What became of Alister MacKenzie's new course at Troon? It was used as the qualifying site for the '23 Open and was considered somewhat controverial because of its difficulty. In the few pictures I've seen of it, the course appears to be relatively flat with MacKenzie's trademark bold bunkers and greens.

Rich
Are you certain MacKenzie said Troon Portland was better? Have MacKenzie's typical bold bunkers and greens survived?

Tom -

MacK did indeed say that his Portland was better than the Championship course at Troon. On past threads, people from the UK have speculated that it may have suffered from neglect during and after WWII and is not now what it once was.

Bob

What was the Sarazen connection with Portland? Did he have a bad qualifying round there in '23 and criticized the course?

If so, it is an interesting precursor to Sarazen's criticism of ANGC some 15 years later. I'm starting to think Sarazen was a bit of a clodhopper when it came to gca.

Is Portland where the Sarazen/Mack animus started?

Bob

Bob
Sarazen came over to qualify for the 1923 Open and laid an egg at Troon Portland. No doubt this is where the ill feelings began. Sarazen was also on the US Ryder Cup team that was upset at Moortown in 1929.

Rich
I believe you have mis-read MacKenzie's explanation. He was not tooting his own horn IMO, but simply explaining away Sarazen's complaints. "The majority of men who are enamored with the Old Course at St. Andrews will admire the New Course at Troon, and those who dislike St. Andrews (and they are a gradually decreasing number) will continue to criticize it."

I have no idea when the New course changed its name to Portland. All I know is that in 1923 MacKenzie said the old course (which was destroyed during WWI) was known as the 'relief course', and he referred to Portland as the New course.

In 1925 Darwin called it both the No.2 course and Portland. He said "according to some people , is still better, and is almost certainly more difficult."

I supect the course you played is a mere shadow of the course MacKenzie, Sarazen and Darwin faced.

Rich
I was looking over at the Royal Troon website and it is obvious MacKenzie's bold bunkering did not survive. I wonder about his greens as well since they were the object of some of the most severe criticism.

Funny thing the website has no mention of the relief course being destroyed during WWI or Alister MacKenzie....maybe you should shoot them an e-mail.

Tom,

I would tend to agree with Rich on the topic of the Portland course since he has been there and done that and with everything that I have seen of the course.  In what I have found Mackenzie was more than willing to tilt anything that could be subjective in nature towards whatever view would help to inflate either his ego or his reputation.  An example follows of this habit.  

In my research on Maxwell I found several comments by Mackenzie about a course in Oklahoma that he visited that was constructed by Maxwell.  He was quoted as saying the course was far superior to three courses he had heard so much about before seeing them on his journeys in America.  The three courses he felt were inferior were Garden City, The Lido and The National Golf Links.  The course he thought was superior was Twin Hills.  So I would always take Mackenzie's matters of opinion with a block of salt.  

Now Twin Hills is a very nice course with some excellent holes and a very superb routing for the site, but I would never classify it as being in the rarified air of those other three.  It is without a doubt that that Mackenzie was trying to inflate the reputation of someone that was soon going to be his partner in business.  In talking with a relative of Maxwell's that also met Mackenzie, they thought Mackenzie was a very nice man with a bit of bravado but wasn't afraid to add any puffery to comments.    

Basically what I'm getting at is that just because a course was done by an architect and they say it is an excellent course doesn't really make it so, even if it is a course done by one of the heroes that so many on this site bow down to every night.