[Neil_Crafter]

Cornish and Whitten credit the Harold Lloyd short course in Beverley Hills to Mackenzie which is incorrect - its a Billy Bell design as Geoff Shackelford showed in his excellent article on Lloyd's course in Links magazine of Jan-Feb 2004 - and they also credit the Charlie Chaplin short course to Mackenzie. Sean Tully has also found an article that suggests Mackenzie may have designed a short course for Douglas Fairbanks at the "Pickfair" estate. First to Chaplin.

CHAPLIN COURSE
Chaplin built a home on Summit Drive, close to "Pickfair" the Fairbanks/Pickford estate, at the urging of his good friends Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford. Chaplin's home was completed in 1923  at 1085 Summit Drive, located on a six and a half acre lot, just below Pickfair, with Harold Lloyd's Greenacres just below that. So all three homes were closeby.

Despite a lot of searching I have not been able to find anything at all that confirms Chaplin even had a private course on his estate, let alone that it was Mackenzie that designed it. My enquiries to the Chaplin Museum have fallen on deaf ears. I thought I'd throw this out on GCA and see if there is anyone out there with any information or suggestions as how to proceed.

FAIRBANKS COURSE
Fairbanks was a mad keen golfer who once played in the British Amateur. Mackenzie and Fairbanks certainly knew each other as evidenced by the photo of them together at Pasatiempo. I have found a book reference that indicated there was a "miniature golf course" at Pickfair, but exactly what this constituted I don't know. In October 1926 it was announced that Fairbanks had purchased an 800 acre rancho in the hills of San Diego county at Rancho Santa Fe and the newspaper article indicated that Fairbanks would build a private golf course there. Was this course built and did Mackenzie design it? That remains to be confirmed. Any ideas?

AUGUSTA SHORT COURSE & SAN FRANCISCO SHORT COURSE
In David Owen's "The Making of the Masters", Owen writes that Mackenzie originally wanted to  build a 9 hole "approach and putt" course around 400 to 500 yards long at Augusta and quoted from a 1932 letter by Mackenzie to Wendell Miller, "There is, as far as I know, no interesting approach and putt course in America. A really good one requires as much thought and planning as a full course. All those I have seen are terrible. I am just constructing one here (San Francisco) which I hope will be most fascinating."

According to Owen, Mackenzie in 1933 drew plans for an 18 hole short course at Augusta of 2460 yards, with a longest hole of 190 yards and the shortest of 60. The course was never built. Has anybody heard of this outside of Owen's book and does ANGC still have Mackenzie's plans for the course I wonder?

As to what Mackenzie's short course project in San Francisco was I don't know, except he did say it was under construction in 1932. If so, there must be some information out there about this project. I know Sean will eventually get to 1932 in his laborious microfilm searching of the SF newspapers that are not digitally searchable yet unfortunately.

Mackenzie also says in the letter to Miller that he knows of no interesting approach and putt course in the US - this would seem to be pretty clear evidence that he had not done one before the SF project - and that he had not designed short courses for Chaplin and Fairbanks otherwise he would have surely mentioned them.

Looking forward to any input.

[David Stamm]

FAIRBANKS COURSE
Fairbanks was a mad keen golfer who once played in the British Amateur. Mackenzie and Fairbanks certainly knew each other as evidenced by the photo of them together at Pasatiempo. I have found a book reference that indicated there was a "miniature golf course" at Pickfair, but exactly what this constituted I don't know. In October 1926 it was announced that Fairbanks had purchased an 800 acre rancho in the hills of San Diego county at Rancho Santa Fe and the newspaper article indicated that Fairbanks would build a private golf course there. Was this course built and did Mackenzie design it? That remains to be confirmed. Any ideas?

 

Neil, the land you speak is what is known today as Fairbanks Ranch, a "newer" area of Rancho Santa Fe. It's where Dyes's The Farms at Rancho Santa Fe resides. I'm not sure where the course might have been, if it had been built. I can do some digging and see what I find.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Neil have you thought about going on the internet and asking a bunch of sad obsessives who worship old dead guys?


http://www.charliechaplin.com/

[Bill_McBride]

Speaking of short courses in California, does anyone know anything about the design of the now NLE pitch and putt behind the Awahnee Hotel at Yosemite?  Not the nine holes at Wawona, but a short course right between the hotel and the Merced River. 

