Dr. Alister MacKenzie (8/30/1870-1/6/1934) was a British designer of over fifty projects including Royal Melbourne Golf Club, Cypress Point and Augusta National.
MacKenzie was a medical doctor (surgeon) by trade, serving in the Boer War and WWI. In addition to his skills as a surgeon, he was credited with advancing the concept of military camouflage. MacKenzie quote; “The brilliant successes of the Boer’s were due to great extent to their making the best use of natural cover and the construction of artificial cover indistinguishable from nature.”
Camouflage!
Nothing quite like your golf course designer being an expert in landscape camouflage; as if we don’t have enough issues getting around the course!
Take a moment and review Dr. MacKenzie’s Thirteen Principles of Golf Course Design and compare his principles to your favorite tracts.
Thirteen Principles of Golf Course Design
- Courses when possible should be arranged in two loops of nine holes.
- Large portion of good two shot holes, two or three drive and pitch holes and at least four one shot holes.
- Should be little walking between the greens and the tees and the course should be arranged so that in the first instance there is always a slight walk forwards from the green to the next tee; then the holes are sufficiently elastic to be lengthened in the future if necessary.
- Greens and fairways should be sufficiently undulating but there should be no hill climbing.
- Every hole should have a different character.
- Should be a minimum of blindness for the approach shot.
- Course should have beautiful surroundings and all artificial features should have so natural an appearance that a stranger is unable to distinguish them from nature itself.
- Should be a number of heroic carries from tee, but the course should be arranged so that the weaker golfer, with the loss of a stroke, shall always have an alternate route open to him.
- There should be an infinite variety in the strokes required to play the various holes (i.e. interesting brassy (fairway wood) shots, iron shots and run up shots).
- There should be a complete absence of the annoyance and irritation caused by the necessity of looking for lost balls.
- The course should be so interesting that even the plus man is constantly stimulated to improve his game in attempting shots he has hitherto been unable to play.
- Course should be so arranged that the long handicap player, or even the absolute beginner, should be able to enjoy his round in spite of the fact ne is piling up a big score.
- The course should be equally good during winter and summer, the textures of the greens and fairways should be perfect and the approaches should have the same consistency as the greens.
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Next week: 3,314 Holes of Golf
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