INFORMATION ON ALISTER MACKENZIE

The Society was founded in 1999 with the aim of celebrating the work of Alister MacKenzie as a golf architect in Great Britain and Ireland through the fellowship of golf. The Society now has a membership of 49 clubs and, as more Clubs delve into their archives, the hand of MacKenzie continues to be detected. In September 1999 the first inter-club match for the MacKenzie Medallion was held at Alwoodley and this competition has since become an annual event.

All member Clubs have the opportunity to play in the Medallion that is hosted by a different Club each year. Each participating Club selects three or four of its members to represent it in an individual Stableford Competition on a shotgun start. The list of winners and the list of future hosts can be found elsewhere on this site. MacKenzie worked in partnership with Harry Colt from 1919-1923 and the Society competes regularly with the Colt Association for the Partners' Salver. Additionally the winning Medallion team is invited to the Stoke Park Club to play the winner of the Colt Cup each year for the Challenge Cup.

A few years ago the Society decided to expand its activities by establishing an Individual Membership. This is limited in number to allow at least some participation in golfing events by every member of the Society if he or she so wishes. The Society organises matches with the Senior Golfers' Society, the British Golf Collectors' Society and with Committee teams from member clubs. It also holds an Open day every year for members and guests at a MacKenzie course.

An important development over the last few years has been the Timeline (Download the Timeline here in pdf format) in which an attempt is made to trace the travels and the work done by MacKenzie. This work is both time-consuming and painstaking and the Society is grateful for the efforts made by all those involved. The American MacKenzie Society was founded eleven years before its United Kingdom equivalent and it holds an annual event to which a number of Clubs from all over the world are invited.

The MacKenzie Medallion

The Medallion

An annual UK competition called "The MacKenzie Medallion" is now hosted by a member club of The Alister MacKenzie Society of GB and Ireland.

This was started at Alwoodley in 1999 and has also been hosted by Cavendish 2000, Bingley St Ives 2001, Reddish Vale 2002, Sand Moor 2003, Walsall 2004, Teignmouth 2005, Hadley Wood 2006, Alwoodley 2007, Darlington 2008, Headingley 2009, Sutton Coldfield 2010 and Weston Super Mare will host in 2011.

More details can be found here

The Partners Salver

The Partners Salver

This is a match ,usually held annually, between teams from the MacKenzie Society and the Colt Association. The winner receives the Partners Salver

The Challenge Cup

The Challenge Cup

This is another match between teams from the MacKenzie Society and the Colt Association. For this match the current 'champions' play each other, at Stoke Park during the Colt Cup week in June each year

The Alister MacKenzie Society

There are still many different spellings written for both Alister and MacKenzie !!

However the accepted version is seen on these pages, and this is now approved by the R and A.

There is much evidence in the early records at Alwoodley of the use of MacKenzie, all in lower case.

There is no doubt that on deciding to live in California with his second wife Hilda, MacKenzie adopted a grander style with K in the upper case, and this is now the accepted version.

He also liked to be known by his title of Dr. Perhaps this shows some evidence of his marketing approach in the United States !!