When you think of golf course architects, few spring to mind before Dr Alister MacKenzie. His influence on golf courses spreads across the globe from Augusta National Golf Club in the US, Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Australia, Lahinch Golf Club in Ireland to our own here in Leeds.

Born not far from our course, in Normanton in 1870, MacKenzie abandoned a career in medicine in favour of golf course architecture. In 1907 he became a founder member of Alwoodley Golf Club, before turning his attention to another fantastic course in Leeds, Moortown Golf Club. Following this he went on to design several courses in Yorkshire, including our own in 1913.

MacKenzie believed that a golf course should enhance the inherent beauty of its location and had a nine ‘Ideal Golf Course Design Principles’, which he implemented throughout the courses he designed.

1. The course, where possible, should be arranged in two loops of nine holes.
2. There should be a large proportion of good two-shot holes, two or three drive-and-pitch holes, and at least four one-shot holes.
3. There should be little walking between the greens and tees, and the course should be arranged so that in the first instance there is always a slight walk forwards from the green to the next tee; then the holes are sufficiently elastic to be lengthened in the future if necessary.
4. The greens and fairways should be sufficiently undulating, but there should be no hill climbing.
5. Every hole should have a different character.

6. There should be a minimum of blindness for the approach shots.
7. The course should have beautiful surroundings, and all the artificial features should have so natural an appearance that a stranger is unable to distinguish them from nature itself.
8. There should be a sufficient number of heroic carries from the tee, but the course should be arranged so that the weaker player with the loss of a stroke or portion of a stroke shall always have an alternative route open to him.
9. There should be infinite variety in the strokes required to play the various holes, interesting brassy shots, iron shots, pitch and run-up shots.

All of these principles can be seen throughout our course.

We have two distinct loops of nine holes, both finishing near to the Clubhouse. This wasn’t the case before Dr MacKenzie’s arrival at Garforth, with the original layout featuring a 10th hole running alongside Cock Beck.

Dr MacKenzie’s design of our course features four Par 3’s, two Par 4’s in Holes 1 and 3 which could be considered ‘drive-and-pitch holes’ as well as a ‘large proportion of good two-shot holes’.

One of the great features of our course is that there are no great distances to walk from Green to Tee. The course is also very flat, making it an enjoyable, easy walk for all.

Some of our fairways feature ridges and furrows, with undulations present throughout. Our greens are true with subtle breaks, which you don’t want to get on the wrong side of. Holes 2, 7 and 11 feature the classic ‘MacKenzie’ two-tiered greens.

Each of our holes are different, with their own understated idiosyncrasies. No two are alike.

Each approach has a fantastic view of the green, with the exception of the third and fifteenth holes where the greens lay slightly above the fairway adding to the difficulty of your approaches.

The course is set in beautiful surroundings with Cock Beck and Carr Beck running throughout a number of holes on our course. The areas around the 6th Green, 13th Fairway and 4th Green being of particular beauty. The boundaries to the course feature farmland, shrubland and Cock Beck, giving a peaceful haven away from busy day to day life.

There are opportunities for ‘heroic carries’ for the longer hitters on our 8th, 11th, 14th and 17th Holes, with the 17th in particular being a challenging tee shot so close to the finishing line. All four holes have alternative routes which don’t require a carry off the tee, however do leave a longer, trickier approach into the green.

One thing is for sure, you will need a variety of shots to score well at Garforth. The course doesn’t favour a particular ball flight, with left to right and right to left shots being needed – as long as they go straight! It’s not a course where you can pull your driver out of the bag off every tee without thinking. Instead strategy and placement is the key to scoring well.

Following Garforth, Dr MacKenzie would go on to travel the world designing courses we see on our TV’s every year, implementing the same principles he implemented on our course. Whilst others may be more well known than ours, there are few which will still follow his nine principles as closely as ours does, which is what makes our course a true MacKenzie Hidden Gem.