It was a lot of fun, and featured holes from maybe 70 yards to 130 yards for nine holes.   Most of the greens were tiny and had raised bunker lips on both sides of the greens.   It had a professional appearance so I wonder who was the architect.  It's been gone for a very long time, I saw it during a visit in the late '50s, so gone for 50 years.

[Neil_Crafter]

Neil have you thought about going on the internet and asking a bunch of sad obsessives who worship old dead guys?


http://www.charliechaplin.com/

Tony, I thought I'd already done that?!!

Seriously though, if you read my initial post I indicated that I had emailed (twice in fact) the Chaplin Museum people who had not bothered to reply. I will try this other website and see if I have any luck there at all.

Bill
I vaguely recall some conjecture that Mackenzie might have been involved with the Awahnee course, as was the conjecture he was involved at Wawona which was apparently incorrect. You played there in the late 50's Bill? That's the part of the decade I was born in!

Apparently the Awahnee course was pulled up in the late 1970's. This is what I found out about Awahnee and Wawona from the internet:

AWAHNEE
"Kim Porter's life has been about preservation, about saving something good. So when he heard the National Park Service would do away with the Awahnee golf course, he found a way to keep it. "I took the greens from Awahnee and put them in here at the Wawona Golf Course," said Porter, the superintendent at Wawona, a man who has given new meaning to the term "greenskeeper."

WAWONA
"Clarence Washburn hired golf course architect Walter Fovargue in 1917. The nine-hole golf course was dedicated in June of 1918 with Peter Hay raising a flag which fronts the circular fountain at the entry to Wawona. The first golf course in the Sierra Nevada was born. Fovargue was a very good golfer who won the Northwest Open in Seattle in 1917. The previous year he finished third behind U.S. Open champion Fred McLeod and JJ McDermitt in a national championship at Augusta CC, and shot 299 to finish high at the U.S. Open in Minnesota at Minikahda Club, won by Chick Evans. In-depth research of Fovargue reveals that he collaborated with William P. Bell as the original architects of Lakeside Country Club in San Francisco, which was purchased in 1922 by The Olympic Club and eventually hosted four U.S. Opens. Local legend has Alister MacKenzie involved with the Wawona Golf Course. The Washburn family was known to socialize with the Del Monte and Hay family of Pebble Beach fame, a social circle that included MacKenzie and Fovargue. Peter Hay, namesake of the 9-hole course at Pebble Beach, was the first golf professional at Wawona. MacKenzie may have looked at the plans for Wawona, but this course belonged to Fovargue."

David
Yes I have read that Fairbanks ranch was divided up and a new course built there in recent years. I could not find anything about a Fairbanks course beyond that 1926 article that said he planned to build a private course there. If one was built, no need for it to have been a short course given he had 800 acres to play with. Appreciate anything you can find.

Thanks all
Neil

[Bill_McBride]

Neil have you thought about going on the internet and asking a bunch of sad obsessives who worship old dead guys?


http://www.charliechaplin.com/

Tony, I thought I'd already done that?!!

Seriously though, if you read my initial post I indicated that I had emailed (twice in fact) the Chaplin Museum people who had not bothered to reply. I will try this other website and see if I have any luck there at all.

Bill
I vaguely recall some conjecture that Mackenzie might have been involved with the Awahnee course, as was the conjecture he was involved at Wawona which was apparently incorrect. You played there in the late 50's Bill? That's the part of the decade I was born in!

Apparently the Awahnee course was pulled up in the late 1970's. This is what I found out about Awahnee and Wawona from the internet:

AWAHNEE
"Kim Porter's life has been about preservation, about saving something good. So when he heard the National Park Service would do away with the Awahnee golf course, he found a way to keep it. "I took the greens from Awahnee and put them in here at the Wawona Golf Course," said Porter, the superintendent at Wawona, a man who has given new meaning to the term "greenskeeper."

