The Spirit of St. Andrews - Hardcover

MacKenzie, Alister

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1886947007 ISBN 13: 9781886947009

Publisher: Wiley, 1995

Synopsis

There’s no question that Dr. Alister MacKenzie was one of the best golf course architects in the history of the game. Augusta National, Royal Melbourne, Cypress Point—among many other famous layouts—are proof of that fact.

In the mid-1990s, MacKenzie’s lost golf manuscript, written a year before his death in 1933, was found and finally published as The Spirit of St. Andrews.

Even all these years later, MacKenzie’s thoughts on such topics as the golf swing, rules, great courses and holes, and golfers are interesting and intuitive.

About this title

About the Author

Alister MacKenzie was born in England. He practiced medicine and served as a civil surgeon in the Boer War, beginning his career in golf-course design shortly after returning home. He died in 1934.

From the Back Cover

Alister MacKenzie, one of golf’s greatest architects, designer of Augusta National—home of the Masters, Cypress Point, and Royal Melbourne, was the consulting architect for St. Andrews. He was a master of many facets of golf.

He shares with you his insights on great golf holes, the golf swing, technology and equipment, putting tips, the USGA and the Royal & Ancient—almost every area of golf that is important and influences golfers today.

Truly a “lost” manuscript, The Spirit of St. Andrews, written in 1933, with a foreword by one of the world’s greatest golfers, Robert Tyre “Bobby” Jones, Jr.—has never been published until today.

It contains fascinating stories of famous players—Hagen, Sarazen, Jones, and others—that teach valuable lessons to all golfers.

“…another Dead Sea scroll”
—The Wall Street Journal

From the Inside Flap

"The Spirit of St. Andrews may have been written 60 years ago, but much of its content is timeless. MacKenzie never minces words, and his views on golf, golfers, and courses remind us that he was not only a brilliant architect but one of the most provocative characters the game has produced."
—George Peper, Editor-in-Chief, GOLF Magazine

“Having been part of a family closely associated with the game of golf for more than eighty years, I suppose it’s not unreasonable to feel that as far as the game goes there is nothing left to surprise—you’ve seen it, done it, and are on the verge of, dare I say, becoming bored. You look at the world and nothing is the same, life is but a shadow of what it was, sport is seemingly no longer played for enjoyment, commercialism is everywhere, which, according to some, is progress. But when you’re just about to reach for the solace of a large whiskey mac on a dreary winter’s day, along comes a bit of magic to lift the spirits. It arrived in the form of a manuscript written by Dr. Alister MacKenzie entitled simply The Spirit of St. Andrews.

Perhaps the discovery of this manuscript written in the doctor’s own fair hand was not quite as dramatic as Lord Caernarvon discovering the burial ground of Tutankhamen, but for lovers of golf it must run it damn close. Written in early thirties, it provides page after page of interest, common sense and information.

I’ve never read a more interesting book on golf, for it not only covers the art of creating a course, stressing the importance of building it so people of all levels of competence may enjoy playing, it also transports the reader in his mind’s eye to many far flung venues that over the last forty years or so have become so much a part of folklore.

I’m honored to have been allowed to introduce this masterpiece, for that is what it surely is.”
—Peter Alliss, Noted Player, Commentator, Author and Architect

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1886947007
• ISBN 13: 9781886947009
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288