Hi Karl
Great find! I knew absolutely nothing about this as one of MacKenzie's projects until you messaged me and I read the articles you posted here. My initial reaction when I heard MacKenzie and Detroit was that it involved Colt and Alison but given the timeframe and the newspaper mention clearly a Mac solo project. And possibly with Maxwell, or more likely to be built by Wendell Miller.
I found the mention of MacKenzie flying from Pasadena to Chicago very interesting as I can't recall another mention of him ever flying. So this is a first. Will be a nice one to add to the Chronology. Hope you're ok with that, we will credit you as the source.
Seems he left California, and in particular San Francisco, on 7 January 1930, but no mention of Pasadena. Possibly he went from SF down to Pasadena to catch a plane to Chicago, and then on to Detroit. Sometime in mid January he was in Oklahoma City. Then he sailed for Argentina on 24 January from Hoboken NJ. Busy man.
I'm curious though if the 9 hole course was ready for an opening on 27 July 1930 as stated, MacKenzie couldn't have had much involvement in its construction given he returned to England when he left Argentina, and didn't get back to America until 13 June 1930. Perhaps Wendell Miller built in his absence.
Its not that clear from the articles whether the course was to be more than 9 holes. I see the last later article with the lady's recollections says it was to be 27 holes.
Very interesting stuff. Thanks for sharing Karl.