Alwoodley Golf Club

Nine days after I arrived in Manchester, UK, and two days after testing out of quarantine, I was walking to the train station with golf clubs over my shoulder. I was heading to Leeds for the night and had three tee times lined up.

A day or two prior I played Reddish Vale, a 1912 Dr. Alister MacKenzie design outside of Manchester. My first Alister MacKenzie course! There were signs of his famous natural mounding and slopes that funneled shorter shots to the center of greens, if only you could trust the line. But he also broke several of his yet-to-be-written “13 general principles of an ideal golf course”.

I arrived in Leeds late morning and took an Uber to Alwoodley Golf Club, designed by the doctor in 1907. From the moment I walked onto the property I knew this golf experience would deliver. And I knew from the moment I walked into the locker room and saw the “Welcome David Vick” sign, that my interest in playing this course was valued.

The first was a handshake opener and works to get the player away from the clubhouse and to the main part of the property. The fairway here is wide but ended up feeling like one of the few on the course. I felt the gorse and heather suffocated the playing corridors on some holes.            

MacKenzie writes in “The Spirit of St. Andrews” about the importance of never taking dirt off the property when in the construction phase. He believed that any small amount of dirt could enhance any equally small feature. This belief is effectively displayed on the short par-4 second hole with the small green-side bunker short and right of the green.

MacKenzie must have instructed his crew to throw the dirt they had dug out to build the bunker onto the green. This raised mound above the bunker is higher than the putting surface and features a long slope that runs onto the green deflecting balls left, right and center. The hole plays slightly uphill from the approach shot so this mound blocks the view of the right side of the green, forcing the player to negotiate the mound if the pin requires, as it did the day I played.

#2 at Alwoodley

Much of the property is finally revealed on the third tee. It was here on the third where I began to fall in love with the course, especially the next three holes.

The third is the first of three par-5s on the front nine. A tight tee shot over the 16th fairway is required on this straight away hole. The noteworthy feature on this hole is the lower-level pin position on the left side of green. Most of the pin-able spots on this green are on the upper tier but luckily the day I played it the hole was tucked down the slope.

Four is a shorter par-5 at 480 yards. Interestingly, it is a par-4 from the tips. After getting near the green on my second shot I was able to get up and down for my first birdie of the day. The green is elevated from the fairway and surrounded by mounds of gorse and heather.

The fifth is a brilliant MacKenzie hole. The player hits from an elevated tee down to a fairway that slopes from left to right. The approach then requires an uphill shot to a green up to the left. The location of this green means the ideal spot off the tee is the left side of the fairway, which is the more difficult side to hit given the slope.

Earlier in the summer I had seen a picture of the fifth green at Alwoodley in Robert Hunter’s “The Links”. Here, Hunter doubles down on MacKenzie’s sentiment regarding earthmoving.

The most interesting part of this hole is the man-made hummocks surrounding the green. MacKenzie claims that a man once visited this green and said his home course could never have had as interesting features given the flat land. He writes in a caption accompanying a photo with: The artificial hummocks guarding the fifth green at Alwoodley: approximate cost £8.

No disrespect to Reddish Vale, but this felt like my first MacKenzie experience given the club’s status. And having read so much about the course I wanted to play by myself, so as not to miss anything.

I made my second birdie on 9 before getting to the 10th tee, where I was reminded of a famous MacKenzie tee shot on a course I will probably never play. Visually, the tee shot on 10 is like the tee shot on 13 at Augusta National. This is noted as his first iteration of what would become 13 at ANGC. As you know, the tee shot on this par-5 requires a draw around the trees. A stream near the right side of the green forces the player to thread the needle between water and bunker to reach the green in two. But, unlike 13, here there was a route with no carry over water.

The only flaw I found in the course was that six of the final seven holes were par-4s, including the final four. And none were particularly short. In a way it made the end of the round a long march back to the clubhouse, as the only exhale from a par-4 was a 205-yard par-3. But that didn’t mean the holes were uninteresting. Sixteen required a semi-blind tee shot and then an approach over intimidating bunkers to an undulating green built in a knoll.

#16 at Alwoodley

I hit every range of shots on the 17th hole. Off the tee, I hit a scuzzy driver into the bunker only two hundred yards away. On my second I managed to advance my ball, decently, and was left with a blind approach as the green is over 30-feet below the fairway and I was still 130-yards away. I pulled a wedge and hit what felt like a good shot. 130-yards later I found my ball in the bottom of the cup for a three.

My round ended as the sun was setting behind the clubhouse. I finished my day with a pint while looking out over the first and last holes. It was a supremely enjoyable round of golf.

That evening, I had a couple pints and fish & chips at a pub in downtown Leeds. I did a little writing in my journal on the eve of my first 36-hole day of the trip. After a nip of whisky at my hotel, I slept.