Alexander MacKenzie – The Great Courses


Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was a Scottishgolf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer Warwhere he first became aware of the principles of camouflage. During the First World War, MacKenzie made his own significant contributions to military camouflage, which he saw as closely related to golf course design.[1] He is a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. He designed more than 50 golf courses including three that remain in the 2016 top 10 golf courses in the world:[2]Augusta National Golf Club and Cypress Point Club in the US, and Royal Melbourne Golf Club (West Course) in Australia.


In 1914, MacKenzie won a golf hole design competition organized by Country Life; the adjudicator was Bernard Darwin. MacKenzie then took an active interest in course improvements at his own clubs, gaining experience in the newly emerging discipline of golf course design. He charted the Old Course at St. Andrews in great detail; by 1915 he had become a member of the R&A. In March 1924, he produced a map which remains well-known to the present day.

Following the First World War, MacKenzie left medicine and began to work instead as a golf course designer in the United Kingdom, in association with Harry Colt and Charles Alison in 1919, with whom he formed the London firm of Colt, MacKenzie & Alison.[7] Four years later, MacKenzie went his own way.


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