- Its all down to Dr Alister Mackenzie and his passion for Golf Architecture.
This week has just seen a tremendous fight-back win for golfer Rory McIlroy in the US Masters.
From a head to head play off with fellow golfer Justin Rose, Rory came through to win the 2025 tournament. And after a gap of 11 years, McIlroy has finally won all 4 major tournaments in the golfing world.
So why did the news presenter mention Rory’s win had something to do with Teignmouth in Devon? Well there lies an interesting tale..
Rory.
Lets start with Rory – an Irish golfer from a hard working family, who took two jobs to kick start their son’s golf career. They chaperoned the young golfer between courses for junior matches. And there he stood, on Sunday 13 April, 2025, wearing his green Masters jacket for the first time. He was truly overcome by emotion.
Augusta
The Masters tournament is held at Augusta, Georgia – at the Augusta National Golf Club. And this championship course showcases the many great features of its designers – Dr Alistair Mackenzie and his business partner Bobby Jones, who were the architects of this great course in 1933.
To this day Mackenzie’s course design features are talked about by Golf Commentators.
And this Augusta- class design is also found at Teignmouth – a course also designed by Dr Mackenzie some nine years earlier.
Alistair
Alistair Mackenzie was a bit of a god in the golfing world. So much so that the society in his name documents all the courses he designed in his career. And there are over 50 of them.
Alistair Mackenzie was the typical golfer you would imagine – often pictured with broad, bushy moustache, of stocky set, wearing a flat cap , waistcoat and plus fours. Born in 1870 near Leeds, in Yorkshire, he packed a lot into his life, before a death too soon at the age of 63.
Mackenzie was a bright young man, a member of Gonville and Caius College, whilst studying at Cambridge to become a surgeon. As a medical physician he was posted with troops in the Boer war. Here he saw the benefits of camouflage in keeping the men safe.
In WW1, Mackenzie worked purely on camouflage aspects, maximising the benefits of natural cover and deceptive features to look after the troops.
And it is said these camouflage principles showed themselves in Mackenzie’s golf course design in the later years of his career; in his book titled “ Golf Architecture” . Mackenzie brought up the link between camouflage of military earth works and golf design. He would hide tricky bunkers , that suddenly appeared to trick the player. And looking back down the course, the design often meant these sandpits were camouflaged out of sight.
As a young man in his 20’s, Alistair had developed a passion for golf, playing the courses around his home town of Leeds. He was a pretty average kind of player , only really turning the corner in his golfing talent when he was past 50. It was only then that he was able to bring his handicap down with good ball striking .
Mackenzie had never been a leading player , and yet was a leading course designer.
He became a founder member of one important club – Alwoodley – in 1907. And it was here that his first course design came to life . Design ideas were put to practical test. The Committee got twitchy that Mackenzie was getting carried away, and called in designer Henry Colt to keep things measured and practical.
50 Golf Courses
Colt, in fact, only visited Alwoodley twice – and backed MacKenzie’s ideas – particularly the young man’s views on bunkering and how this adapted to the modern Haskell wound ball. As a result, Mackenzie developed his signature style of golf course architecture, which came to stand him in good stead around the world, including Augusta and Teignmouth.
He has since become known for the design of more than 50 golf courses around the world, from links courses on the Isle of Man to the Royal Troon in Scotland and courses in Brisbane and Melbourne, Australia. He soon left the life of a surgeon for one of golf course design .
The Teignmouth Course
And so to Teignmouth – it’s an 18-hole moorland links course, with views along the South Devon coast. It opened in 1924, with six par 3s and 11 “signature” two tier, undulating, greens, together with spectacular, free form bunker shapes. The manmade quarries of Teignmouth are interwoven into the design of the course. The 16th hole, which is a par three, is called “ Hell’s Mouth”. Not too hard, you may think, except the green slopes away from the hole and you can soon loose your ball.
In these early days, designers were sensitive to the original, undeveloped site, since there was no massive earth moving capacity for the early Victorian designers. And so this course design over Haldon Moor initially met with scepticism by the locals.
But some of the Dr’s best holes can be found at Teignmouth – with the characteristic trademark features – the greens are laid out with slopes and humps on three sides. Many greens are stepped too. And the differing par holes allow for a variety of shots .
These design ideas translated right from Augusta and opened up opportunity to experience Augusta thinking back in Devon.
Despite all this breathtaking design, Mackenzie never got to play his Augusta project; he sadly died two months before the inaugural Masters Tournament took place. However his great golfing design legacy remains to this day.