Dr. Alister MacKenzie and The Design Team
Dr. Alister MacKenzie was acknowledged to be one of the three leading golf course architects of his day (along with A. W. Tillinghast and Donald Ross) and was the author of Golf Course Design which told of his design philosophy. MacKenzie influenced countless architects from that time to the present. He also wrote The Spirit of St. Andrews, which became the famous “lost manuscript” until it was rediscovered and published long after his death in 1934.
Robert Hunter was a good golfer and a socialite with “connections” that helped bring attention to various MacKenzie course design projects. He oversaw construction of the course in collaboration with Dr. MacKenzie. His gregarious manner also helped to build membership after the club was formed. Moreover, Hunter was a devotee of links-style golf courses and published a seminal book on golf course architecture titled Links.
H. Chandler Egan, was a golfing champion of national stature having won the U. S. Amateur Championship in 1904 and 1905 and the Pacific Northwest championship in 1915, 1920, 1923, 1925 and 1932. He was also an accomplished architect in his own right, having designed several outstanding courses in Oregon. He also achieved considerable acclaim for his remodeling of Pebble Beach Golf Links in preparation for the 1929 U. S. Amateur Championship. He redesigned the greens and bunkering giving them a ragged, natural seaside look that was very dramatic. (It is worth noting that Egan finished second in that 1929 U.S. Amateur Championship). Dr. MacKenzie, however, redesigned the eighth hole which has been acclaimed as one of the great par fours of the world. Significantly, Bobby Jones was defeated early in that 1929 championship which led to his visiting Cypress Point and Pasatiempo. These visits prompted Bobby Jones to select Dr. Mackenzie for the design of Augusta National in place of Donald Ross and a tradition was born.
Read more about this topic: Union League Golf And Country Club
Famous quotes containing the words mackenzie, design and/or team:
“People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.”
—Kenneth MacKenzie Clark, Baron of Saltwood (1903–1983)
“If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life ... for fear that I should get some of his good done to me,—some of its virus mingled with my blood.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“They’re two good old friends of mine. I call them Constitution and The Bill of Rights. A most dependable team for long journeys. Then I’ve got another one called Missouri Compromise. And a Supreme Court—a fine, dignified horse, though you have to push him on every now and then.”
—Dan Totheroh (1895–1976)