The Common & Recent Bogeymens Golf Club

MacKenzie's 13 Golf Course Principles

Alister MacKenzie set these out in “Golf Architecture” (1920). They are the closest thing the Golden Age produced to a written constitution, and nearly every argument in the minimalist revival is a rereading of one of them.

  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, with a slight walk forward from each green to the next tee, and the holes elastic enough to be lengthened later 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 look so natural that a stranger cannot distinguish them from nature itself.
  8. There should be a sufficient number of heroic carries from the tee, but the weaker player, at the cost of a stroke or part of one, should always have an alternative route open.
  9. There should be infinite variety in the strokes required to play the various holes.
  10. There should be a complete absence of the annoyance and irritation caused by searching for lost balls.
  11. The course should be so interesting that even the plus man is constantly stimulated to improve his game, attempting shots he has so far been unable to play.
  12. The course should be so arranged that the long-handicap player, or the absolute beginner, can enjoy the round despite piling up a big score.
  13. The course should be equally good in winter and summer, with the texture of greens and fairways perfect and the approaches of the same consistency as the greens.

Two of these carry more weight than the rest for how the Club plays. The eighth is the whole strategic argument in one sentence: the heroic line exists, and refusing it costs a stroke rather than the hole. The twelfth is the one modern championship design abandoned first, and abandoning it is most of what modernization took from the game.

Ranking Rockford Golf Courses runs the public courses north of Grand Rapids through all thirteen as a scoring rubric.