Robert Simpson's rankings

Other people's opinions of courses are usually interesting, so long as you don't take their views - or your own - too seriously. I came across this list while looking for something else.

West Lancashire - shining bright from the dark ages

There's a popular theory which essentially says the quality of golf courses travelled on an ascending arc until being brutally derailed by the 1930s Depression and World War 2. Thereafter, goes the theory, technology combined with the American economic juggernaut led to a dominant form of course design whereby both unsuitable land and marginal climatic conditions could be manipulated to create 'greatness'. The apotheosis of this trend, goes the theory, was Robert Trent Jones.

I've only played one RTJ course (Moor Allerton, mediocre, but perhaps he did better) but I am interested in the people that came between the Golden Agers and the new breed.
One was Ken Cotton, who worked with the UK's leading minimalist architect Donald Steel in the sixties and seventies.

Around that time (Peter Allen says "recently" in his 1973 Play The Great Courses) Cotton took a respected but unheralded links layout at Blundellsands, ditched the flat holes furthest from the sea, went further into the dunes, re-arranged things into two loops of nine and created a test fair for the elite playing for a living but fun for all.

Characteristics such as the two loops, large number of doglegs, the striving for fairness and fairly large greens to spread the wear were typical of the time and distinguish West Lancs from older links. Similarly there are only a couple of blind drives and no blind shots to the green - if you put your tee shot in the right position, easier said than done. Some visitors may wish for more quirk but others will like the honesty of the challenge.

Fashions have definitely changed - I suspect Allen hated the clubhouse, but discreetly settled upon "strikingly modern". The course itself has worn much better.

Because it is one of the few links greater now than it was back in the day, but was excused the 'new build' publicity drive, West Lancs has had very few pictures taken, at least on the web. Even the entry in Steel's book , though laudatory, is only illustrated by one general shot of the links by Brian Morgan.

All this is a roundabout way of saying that my visit in November 2004, in as FLAT as light gets, doesn't show the course at its best.
The first two holes set the tone, both dog-leg, requiring precisely played shots for a par, superbly played shots for a birdie (perhaps with help from the conditions and pin placements) but allowing bogeys after an intelligent recovery from one mishit/misconceived shot.
However, in case you think this too formulaic, forget intelligent and try the crazy recovery shots from crazy angles - they probably won't work but it's fun trying.

Here's the 2nd from behind the green:


3rd is the first of a fine set of par 3s:



4th green:


12th is a great par 3, green angled across the player. When the rough behind grows in the summer that apron front left could be the better part of valour.

You certainly don't want to be in these bunkers:


Imagine what this view from the 13th tee is like on a brighter day. Wales is over there somewhere:


14th looks less links-like, but is the hardest green to hit on the course:


I've not listed the hole lengths because the effective playing yardages will vary so much depending on the wind strength and direction. But there's a card and other information on the club website

Why MacKenzie Greens?

In the north of England any green on two levels is known as a MacKenzie green. Some were even originally built by a man named MacKenzie, but many weren't, he didn't particularly favour them and there was a lot more to his art than that.

I like the title, partly for this irony and also for the original meaning of 'green' - which referred to the entire course. So this blog is, among other things, about MacKenzie's courses.

If you're reading this you've probably heard of Dr Alister MacKenzie, the GP turned golf course architect responsible for Augusta National, the home of the Masters, Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne and over a hundred other courses great and small worldwide.

MacK is arguably the greatest architect ever but one of the many paradoxes about his place on golf's pantheon is the obscurity of so many of his courses, principally in northern England.
Some are well-known, such as Alwoodley and Moortown.

Others, like Sitwell Park are famous by name with golf course aficionados across the Atlantic but missed off the tourist trail and relatively unheralded at home in the UK.

Still others make so little of their heritage that even some members, who could tell you the architect of Augusta in a trice, are unaware their courses were designed by Mackenzie.

There's a recent biography, researched by a non-golfing Leeds doctor, James Scott, who became fascinated by his predecessor in the city. He teamed up with Tom Doak, an American writer and golf course architect and MacK's descendant Ray Haddock to produce the book. Doak talks about the process here

It's arguably the finest bio of a golf course architect but the best parts - Doak's analysis and the historic and contemporary pictures and plans - only deal with a few of MacK's English courses, the ones listed above and some pictures and analysis of Cavendish and Reddish Vale.

In the back of the book is a list of all the courses MacK designed or remodeled and I was amazed when I read it a year or two ago to see scores I had heard of, and in some cases played, which I had no idea were designed by the creator of Augusta and Cypress Point.

As a long-term, part-time project I decided to play, photograph and research the history of these English courses, conveniently (for me) found mostly in the north as MacK was based in Leeds. In the fullness of time I plan to publish MacKenzie Greens: The English Courses Of The Good Doctor - either in book form if I can find a publisher or, perhaps more likely, on the web.

In the meantime MacKenzie is likely to loom large in this blog. If you are a member of a MacK course I'd be delighted to hear from you with any information, pictures etc you care to share. Cheers.

On the tee...

Welcome to my golf blog. I'm starting this, firstly because I can and secondly because there's a lot of good stuff out there about the greatest game in the world but most of it is written by and largely for Americans.
I live in England so the idea here is to focus and filter for a UK audience not as well served by existing websites as our friends in North America and the Antipodes.
Enough flannel ... fore!