Dr. Mackenzie in South America, Montevideo and Buenos Aires

[Jeffrey Stein]

I’ve spent the last two months living and working in Punta del Este, Uruguay and took some time to visit 3 courses where Dr. Mackenzie worked way back when.  Club de Golf del Uruguay, Campo de Golf de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, and Jockey Club.  I’ve been lucky and dogged enough in the last few years to visit his courses in Michigan, California, Australia/New Zealand, and now Uruguay and Argentina.

First Stop: 
Club de Golf del Uruguay (renovated/re-routed by Mackenzie, 1930)
Punta Carretas, Montevideo, Uruguay

A sporty track with several short par 4's (from the tips…322y, 349, 325, 304, 338), average length par 3’s  and 5’s.  All the greens are boldly elevated, back to front and well guarded by interesting/arty bunker horizons.  Some of the par 5’s are reachable but not all have a way to run a ball up the front.     The course sits on a promontory above the harbor and gently slopes towards the water.  The routing takes the golfer in all directions up,down, and side to side exploiting ocean views all around.

I found the drainage ditches in front of several of the lower lying greens to be one of the interesting elements found in the context of golden age design and construction.  These drainage swales created some strategic choices on the reachable par 5’s and 4's, risking a tricky chip opposed to laying back with a full wedge….The bunkers were all fairly shallow with convex outside edges (to shed water above the heavy clay soils, no doubt)

An interesting fact about the club is that the local government requires the grounds to be open to the public at 2pm on Sundays.  No golf but I did see some children romping in the sand traps, runners and picknickers.  Probably a horror at most private clubs in the US, everything seems a little more relaxed down here.  On Monday morning the golf course is open for play to the public all day for no charge!  I walked the whole course Sunday afternoon, but played holes 9-18 (x2) on Monday as the front nine was closed for maintanence.  On with the pictures!



Hoyo 4 --Par 4
349y/332/314

View from the back


Hoyo 5--Par 5
498y/460/449
Tee shot

5 green, notice the drainage ditch from right to left in front of green


Hoyo 7--Par 4
366y/355/301
Approach after sharp dog leg right


Hoyo 8--Par 4
325y/311/299
Drainage ditch in front of 8 green


Hoyo 9--Par 5
518y/504/484
2nd shot


Hoyo 11--Par 3
169y/156/147
Tee shot

Don't be fooled, this green is pushed up big time!


Hoyo 13--Par 4
381y/344/325
Tee shot, this is the limit of the property with a fairway sloping heavily from right to left and allows a running approach if needed

Green site, green also slopes hard right to left, back to front


Hoyo 14--Par 5
533y/518/455
Green site


Hoyo 15--Par 4
304y/296/291
A little devil of a par 4, long/mid iron off the tee is the best bet, just ask me why I tried to hook 3w twice?!

Approach


Hoyo 18--Par 4
395y/390/ 359
Approach to 18 green from the wrong side of the fairway, tricky approach

Behind 18 Green


Campo de Golf de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires coming next...

[David_Tepper]

Jeff S. -

Congrats on the good work and thanks for posting these pics. Some very interesting features there. Looking forward to more.

DT

[Tom_Doak]

Jeff:

The course looks better than I remember it from 15 years ago ... looks like they have a little more $ for maintenance now.

However, I was very disappointed to find out that they had rebuilt all the greens about 1990, and flattened many of them.  You could still see evidence of the work 3-4 years afterward when I was there -- the line across the mounds at the back of the green where the putting surface used to tie in.  In many cases it was a foot or two up the banks.

[Michael Wharton-Palmer]

Like Tom, I was dissapointed when I went to the Jockey Club last year to see very little of the Mackenzie look on the green complexes.
I was so excited to be there, but the course did not live up to my desire of what I hoped it would be.
Great club , lovely people,but the course, not what it perhaps  once was.

[Carl Nichols]

Jeffrey:
Thanks for this tour; looking forward to the others.  (My wife was born in Argentina and I've spent a lot of time playing golf around Buenos Aires and in Uruguay.)

How did you find the beaches in Punta del Este?   

PS:  Michael W-P, Tom D's comment is about Club de Golf de Uruguay, not Jockey Club.   

[Jeffrey Stein]

Tom:

Interesting observation, I can't say any discernible evidence is left today as everything is very well maintained and the style of mounding around the greens seemed to be fairly consistent throughout.  I would have never know otherwise.  Some greens are rather one dimensional, slightly back to front or side to side, but there were two or three multi-tiered putting surfaces that worked very well using external contours pronouncing themselves from the edges in to the middle.

Carl:  You are a lucky man to be married to an Argentinian woman, they were all so beautiful in BA I had trouble remembering which direction I should be walking!  The beaches in Punta del Este are plentiful, clean, and filled with friendly people on vacation, its been a nice experience down here.

Will be getting to my next stop at the public track in Buenos Aires asap...

[Jeffrey Stein]

My first full day visiting Buenos Aires I made my way to the city's public course El Campo de Golf de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires  Its a mouth-full...I paid 30 Argentinia Pesos for my round of golf, that is all of $6.84 USD.  The course is within the city limits and was a short cab ride from the city center.

The property is completely flat, well used and a bit raggedy.  I found it to be on par with the conditions of the NYC courses I grew up playing in Staten Island (but with bermuda grass).  The golf course features a Mackenzie heritage where he re-routed the course after the city added an adjacent parcel of land.  There are back to back double greens on the front nine 2/9 and 3/16!  This surprised me, as well as a double tee in the middle of the back nine.  I'll also never forget the shocker of a par-3 with 50 foot trees directly in front of the tee.  I barely got my 8-iron over and onto the green.  Anything less than perfect is in jail!  Other than the two double greens and the par 3 10th, the greens were not particularly special.  The real challenge lies in narrow openings to approach the greens which are guarded by shallow bunkers.

Kinda' funky for a public track, which seems to serve the city very well.

Opening hole approach


Double Green 2/9

9th Hole Approach


Double Green 3/16

16th Hole approach


5th Hole Par 3 188y/170/140 Challenging tee shot


7th Hole Par 3 170y/155/94
A schocker! The middle and forward tees are around the other side with no obstruction.


10th Hole Par 3 170y/160/135
Really enjoyed the visual effect of the city looming over the trees


12th Hole Par 4 405y/321/307 Approach

Behind 12th green


14th and 18th greens


18th Hole Par 4 379y/369/352 Green site


Next stop Jockey Club!