, on golf course design, was later discovered by Ely Callaway, and published many years after MacKenzie's death; it sold very well.

There is a biography by Tom Doak, The Life and Work of Dr. Alister MacKenzie.

[edit] Selected courses

Crystal Downs Country Club, Frankfort, MI, (1929 with Perry Maxwell), 10th best Course in U.S. Golf Digest 2007-08
Meadow Club, Fairfax, California (1927): Classic layout overlooking Mt. Tamalpais was MacKenzie's first design in America.
Claremont Country Club, Oakland, California (1929): Located in the Oakland hills.
Titirangi Golf Club, Titirangi, Auckland, New Zealand (1926): A true championship course in natural surrounds. One of the top courses in New Zealand.
The Old Course at Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland (1927): Mackenzie reworked the original layout by Old Tom Morris layout on a stunning oceanside site. He left in a blind par 3 just for history's sake.
The Portland Course at the Royal Troon Golf Club, in Troon, Scotland. A worthy and challenging companion to the Old Course, the many-times Open Championship site.
Rosemont course at Blairgowie Golf Club, Perth and Kinross, Scotland (1927): One of Scotland's top-ranked courses. An inland parkland layout cut out of dense forests and moorlands.
The No. 1 course at Hazlehead Park, Aberdeen, Scotland.
Cypress Point Club, Monterey Peninsula, California (1928): A beautiful, well-crafted, course with a famously photogenic 16th hole. Rated the fourth greatest course in America by Golf Digest in 2005.
Pasatiempo Golf Club, Santa Cruz, California (1929): A beautiful course and a difficult test of golf, perfectly blended into the northern California coastal forest.
West Course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Melbourne, Australia (1931): Regarded by some as the finest course south of the equator.
University of Michigan Golf Course University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan (1931): One of the first and finest on-campus golf courses in the United States.
Haggin Oaks Golf Course, Sacramento, California. Popular golf course in northern California. Site of the California State Fair Championship. Ben Hogan won his first professional check at Haggin Oaks.
The Valley Club of Montecito Santa Barbara, California (1928)
Northwood Golf Club Monte Rio, California (1928)
The Scarlet Course at The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio (1931): One of the best collegiate golf courses in the United States.
Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia, USA. (1933): Bobby Jones chose MacKenzie ahead of Donald Ross to co-design the only course in the world which stages The Masters every year. Rated the second greatest course in America by Golf Digest in 2005.
Green Hills Country Club, Millbrae, California (1930) (The Union League Golf and Country Club of San Francisco). A magnificent layout, often called the "gem" of the San Francisco Peninsula.
Sharp Park Golf Course, Pacifica, California (1932)
Tijuana Country Club, Mexico (1929).
Buenos Aires, Argentina (1931) Jockey Club: The area's most noteworthy course and the must-play in San Isidro, which hosts two full-length courses designed in his prime in 1930. The Red is the championship layout.