Hi Rich
This is what I have on MacKenzie at Portrush.
And Adam, there were definitely some new bunkers introduced to Portrush to MacKenzie's design ahead of the Irish Open Amateur Championship in September 1919, the evidence is there in the newspaper article in the Belfast Newsletter on 2 September that states clearly that new bunkering had been made to three holes and some others and goes on to describe them.
The inclusion by Dr MacKenzie of Portrush in his 1923 list of courses he had advised is interesting as the club is well-known for the involvement of Harry Colt in the design of its courses. Colt’s tenure at Royal Portrush began in 1923 according to Hawtree, but due to delays in obtaining additional land and securing finances, work on the Dunluce course did not begin until 1928 and then the work took four years to complete.
MacKenzie’s time at Portrush pre-dates Colt’s first involvement by some 4 years, with MacKenzie receiving an invitation from the club to review their course not long after the Armistice, either very late in 1918, or more likely, early in 1919. ‘J. H.,’ the golf writer for the ‘Belfast News-Letter,’ wrote in his column of 18 March 1919 that he had just revisited Portrush after an absence of eight years and described a series of alterations to the course, giving credit for them to the Secretary, Mr Vint. Perhaps the club found the alterations unsatisfactory, as this would seem to coincide with the advent of MacKenzie at Portrush in mid 1919.
Golf writer Anthony Spalding, who before the war wrote a regular golf column for ‘The Guardian’ newspaper in Manchester and reported on a number of MacKenzie’s pre-war design projects, was the writer of a post-war golf column entitled “On the Links Week by Week” for the weekly illustrated newspaper ‘The Sphere.’ Spalding was an impeccable source regarding MacKenzie’s design activities, receiving regular briefings from the Doctor on his projects – MacKenzie was clearly the source of information on a number of his courses that Spalding wrote about on 7 June 1919, including Malone, Dewsbury, Felixstowe, Sutton Coldfield and Grange-over-Sands, as well as a reconstruction project on the Rhosneigr links of the Anglesey club in North Wales.
In a column entitled “New Bunkers at Portrush” in the 23 August 1919 edition, Spalding wrote:
“In some of the Psalms of King David he, referring to some of his enemies, says, “They gnashed on me with their teeth.” And it is possible that after the Irish open amateur championship, to be played at Portrush next month, Dr Alistair Mackenzie, the golf architect, may find in these words a fitting summary of some of the competitors towards him. One is led to make this observation because the Portrush committee has just accepted a scheme designed by Dr Mackenzie for what is virtually a reconstruction of the course.
The plans involve the making of at least seven new greens, most of the existing blind shots will be abolished, new bunkers will be cut and many of the old ones will be either closed or removed. Bunkering is not so much a numerical as a strategical problem; it is not the quantity but the quality or position of bunkers. It is unusual to find an architect closing more bunkers than he intends to create, but Dr Mackenzie recommends that the eight bunkers around the second green should be filled up and a new one cut at the left corner of the green. It is probable that the influence of this new bunker will be greater than the cumulative terror of the existing eight, and that it will impose on a player the necessity of having in his mind a definite plan for playing the hole before he hits his tee shot. Built in the right way and in the right place a bunker produces the old law of cause and effect, a dramatic result sometimes, meaning by drama something in which we witness a tension of the human spirit.”
Clearly Spalding had been listening well to MacKenzie’s design philosophies. He went on:
“Alterations for Championship
The alterations will not be commenced until the close of the season, but at certain holes some of the new bunkers will be cut and possibly some works, such as part of the second bank at the fourth hole, will be removed in order to render the green visible to the player for his intermediate shot. It is, of course, as important to fill up old as to cut new bunkers, but there is some doubt about there being time enough to fill up the whole of the condemned bunkers. Herein lies Dr Mackenzie’s fear – he does not wish competitors who may suffer from a cause over which he has no control to get an impression that he is making golf too difficult, and “to gnash on him with their teeth.” Portrush is one of those courses which are difficult to the average player, but not to the golfer who is better than scratch. The short holes are not impressive; they do not bite into the imagination; there are too many blind shots and blind bunkers. These defects will be removed by reconstruction, and one may contemplate the prospect of a final scheme of holes, which is important to wealthy clubs in these days when labour is so dear.”
Some elements of MacKenzie’s scheme – relating to bunkering - were implemented in time for the Irish (Open) Amateur Championship held in September 1919. A report in the golf column by “J. H.” in the ‘Belfast News-Letter’ on 2 September discussed the course and the upcoming event:
“By this time next week the Irish (Open) Amateur Championship will be in full swing on the famous links of the Royal Portrush Club, an, from what one hears, it will be a record-breaking event – at any rate from the point of view of numbers…..Everyone knows, of course, that some alterations have recently been carried out in the matter of bunkering. Dr Mackenzie’s services were secured, and he has devised a series of new bunkers at the 2nd, 4th, and 15th holes, amongst others, which it is thought will improve their character and make them less open to criticism on the ground of easy approach. At any rate at the 2nd his work will lead to far more care being taken not only with the second shot, but with the drive, for, from tee to green, the player will have to place his shots with a greater degree of care than was hitherto necessary.
Take the fourth for example. In the days of the gutta ball that was a really first-class hole, requiring two good thumps and an iron or mashie shot to get home. Nowadays the long hitters can reach it in two, or, if they don’t get up in two, they have only a little chip for their third. Thus the character of the hole has been altered, and – as many think – spoiled, for it was meant to be a three-shot hole, and the nature of the ground suggests that it should be a three-shot hole. What I am wondering is: How will the long hitters regard the bunker which Dr Mackenzie has put plump in the middle of the gap through which their second shot used sometimes to run? Here is a perfect example of the resistance to the new craze for length.”
What else was implemented after the championship? I don't know the answer to this question yet.
It would be many years before Portrush would have a final scheme for its course, in fact courses, and it would not be at the hand of Dr MacKenzie, but by that of his former partner, Harry Colt. Spalding concluded:
“Certain professionals are endeavouring to alarm the amateur by condemning the golf architect’s schemes. They suggest that the average player is already leading a more or less troglodyte sort of existence, and if the architect is allowed to have his way he will soon be burrowing his way from the tee to the putting green. The fact is that when the alterations at Portrush are completed the course will be fairer and easier to players of average skill, nor will they make the game a disagreeably scientific penance even for the best amateurs.”