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SPDB

  • Karma: +0/-0
The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« on: October 29, 2003, 05:20:09 PM »
Just a simple subjective question. Who, in your opinion, is the greatest golf course architect?

Please do not respond with anything more than the architect's name. If it's Coore, it can't be Crenshaw. If it's MacDonald, it can't incorporate Raynor. Please do not give me a window into your thought process ("oohh, this is really difficult...Maybe Colt, because Muirfield is so sublime..." or "MacKenzie's command of...). Please, none of that.

No qualifications, platitudes, examples, etc. Each response should follow this model:

Hiram F. Architect


If rules are adhered to, we should just have a string of names.
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THuckaby2

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2003, 05:24:07 PM »
Alister Mackenzie
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TEPaul

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2003, 05:26:15 PM »
Alexander MacKenzie
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El Guapo

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2003, 05:26:37 PM »
Mark Fine
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Cory Lewis

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2003, 05:27:22 PM »
Donald Ross
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Instagram: @2000golfcourses
http://2000golfcourses.blogspot.com

CHC1948

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2003, 05:29:22 PM »
Walter Travis
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Michael Dugger

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2003, 05:31:51 PM »
George C. Thomas
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What does it matter if the poor player can putt all the way from tee to green, provided that he has to zigzag so frequently that he takes six or seven putts to reach it?     --Alistair Mackenzie--

Pete Lavallee

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2003, 05:47:05 PM »
Alister MacKenzie
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"...one inoculated with the virus must swing a golf-club or perish."  Robert Hunter

Mike Benham

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2003, 05:49:52 PM »
Ted Robinson
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"... and I liked the guy ..."

DPL11

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2003, 05:52:33 PM »
Hiram F. Flynn
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Mike Hendren

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2003, 05:56:01 PM »
Paging Paul Turner ;)
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Two Corinthians walk into a bar ....

Mrs_Jones

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2003, 05:56:03 PM »
Rees Jones
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Jim Franklin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2003, 05:58:14 PM »
Alister Mackenzie
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Mr Hurricane

JNC Lyon

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #13 on: October 29, 2003, 06:01:03 PM »
George Crump
« Last Edit: October 29, 2003, 09:03:26 PM by JNC_Lyon »
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"That's why Oscar can't see that!" - Philip E. "Timmy" Thomas

RJ_Daley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #14 on: October 29, 2003, 06:19:09 PM »
I.M. Nature
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No actual golf rounds were ruined or delayed, nor golf rules broken, in the taking of any photographs that may be displayed by the above forum user.

cary lichtenstein

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #15 on: October 29, 2003, 08:17:18 PM »
There is no one greatest architect living or dead. Just as there is no one "greatest course."

There are probably 10 architects and 20 courses that qualify for the best group of architects and best group of courses. And the land plays an enormous role here.

When someone asks me what my favorite course is, I always answer that I have no favorite, because I have so many favorites. :)
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Live Jupiter, Fl, was  4 handicap, played top 100 US, top 75 World. Great memories, no longer play, 4 back surgeries. I don't miss a lot of things about golf, life is simpler with out it. I miss my 60 degree wedge shots, don't miss nasty weather, icing, back spasms. Last course I played was Augusta

bg_in_rtp

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #16 on: October 29, 2003, 08:55:40 PM »
Old Tom Morris
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TEPaul

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #17 on: October 29, 2003, 09:06:41 PM »
There probably are ten great architects living or dead but Alexander Mackenzie is still the greatest of them all. Frankly, I was toying with naming George C. Thomas but passed him up because I just can NOT understand how the greatest architect living or dead could just give it all up and go back to breeding world class roses. Not only that but having the lack of discretion to name all those world class roses after all his girlfriends and then displaying such lack of sense as to actually get caught by his wife with a whole estate of world class roses named after his mistresses at which point Mrs Thomas ripped all those world class roses out of the ground and trashed them. George then immediately decided to die which apparently he chose to do as the better alternative to explaining things to Mrs. Thomas. That's bad enough for one man's name and legacy but just look what some rich Japanese gentleman, Tom Fazio and the USGA did to his flagship, Riviera C.C. last year!! George Thomas probably should be named the greatest architect living or dead but that's just way too much Murphy's Law for me to be able to name him! I've been trying to keep up with current events in SoCal but I don't dare ask about Riviera because knowing George's luck I'm afraid something really terrible may have happened to it in the last few days.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2003, 09:14:52 PM by TEPaul »
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S_Salme

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #18 on: October 29, 2003, 09:15:20 PM »
Perhaps only 5 people on this board have seen enough courses to answer this one.  I think Mackenzie might have built too many duff courses to win.

George Thomas?  No way, far too few courses.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2003, 09:17:22 PM by S_Salme »
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Michael Moore

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #19 on: October 29, 2003, 10:16:09 PM »
Bill Coore.

Mr. Paul -

Who is this "Alexander" MacKenzie you keep talking about?
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Metaphor is social and shares the table with the objects it intertwines and the attitudes it reconciles. Opinion, like the Michelin inspector, dines alone. - Adam Gopnik, The Table Comes First

Craig Van Egmond

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #20 on: October 29, 2003, 11:15:11 PM »

Alister MacKenzie
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TEPaul

Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #21 on: October 30, 2003, 05:20:13 AM »
Mr. Moore;

He was a Scotsman who was born near Leeds England and became a medical doctor for a time before going into golf architecture. He was christened Alexander but his parents, Mr. & Mrs William Scobie MacKenzie, later chose to use the Gaelic form of his first name which is "Alister". Early in his life he was known as "Little Al", later as a teen and later still when he served as a young doctor in the Boer War he was known as "Ally" but when he gave up the medical profession and entered the golf architecture profession full-time he insisted on being called Dr. Mackenzie. Some say he did that in hopes of garnering US Open preparatory redesign work but as far as I can tell that never really worked out. But nevertheless, he somehow managed to become the greatest architect, living or dead, in the history of golf course architecture.
« Last Edit: October 30, 2003, 05:34:08 AM by TEPaul »
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Jonathan Cummings

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #22 on: October 30, 2003, 06:46:30 AM »
Mr Moore - I cringed when I saw your post.  I went outdoors here in Wash DC, looked north towards Philadephia and saw the a plumb of smoke rising from a certain YaBB God's keyboard....

Seth Raynor is my choice

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Andy Levett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #23 on: October 30, 2003, 06:57:48 AM »
Quote from: S_Salme on October 29, 2003, 09:15:20 PM
Mackenzie might have built too many duff courses to win.

Which ones are duff courses? Admittedly there are dozens in the north of England that don't make top 100 lists and are only known locally but I don't know if any are bad courses.
I have played a few 'minor MacKenzies' and intend to play more. Some are better than others but none are 'duff'.
The most noticeable common characteristics are clever routings making the best of the natural topography and interesting green complexes.

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Bruce Katona

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:The Greatest Architect - Living or Dead.
« Reply #24 on: October 30, 2003, 08:38:38 AM »
C.B. MacDonald
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