That Alister MacKenzie, and apparently on his own, figured out how to transpose something as diverse to golf and golf architecture as a particular form of military trench design is part of the reason the man has always been at the top of my list as the best, or at least the most brilliant, golf course architect ever!
However, I have always felt that some of the credit for what Mackenzie did in that vein should go to the Boers themselves for devising such a brilliant and effective military trench concept and in their confrontation with arguably one of the greatest military forces in the history of the world. It went a long way to allowing them to fight perhaps the most powerful military force in the world at the time to something less than a victory for the British and perhaps ultimately a pyrrhic victory at that.
Perhaps what Mackenzie's use in golf architecture from his observations of Boer military trench design should ultimately be called is "Guerrilla Golf Architecture."
