MacKenzie green

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Did Alister MacKenzie invent the so-called MacKenzie green?  

[ed_getka]

I'm not familiar with Mackenzie greens as a term, but I have heard of Maxwell greens.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Mark,

Wasn't it that during the 1920s golfers throughout England would label any two-tier green a "MacKenzie green"?

I recall the Good Doctor was confused about this, 'cause he claimed to have not built any such greens.  

[ed_battye]

Did MacKenzie not get his inspiration from the ladies putting green at St. Andrews?

Do people also wrongly imply that a simple two-tierd green is a 'MacKenzie' when infact it isn't?? ..... My understanding is that his style of green is one with many natural sweeping undulations with several flat(ish) places for pin positions.

[ForkaB]

Mackenzie's Pitreavie is full of two (and three) tiered greens.  He must have forgotten them.......

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I'm afraid most British golfers still call a MacKenzie green anything in two or three tiers, very often as crude as two flat areas with a ramp in between.  

Certainly there was nothing so crude at Alwoodley when he laid it out and even then the greens were big with lots of complexities.  I think I once wrote that there was nothing so crude as a Mackenzie green at Alwoodley, but we recently found an old photo of the 16th green and there is a definite step in it (and you can work out where it was today from the green-side mounding).  Mind you, it has other complexities beyond the step.

[Sébastien Dhaussy]

Andy Levett has called his blog "MacKenzie greens". He gave a little explanation on this expression in one of his first post : http://mackenziegreens.blogspot.com/2004/11/why-mackenzie-greens.html

I like his blog but unfortunately the last post is from march 2005.

[BCrosby]

The term was initially meant derogatorily. As in, "Yes, it is a good hole except it has a MacKenzie green."

MacK's early greens were extremely wild and very controversial.

Later, much like the transformation of the meaning of "The Big Bang" in physics, the term became a point of pride for MacK.

Bob  

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Sebastien,

Thanks for that link - I hadn't seen it before.  He sums up the English view of MacK very well.

(Sorry, I don't have e-acute on this)

Mark.