The MacKenzie method
L-r: Simon Townsend, Peter Smith and Jonathan Gaunt
WRITING in his book Golf Architecture, first published in 1920, Dr. Alister MacKenzie wrote the following on ‘Course Construction and Greenkeeping’.
As the truest economy consists in finality, it is interesting to consider the essential features of an ideal golf course. Some of them are suggested now:
1. The course, where possible, should be arranged in two loops of nine holes.
2. There should be a large proportion of good two- shot holes, two or three drive-and-pitch holes, and at least four one-shot holes.
3. There should be little walking between the greens and 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.
4. The greens and fairways should be sufficiently undulating, but there should be no hill climbing.
5. Every hole should have a different character.
6. There should be a minimum of blindness for the approach shots.
7. The course should have beautiful surroundings, and all the artificial features should have so natural an appearance that a stranger is unable to distinguish them from nature itself.
8. There should be a sufficient number of heroic carries from the tee, but the course should be arranged so that the weaker player with the loss of a stroke or portion of a stroke shall always have an alternative route open to him.
9. There should be infinite variety in the strokes required to play the various holes - viz, interesting brassy shots, iron shots, pitch and run-up shots.
10. There should be a complete absence of the annoyance and irritation caused by the necessity of searching for lost balls.
11. 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.
12. The 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 that he is piling up a big score.
13. The course should be equally good during winter and summer, the texture of the greens and fairways should be perfect, and the approaches should have the same consistency as the greens.
“The key element to getting good green speed and consistent roll is to have a dense sward, where the ball rolls across the grass rather then through it”
tees and approaches twice a week and the greens cut or rolled six days a week. We are supported by two seasonal
staff from May to October to help with the extra work that includes all the extra presentation such as strimming, flymo-ing, weeding and edging. With the implementation of the new course development plan we will be looking to increase our full time staffing levels by taking on a trainee. As somebody who holds the assessor award, and with a good track record of training staff, this is something that I very much look forward to. Cavendish, due to Buxton’s unique climate, has a very short growing season. Temperatures generally only become consistent enough to support growth from mid May through to the end of September, another reason for only requiring three full time staff. As an example, in the last two years between Oct and May, I can probably only recall having to cut the fairways three or four times and, as a rule, the rough mower will not get used during this whole period! I must say that, as an active manager, and having come from the slightly more temperate south east, I am not sure whether I like the long periods of inactivity
during the winter but, hopefully, with the major projects that are planned this will soon change!
Cavendish is not a long course, but it is widely recognised that it is the greens that are its test. MacKenzie designed, and not altered since the building of the course, they are a true example of his work. You really have to think about where to position your ball on the fairways, to be able to get close to any flag and, once on the greens, there are so many subtle borrows and breaks that nothing can be taken for granted! Anything above nine on the stimpmeter, and they really do become unplayable! This situation on the greens when I
arrived was not dissimilar to the situation at the course that I had just left, Selsdon, and the action taken would be the same. Firstly, we had to get the slight thatch problem addressed. We intensively hollow tined with half inch tines, three times in six months, with dressings of 60 tonnes of sand after each tine, and this was supported with applications of Symbio’s Green Circle to help boost the populations of beneficial fungi. In slight contrast to the STRI’s Disturbance theory, rather than waiting until we had controlled the
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