[Neil_Crafter]

In 1914 C H Alison took over writing the 'Golf Gossip' column in The Sunday Times that Bernard Darwin had written since 1910. In one of these articles from 9th August 1914 Alison critiques Mackenzie's Lido Prize winning design and spares nothing!

Alison criticizes the hole's width at around 160 yards and he says:

"it is equally evident that clubs cannot usually devote a breadth of 160 yards for the playing of a single hole. Indeed it seems wildly improbable that any club has or ever will possess a hole which covers such an inordinate amount of space.....it could never be adopted as a model except by a freakish millionaire"

He then goes on to say:

"I cannot help thinking that although Dr. A. Mackenzie has enjoyed recording upon paper such a very well-drawn joke he would never have made it a practical joke by working out his design on a golf course."

ironically, Mackenzie had the last laugh on Alison as Macdonald did indeed build this hole at the Lido course.

One can only imagine how Mackenzie took this criticism and he surely must have remembered it when the two were in their ill-fated post war partnership with Colt. Little wonder it didn't last!

[Sean_A]

Is it a misprint - 160 yards wide?  Was the hole anything close to this width at Lido?

Ciao

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

If the carry from the back tee to the fairway via the direct route (route II) was 190 yds, the width of the fairway looks to be roughly 145 yds.

From an older thread.

Here is the article with comments by Bernard Darwin. Due to the format of the page I have to do a quick stitch of the document so pardon my re-interpretation of MacKenzie's Lido hole! Refer to my original post for the original.

Tully

[Joe Bausch]

Neat stuff Neil. 

Do you know for how long Alison wrote for the Sunday Times?

[Tom_Doak]

Neil:

It is a bit hard to read the article, but I don't read Alison's criticism of the hole as a "slam" of MacKenzie.  He is merely pointing out that such a design is wildly impractical for a real course.  Which is true.  I've always been bothered by the modern reincarnation of the Lido Prize sponsored by the MacKenzie Society, because it seems to reward or even REQUIRE a similar degree of impracticality.

Also, in fact, the hole that was actually built at Lido by Macdonald was a truncated, three-route version of the hole that sadly omitted much of the grandeur and uniqueness of Dr. MacKenzie's design.  It is interesting that Dr. MacKenzie was in the New York area at least twice, but there is no published account of him going to see the hole or his reaction to it.

You also mention that this might have caused bad blood between MacKenzie and Alison, but it was published several years BEFORE their partnership, so presumably it did not cause as much long-term grief as you posit.

[jeffwarne]

Did anyone note the bottom left headline about suggested changes at St. Andrew's

[Will Lozier]

Did anyone note the bottom left headline about suggested changes at St. Andrew's

Straining to read it but very timely!

[Frank Pont]

Not sure how good the interpersonal process skills of Alison were....

I have read in several letters of the time that some of Colt&Co's Dutch clients had a strong preference of Colt and Morisson over Alison. I think I even remember reading something like "a rather unpleasant fellow". But he did design some very fine golf courses, also not unimportant.....

[Neil_Crafter]

Joe
Alison didn't write for the Sunday Times for long, perhaps a year or even less. Drawin stopped I think when he went into the Army, and Alison probably did the same.

Sean
Alison measured it at 160 yards but it looks at least as wide as this, possibly even 175 yards from edge to edge. No, as Tom D states, the Lido hole was truncated somewhat from the original design so it wasn't as wide.

Tom
My headline using "Slam" might have a been a little over the top (as headline writers are wont to do!) but the tone of the article essentially is that the design is fantastical (in the early 20th century meaning of the word) and totally impractical. It is certainly critical of both the design and the judges for selecting it.

As for whether Mackenzie ever saw the Lido course or his hole, I have nothing specific that he visited Lido. However, when in Australia in late 1926 he mentioned the Lido course a couple of times in interviews and articles, saying that they were spending $900,000 to create the sort of features that Royal Adelaide had on their course for free! Whether this can be read as Mackenzie had seen Lido on his first trip to the US in 1926 is a matter for conjecture.

Frank
Thanks for that reference to Alison. Certainly reading the Alison/Morrison letters in Colt & Co, it seems Alison is rather critical of a lot of things, especially his peers. Colt was almost certainly the central figure in the partnership and in all events Mackenzie and Alison probably did not have a huge amount of interaction, although we do know of one or two projects where Alison did inspections in Mackenzie's place when Mackenzie couldn't make a visit as he was tied up elsewhere.

[Sean_A]

Neil

Thanks, thats what I meant, the width of the Lido hole.  I never paid much attention to the Dr Mac drawings for the prize, but its seems hard to believe archies working in the field could ever vote a 160 yard wide fairway as a winner of anything - jeepers, what a croc. 

Ciao

[Bryan Lewis]

Did anyone note the bottom left headline about suggested changes at St. Andrew's

Interesting comments on the 9th.  Evidently they never made those changes.

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