Alister MacKenzie

Dr Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was born near Leeds in Yorkshire, England, to parents of Scottish extraction. Eventually, he became a golf course architect whose course designs span four continents.

MacKenzie was originally trained as a surgeon and served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War. It was during this time that he first became aware of the principles of camouflage, which he saw as closely related to golf course design.

Following World War I, MacKenzie left medicine and in1919 began to work instead as a golf course designer, in association with Harry Colt and Charles Alison, with whom he formed the firm of Colt, MacKenzie & Alison.

Four years later MacKenzie, who eventually became a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, went his own way. He is responsible for more than 50 golf courses including three that remain ranked in the top golf layouts in the world: Augusta National Golf Club and Cypress Point Club in the United States, and Royal Melbourne Golf Club’s West Course in Australia.

In his first book on course design, MacKenzie wrote, "there is an extraordinary resemblance between what is now known as the camouflage of military earthworks and golf-course construction… the chief object of every golf course architect worth his salt is to imitate the beauties of nature so closely as to make his work indistinguishable from nature itself.”

Website: https://alistermackenzie.co.uk/