Alister MacKenzie’s visit to Australia 100 years ago endures today.
I wish I’d been around when Alister MacKenzie had visited our shores 100 years ago. It’s unlikely anyone the Scot crossed paths with during his 10 weeks in Australia in late 1926 knew how significant his stay would be in terms of golf-course architecture here, but with the benefit of a century’s insight, we’re far more cognisant of its impact.
The 23rd of this month marks 100 years since Dr MacKenzie arrived in Adelaide aboard the S.S. Otranto and altered not just several top layouts but also influenced the way golf courses are viewed here from a design standpoint. It’s known as the Golden Age of course architecture and it still glitters to this day.
This issue, we asked Neil Crafter – a prominent course designer himself but also the lead researcher on the Alister MacKenzie Society’s chronology of the great architect – to ponder the significance of MacKenzie’s 1926 visit ahead of its 100th anniversary. Crafter outlines the itinerary of MacKenzie’s time in Australia and captures the significance of the “Post MacKenzie” era.
As we mark the milestone, it’s interesting to ponder the state of golf-course architecture in Australia. Today, more golfers are armed with more understanding of the subject than ever before, largely because they have a passion for the craft.
“There’s a greater knowledge among golf clubs about what good architecture is,” Sydney-based course architect Harley Kruse told me in early 2020. “I especially see this among the savvy, 30 to 50-year-old keen golfers who are armchair golf architect nuts, who follow the social media feeds, listen to the podcasts and are on websites that discuss golf-course architecture. If these guys are here and articulating good architecture then the architecture becomes front-of-mind and a lot more people are talking about golf-course architecture than ever before, whether it’s armchair architects or us in the profession.”
MacKenzie, quite rightly, is held up as part of the reason we revere fine architecture today. The lessons he taught those near him in 1926 endure, an influence that has survived long after his passing (MacKenzie died at age 63 in 1934). “I try to build courses for the most enjoyment by the greatest number,” he is often quoted as saying.
It’s a different landscape in Australia now. Brand new courses are increasingly rare as redesigns and renovations are more prevalent. That trend does not stop MacKenzie’s principles from emerging. The next time you see multiple playing options on a hole or across a course, there’s every chance the designer drew on the good doctor’s wisdom.
It’s a situation that thankfully seems unlikely to change. The course-architecture fraternity has done a tremendous job of drawing from the past even as the world hurtles rapidly towards the future.
There are plenty of concerns about the state of golf across its many corners. Fortunately, the shape of course architecture isn’t one of them.
Top 5 Australian golf courses we’d love to see redesigned
5. Moore Park, NSW: Of course, a forced redesign is in its immediate future, but the Sydney CBD course has always possessed the makings of something far greater.
4. Kooralbyn Valley, QLD: The mysterious Gold Coast hinterland layout did close from 2008 to 2016 but continues to operate today, although it remains far from its glory days of the early 1980s.
3. Tasmania, TAS: A good course on amazing land adjoining Hobart’s Barilla Bay, yet one that has the capacity to be great.
2. The Coast, NSW: The clifftop layout in Sydney’s east has some tremendous holes, but its weaker ones are awful. Given the site, it wouldn’t take much for the course to become a showstopper.
1. Flinders, VIC: Another club blessed with an enviable coastal location that is already being tweaked by architect Michael Henderson but nevertheless is dripping with redesign potential.
Photograph by getty images/bettmann
