Alwoodley Golf Club, Leeds
Leeds, England
The Wigton Moor Whin provides an attractive backdrop to several holes. Much of Alwoodley's interior is an open heathland subject to bracing breezes off the Yorkshire Moors.
Dr. Alister MacKenzie claimed that Alwoodley and Moortown wereas important to the north of England as Sunningdale and Woking were to the south – and he was right.
When construction at Alwoodley started in the winter of 1907, inland golf course architecturein England was ordinaryand fellwell short of producing thehazards/challenges that made links golf at such courses as Deal and St. George’s so inspiring.
As detailed by Tom MacWood in Arts & Crafts, inland bunker and green designs were geometric and rudimentary. Hazards looked forced upon the landscape and even worse, their placement lacked strategic merit. Squared-off, flat putting surfaces completedthe dreary picture of inland golf.
The few noted exceptionsincluded the think-tank at Woking and Willie Park’s work at Sunningdale Old and Huntercombe. Herbert Fowler’s Old Course at Walton Heath was the first course specifically designed with the Haskell ball in mind and it too marked a great step forward in inland architecture whenthe Great Triumvirate(Braid, Taylor and Vardon)opened it in 1904.
Starting with Stuart Paton’s placement of the central hazard in the 4th fairway at Woking in 1901 and culminating in the 1930s with West Sussex, an astonishing number of superb holes and inland courseswere createdthroughout England. However, few could have guessed what was to come in 1907.
Typical examples of uninspired architecture could be found at Headingley Golf Club and Leeds Golf Club, both of which Alister MacKenzie was a member. According to Tom Doak in his book The Life and Work of Dr. Alister MacKenzie, the young doctor was notreticent about voicing his concerns abouteach design to the respective greencommittees.
Though little heed was paid to thethirty-five year old, MacKenzie nonetheless tooktothe study of golf course architecture as a hobby. When the opportunity presented itself with a group of local businessmen to build a new course, MacKenzie and his good friend and fellow architecture enthusiast Arthur Sykes pounced quickly.
The group of founding members for Alwoodley must surely have been impressed by the strength of MacKenzie’s convictions and design thoughts. Nonetheless, they called in Harry Shapland Colt to offer his valued opinion. Though Colt’s best work was yet tocome for several years at such designs as Swinley Forest and St. George’s Hill, he (along with Willie Park and Herbert Fowler)wasconsidered the preeminent architect of thetime, in large part because of his active role as Secretary at the prestigious Sunningdale Golf Club.Nick Leefe, current Chairman of the Greens at Alwoodley, notes that ‘I too have to obtain the best available professionaladvice (agronomy/ecology) if I wish to make any alterations, which might affect the way the course is played. Nothing has changed.’
Colt walked the property and even stayed at MacKenzie’s house.Colt largely agreed with the routing and general layout that MacKenzie had already devised. Indeed, MacKenzie’s hand drawn routing of the course complete with notes is still proudly in the club’s possession today.
By great fortune, the winter of 1907 was a ‘wet and unpleasant’ one. Colt had returned to London and of the committee in charge of building the course, only Arthur Sykes, MacKenzie and the green keeper ventured out onto the course in the poor weather. Thus, according to MacKenzie, ‘we were able to disregard their views entirely and make the course exactly as we wished.’
When the course opened for play in the summer of 1907, it represented astunning advancementin inland golf course architecture, as we see below.
Holes to Note
Third hole, 515 yards; Like the 6th hole at Piping Rock on Long Island in the United States, the day’s hole locationmakes a marked difference inhow tricky the holeplays.Played across the heath, the right half of the green is an extension of the putting surface. When the hole is located here, theplay of the hole is fairly straightforward and the tiger golfer is keen to card a ‘4′. However, the hole becomes much morevexing when the hole location is moved left into a natural depression. The golfer must now position his second shot down the far right of the fairway to gain the advantageous angle into the left half of the green; otherwise, his approach must carry directly over the heather and fescues. As the hole generally plays downwind, clearing the rough stuff and stopping the ball quickly can be problematic.
The right half of the third green is an extension of the fairway. The left half, much of which is obscured in the photograph above, is down in a hollow.
