Alister MacKenzie

Alister MacKenzie was a golf course architect, born on August 30, 1870 in Normanton, Yorkshire, in the north of England. He trained first in medicine, taking his degree at the University of Cambridge and going on to practise as a surgeon. He served in South Africa as a medical officer during the Second Boer War, and it was there that he grew interested in camouflage. In the First World War he served not as a surgeon but as a camouflage specialist.

His way into design came through Alwoodley, the club founded at Leeds in 1907. MacKenzie was a founder member and captain, and the laying out of the course was put in his hands. The man invited to advise on the work was Harry Colt, and the two later practised as Colt, MacKenzie & Alison once Charles Alison joined them. In 1920 he set down his thinking on design in a book, Golf Architecture. He afterwards moved to California, and all told had a hand in some 65 courses on four continents, counting remodelling and consulting work. Among his best-known are Cypress Point Club in California, built with Robert Hunter and first played over in 1928; Pasatiempo, also in California; Crystal Downs in Michigan; and Lahinch in Ireland.

He left work in the southern hemisphere as well. He came to Melbourne, Australia in 1926 and, in a matter of weeks, laid out the West course at Royal Melbourne. The construction was carried through by Alex Russell, a club member, and Mick Morcom, the head greenkeeper, and was completed in 1931. Late in his life he designed Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, in the United States, together with Bobby Jones. The course opened in 1933 and became the stage for the Masters from 1934, but MacKenzie died at Santa Cruz, California on January 6, 1934 and never saw the first tournament played. In 2005 he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as an architect.

See the other golf course architects here.