Pioneer Information
Born in West Yorkshire, England, Mackenzie earned a Bachelor of Surgery from Cambridge University in 1897. Following graduation, he served as a surgeon with the Somerset Regiment in South Africa during the Second Boer War. It was during this time that he learned the art of camouflage, which played an influential role in his later career as a golf course architect. An avid golfer, Mackenzie was a member of several clubs in Leeds, England, including the IIkey Golf Club, whose course he redesigned in 1898 with golf course architect Harry Colt, and the Leeds Golf Club. In 1907 he realized his first full design at Alwoodley Golf Club, of which he was a founding member. Mackenzie’s design for Alwoodley incorporated modern innovations, such as undulating, angled greens, and large free-form bunkers, which later became part of his standard style. In 1914 Mackenzie won a golf course design competition sponsored by Country Life magazine, earning him international renown. After serving in World War I as a camoufleur, he left the medical field to become a professional golf course architect. In 1919 he partnered with golf course architects Henry Colt and Charles Alison to form the design firm Colt, Mackenzie & Alison. Mackenzie departed the firm four years later and relocated to the United States, where he continued designing courses both there and abroad, including in Argentina, Canada, and New Zealand. In 1938 Mackenzie’s earlier competition-winning design for Country Life was implemented in Augusta, Georgia, as the Augusta National Golf Club. Other notable courses included Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, California (1930), the University of Michigan Golf Course in Ann Arbor (1931), and Royal Melbourne (1930) in Australia. His designs were characterized by his use of camouflage to disguise bunkers within the natural landscape. In 1920 Mackenzie summarized his design principles in his seminal work, Golf Club Design, and a second book, The Spirit of St. Andrews, was published posthumously. Mackenzie died in Santa Cruz, California, at the age of 63.