Fourth hole, 480 yards; Alwoodley has the reputation as being amongst the best conditioned courses in the United Kingdom. However, unlike in the United States where that distinction is often horribly misused and refers to courses that are extremely green and artifical in appearance, in this case, best conditioned means providing the golfer with fast and true playing surfaces. The greens are alwayssuperb and the fairways provide a uniform playing surface. As the playing conditions relate to this hole, the 4th is the only hole on the front that plays in a westerly direction. As such, it is often into the wind, providing the golfer with a glimpse of how tough his task shall be as he heads in from the 13th. On one such day, the authorwitnessed a low rolling hook shot from 200 plus yard out and the sight ofthe ballrunning fast and true down the fairway for the last 50 yards before coming to rest on the green wasa testimony to theoutstanding playing attributes that the sandy soil at Alwoodley provides for its membersyear around. The ground game at Alwoodley provides all class players with numerous playing options, hole after hole, and this variety helps elevate Alwoodley relative to many of MacKenzie’s later works in the United States.
As seen down the fourth, Alwoodley occupies an acidic heathland and is justly famed for its tight springy fairways. The fairway even looks 'fast' in the photograph above.
The beautiful fourth green complex is pictured above. To its left is the shared tee complex for the fifth and seventeenth tees. The sixteenth green is behind the heather and gorse on the far side of the fourth green. All in all, MacKenzie showed great routing flair within this 75 yard area of the property.
Fifth hole, 370 yards; No architect has ever built more appealing holes in the 350 to 400 yard range than Alister MacKenzie. The list of truly world class holes is unmatched. Ranging from the 9th at Lahinch to the 5th at Crystal Downs to the 13th at Cypress Point to the 3rd on the West Course at Royal Melbourne, the list goes on and on.The 5th at Alwoodley is just such a hole.
One of inland golf's glorious views can be found from the elevated fifth tee. Note how the sharp left to right slope of the fairway often dictates an approach...
...over this string of bunkers that protrude from the right front of the green.
Sixth hole, 420 yards; The Old Course at St. Andrews was far and away MacKenzie’s favourite golf course (or at least his favourite that he didn’t design!). One of its attributes is the mix of views that the golfer is given from the tee: sometimes all is in sight; sometimesonly aportion of the fairway can beglimpsed andother times,even less than that. However, the golfer is always given the option of trying to accomplish something in order to make his next shot easier. That same philosophy is captured here at the 6th. The easier to hit – but less advantageous – right portion of the fairway is in view from the tee. The level left side of the fairway makes forthe shorter way home and providesalevel stance. However, gorse obscures much of it from the tee and trouble in the form of heather and gorsecontinues down the left of the fairway. The golfer is free to decide: should he take the risk off the tee and go left for the sake of a better approach orplay the safer tee ball right and face thetougher approach?
The sixth fairway bleeds away to the right but the most level stance for one's approach shot is found along the left portion of the fairway, much of which is partly to mostly obscured by gorse.
Seventhole, 145 yards; Wind is a key factor at Alwoodleyand as such, finding a hole of this length becomes especially a delight.Golf at the highest level is about controlling the flight of the ball invaried winds and when presented with a hole of this length, agolfer is often made keenly aware thathe lacksthe ability to control the ball lowover such a short distance. MacKenzie’s 11th at Lahinch is another such hole.
Though modest in length, the seventh is deceptive. At 36 paces, the green is the deepest on the course and yet the bunkers actually come out to 'greet' the golfer: the right center bunker pictured above is 25 yards from the front edge of the green and the left and right bunker behind it are prior to the putting surface as well. The overall effect is one of visual trickery and only the man that trusts in the yardages will fly a ball past the front middle of the green. A brisk wind adds to the challenge.
Eighth hole, 535 yards; MacKenzie was a huge fan of dogleg holes as they required ‘judgment and headwork.’ Placing a bunker in the direct line forces all players to play to one side or the other and MacKenzie wasone of the first to truly embrace this design philosophy.
The three shot 8th swings to the left 140 yards from the green, which is exactly where Colt and MacKenzie agreed to place this oblong shaped bunker.