Golf Course Architecture - Issue 59, January 2020

46 T here cannot be many golf clubs that possess an original Dr Alister MacKenzie-designed green, one that retains its original contours and features, yet hasn’t been actively played on for 80 years. One such green does exist however, at the Worcestershire Golf Club in Malvern, UK. Founded in 1879, the Worcestershire GC is the joint fifteenth oldest golf club in England. From its foundation until 1927, the club played over a variety of different course routings on Malvern Common. By the mid- 1920s however, the Common, with its open access to the public, its animal grazing and ever more traffic on the roads crossing the lines of play, had become a less than satisfactory place to play golf. The club therefore looked for another location and found one available at nearby Wood Farm (although it should be noted that some ladies and artisans continued to play golf on the Common until WWII). Dr Alister MacKenzie was hired to design the new course and by May 1927 the course, constructed by the British Golf Course Construction Company and overseen by Alister’s brother and partner in the BGCCC, Major Charles MacKenzie, was ready for play. MacKenzie’s course was an open aspect parkland design of 6,200 yards and comprised two loops of nine David Thomas explains how he and others at the Worcestershire GC came to discover an old Alister MacKenzie-designed green that had been out of play for 80 years A golfing Sphinx DAV ID THOMAS INS IGHT