WAWONA
"Clarence Washburn hired golf course architect Walter Fovargue in 1917. The nine-hole golf course was dedicated in June of 1918 with Peter Hay raising a flag which fronts the circular fountain at the entry to Wawona. The first golf course in the Sierra Nevada was born. Fovargue was a very good golfer who won the Northwest Open in Seattle in 1917. The previous year he finished third behind U.S. Open champion Fred McLeod and JJ McDermitt in a national championship at Augusta CC, and shot 299 to finish high at the U.S. Open in Minnesota at Minikahda Club, won by Chick Evans. In-depth research of Fovargue reveals that he collaborated with William P. Bell as the original architects of Lakeside Country Club in San Francisco, which was purchased in 1922 by The Olympic Club and eventually hosted four U.S. Opens. Local legend has Alister MacKenzie involved with the Wawona Golf Course. The Washburn family was known to socialize with the Del Monte and Hay family of Pebble Beach fame, a social circle that included MacKenzie and Fovargue. Peter Hay, namesake of the 9-hole course at Pebble Beach, was the first golf professional at Wawona. MacKenzie may have looked at the plans for Wawona, but this course belonged to Fovargue."

David
Yes I have read that Fairbanks ranch was divided up and a new course built there in recent years. I could not find anything about a Fairbanks course beyond that 1926 article that said he planned to build a private course there. If one was built, no need for it to have been a short course given he had 800 acres to play with. Appreciate anything you can find.

Thanks all
Neil

Neil, born in 1942, a pre-boomer!  I've been playing for over 50 years with little or no improvement since the year I started.

If they took all the turf from the greens at Ahwanee and moved it to Wawona, there might have been enough for two greens at Wawona, that's how small the greens were at Ahwanee.  It was pretty much a gin and tonic giggle for the hotel guests, but a lovely little thing.

I can't say I could see any of the routing genius of Mackenzie at Wawona, it's really a pretty mundane if pretty course through the meadow and up into the woods.

[TEPaul]

Neil Crafter:

Even though it's pretty hard for me to follow because I don't know that much about Mackenzie's courses (even though I consider him to be perhaps the best architect ever) I am extremely impressed by this highly detailed and comprehensive investigation you are making on him, his career and his courses!!

[Bill_McBride]

Neil Crafter:

Even though it's pretty hard for me to follow because I don't know that much about Mackenzie's courses (even though I consider him to be perhaps the best architect ever) I am extremely impressed by this highly detailed and comprehensive investigation you are making on him, his career and his courses!!

Tom, you need to get out of the Philly/NYC area and make a Mackenzie tour of California - it would be the most fun you've had playing golf, that was the genius of Mackenzie.

[TEPaul]

Bill:

Well, I have played Cypress but I don't believe any other California Mackenzie's, unless Pebble has some Mackenzie to it. Don't think so but it seems like Pebble must have had his (or Hunter's) The American Construction Company doing work on it.

[Bill_McBride]

Mackenzie did some work on the bunkering at Pebble Beach.  He built the wonderful Pasatiempo just after Cypress Point.  He was truly blessed with great sites at his California designs although Sharp Park, on the ocean south of San Francisco, was destroyed soon after opening by a hurricane or some other huge storm that wiped out the holes on the ocean.  From Santa Barbara to San Francisco, the Mackenzie courses are scenic wonders and all great fun for players of all levels to play.

[Neil_Crafter]

TE
Thanks for the nice comments - appreciated. Its not just me though, there are a few others who are working actively on our Mackenzie projects, especially Tully. There is still a lot to be unearthed about his courses. And Bill's right, time for a Mac tour of CA for you!

Bill
50 years of golf eh! I had my first game of golf when I was four, I only have around 2 and a half years to go before I can claim that mantle also.

Seems the rumour of a Mac involvement at Wawona is just that, a rumour, in any event, as the course was well established before he ever got to the US in 1926, any work he could possibly have done would have been in some form of remodelling or another.

The Ahwahnee course was a pitch and putt that opened in 1930 and there is no mention of it in C&W. As Mac said to Wendell Miller that there was no decent pitch and putt course in the US in 1932, its not too likely that he designed the Ahwahnee one then. Who designed it I just don't know.

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