During my English excursion I played two of Alister MacKenzie’s lesser known courses. Afer playing them I wondered what scores I would give them for Golf Digest and what I would rate them according to the Doak scale. While The Confidential guide gave Cavendish a five it noted some exceptional holes.
After playing both I found myself reluctant to rate them in comparison to other courses. Both sites were difficult to work with and the routing on both was exceptional. Both had some ordinary holes. Both had some exceptional holes and both had holes that left you shaking your head and thinking, “I’ve never played a hole like that before”
Reddish Vale is built on a rollicking piece of ground with valleys, crevices, hills, and a stream that meanders in and around the course. As you stand on the first tee, the drive, on this 421 yard hole, looks ordinary and straight forward. Then you get to the ball and look at a frightening second shot over a deep valley to a sloping green. You have now had a taste of what is ahead. Number four is as odd a hole as I’ve ever played. It is 166 yards down hill to a relatively flat green with a sheer bank on the right side of the green and out of bounds, and a ten foot bank, on the fringe of the left side of the hole. The entire ground slopes left and if you hit the ball at the right bank your shot can bound straight left and out of bounds. Mark Rowlinson and I were pretty well convinced that MacKenzie did not put the out of bounds in the original design and we could not understand why it would be there as it was not on a property line. Without the out of bounds it would be a great hole that would demand both precision and touch.
Number six is a 240 yard par three that must have been the inspiration for #4 at Augusta.
It is straight down a sixty foot hill to a relatively benign green.
Nine is a 137 yard par three uphill to devilishly contoured green.
Thirteen is THE HOLE at the club. It is a 456 yard par four where the drive sets up the shot into a sunken green. You just have to see it to believe it. Seventeen is built into a bank in the landing are with a stream on the left It is a cape hole that demands an accurate tee shot to reach the 377 yard green that is fronted by the same stream.
Eighteen maybe one of a kind. This 353 yard finisher plays up the same hill that we played down on #6. There is a local rule that you can actually put the ball on a tee for the second shot when the ground is damp. The reason: the second shop is hit up the entire hill and getting the ball that high is no mean trick. It is a poor ending to a fun 6060 yard par 69. I think the par threes are the strength of the course with a couple of par fours that are exceptional.
Cavendish at an altitude of 1000 feet and is played on a roller coaster sight. The Duke of Devonshire picked the sight and commissioned MacKenzie to design the course in1923. It is said to have “MacKenzie greens.” Doak points out that in England that merely designates two tiered greens. Again, the stand out holes are par threes. The third is a downhill 122 yard beauty that drops of on the left side of the hole. Accuracy is not as much a problem as gauging the distance. The 139 yard ninth is similar except the green is two tiered. My shot ended above the hole about thirty feet. Two putts were only possible if you mad a ten footer coming back. For such a gentle looking hole it turned out to a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Thirteen is kind of a mirror image of Calamity at Portrush while the 116 yard 15th plays lightly downhill hole with a green the slopes abruptly right to left. The tee shot must be played left of the hole because the ground will take it quickly to the right.
The strength of the course is a stretch of par fours 10-12. Ten is the best of the bunch and if there is such a thing as a world class hole, this is it. It is a 422 yard dogleg left that begs you to cut the corner over a steep bank. Miss it and the hole becomes an easy par five because the green sits thirty feet above a stream and solid wall of grass and rock. The green is relatively flat because a severe green would add insult to injury.
Both courses offered a number of false fronts that required very precise distance shots or a chip a two putts if you’re lucky.
The course measures only 5721 yards and is par 68. But if you didn’t know the distance before hand you would swear it was much longer.
If you get the chance to play these and like a little quirkiness and are open minded you’ll come away happy and I guarantee you will remember most of the holes.
At the end of our rounds I think the thing that stuck in Mark’s and my head was the genius that Mackenzie exhibited in routing the courses.