Alwoodley

Published:

Leeds, West Yorkshire.
Par 71 , 6,793 yards.

Designer: Alister MacKenzie.
Green fees: Mon-Fri £80; Sat-Sun £95.
Tel: 0113 268 1680.

A move towards the fringe of the top 10 is just reward for this traditional club which is located on the northern outskirts of Leeds and which has plenty of appetite for improving its storied heathland course. One might very well expect such an eagerness to maintain their course’s relevance and stature, given it is essentially the home of Dr Alister MacKenzie. Alwoodley was the first course to be designed by MacKenzie in an architectural career that also included Cypress Point, Augusta National and Royal Melbourne.

The Leeds club, now over 100 years old, are coming to the end of a five-year course-improvement plan that has seen almost every bunker rebuilt and restored and some new championship tees created, taking the overall length to in the region of 6,900 yards. “It’s been a great honour to have the opportunity of working here and learn more about the early part of MacKenzie’s career,” said Ken Moodie, the consulting architect. “And nerve-wracking as well because it’s so key in terms of golf course architecture. “The key is naturalistic-looking bunkers, which is what MacKenzie is about. Sometimes we’ve had to rebuild faces and recreate the ‘gathers’ into bunkers.”

New tees have been added to the par-3 9th and classic risk-and-reward long 10th, on which it is thought MacKenzie based the famous 13th at Augusta. Alwoodley has been rewarded for the extensive work done on this classic heathland with the news that they will host the English Amateur in 2015. The elite amateurs will relish their visit here, as indeed will any golfer. And if we are somehow blessed with a dry summer, the course will run intriguingly fast.

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