T he new Millennium has witnessed a tangible trend in golf course architecture, with evidence of this

vogue dotted all over the world – from Oakmont in Pennsylvania to Broadstone in Dorset, and Hardelot in France to Moortown in Yorkshire. It is often described as ‘tree management’, which to the layman basically means taking them out. Nowhere has the process been quite so extensive, or indeed arguably as successful, than at Moortown, the course in north Leeds that hosted the first official Ryder Cup on British soil. Over a period of 10 years, this storied venue has been transformed from one of the finest inland courses in England to one of the finest courses of any type in Britain and Ireland.

Such an extensive programme is brave; the host of the 1929 GB&I v USA matches had remained popular with members and visitors, so there may have seemed little reason for change. But a group of strong characters within the club shared a desire to return their course to one more in keeping with that created by

Dr Alister MacKenzie in 1909. Decades of indifferent husbandry had resulted in silver birches dominating the terrain, creating a course as much woodland as heathland in nature. In 2004, with their centenary fast approaching, they acted. As well as ‘tree management’ – the by-product of which is the slow but gradual return of heather (which cannot tolerate birch) – there has been a total overhaul of the bunkers and significant alterations to a few weaker holes added in the ’80s.

It has been a long and, one suspects, very expensive process, but the results are spectacularly successful. It is not much of an exaggeration to suggest that someone who played the course prior to 2004 might return today and barely recognise it.

Indeed, consider the words of a man who knows a good heathland when he sees one, BBC commentator Andrew Murray, who finished atop a field containing Sir Nick Faldo and Sandy Lyle at the 1989 Panasonic Open at Walton Heath. “I had played Moortown many many times, including on the European Tour,” he tells Golf World. “I always enjoyed it as it was. So I was very surprised when I played it this spring and saw what had been done – but supportive

LEFT: Looking over the remodelled 9th green bunker to the signature par-3 10th, ‘Gibraltar’.BELOW: The par-3 4th, known as ‘Spinney’.

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Britain’s first Ryder Cup venue has just completed a radical and rewarding facelift, as Chris Bertram discovered.

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‘It is not much of an exaggeration to suggest someone who played the course prior to 2004 might barely recognise it today’ ©

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too. It has improved in terms of ‘feel’ and as a test; the air and space is terrific and will, in a year or two, not feel as ‘exposed’ as it does to some now. To any doubters, just give it two seasons of growth.”

The man principally behind these changes is Ken Moodie who, along with design associate Ken Brown – the Ryder Cup player turned commentator – carried out a report on the course in tandem with woodland management specialist John Nicholson. The trio, who had worked on a number of similar projects, were engaged by Moortown but the initial brief – in the main to ensure the course remained fit for elite competition yet still enjoyable for all levels – gradually snowballed, with particular emphasis on restoring the original MacKenzie bunker style; this had been lost in many places as a result of years of sand-splash and erosion.

The catalyst for the additional work was a trip by Martin Heggie, the club professional, and a few of the committee to play at Cypress Point and Pasatiempo in America – both of which have been closely restored to the doctor’s original

design – with the MacKenzie Society. Moodie made the same trip the following year and returned equally inspired. Steve Robinson also joined as Course Manager, giving the restoration further energy.

So, as well as swapping trees for heather, virtually every bunker has been either rebuilt or remodelled, 19 that had been lost have been restored and 17 strategic new ones created. The greens at the 3rd, 5th and 17th have also been rebuilt.

The 17th was, along with the 6th and 7th, introduced in the 1980s to replace holes deemed too close to new housing. Dense birch has been removed from the 6th and 7th, the latter also having two large beeches beside the green cleared and new staggered bunkers added. “The 7th was a very bland par 5,” Moodie tells Golf World. “It will only get better as heather develops to the right of the fairway and we get some wispy rough developing in the bunker faces and far ditch bank.”

Moodie turned historian and private investigator during his restoration, sifting through the archives – including unlikely reference points as an RAF photograph from 1948 – to pinpoint what MacKenzie had put where. “At the 9th, we found there had not only been a bunker on the

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RIGHT: The short 8th plays uphill from a point on the course where four holes ‘meet’. It is one of the few holes to play across the site. BELOW: The classy par-4 9th, with its bunker that frames the green so well. ABOVE: A view from the left of the 10th green.

I started playing golf in Scotland at the age of three when I was given a plastic club and ball. I used to follow my dad around with it when he played. Soon after I was given some cut-down hickory clubs my dad had used as a boy and later progressed to a half set of steel-shafts which I added to each Christmas! I was lucky growing up in Scotland to have a pitch and putt and putting courses to learn basic skills – something often missed in new developing markets. Kids need somewhere to learn the basics before they step foot on a full-length course.

I started to study

university I wrote to a few firms and was fortunate to get a job with Hawtree (Hawtree & Son as they were at that time).

Restoring original classics and creating my own courses provide their own challenges; I prefer a mix of both. In many ways remodelling an established course is more challenging since you have 600-odd members to please, and you need to be able to justify every single change you make. On a classic course, you can learn a great deal from the original design and the way the architect worked, while on a new development you let the site

Landscape Architecture at Heriot Watt University then specialised in course design. I had thought I could design golf courses as a sideline and didn’t realise how specialist a profession it was.

In my final year, I was able to select a site and develop my own brief for a project of my choice; for my first golf course design, I chose the site at Loch Lomond, before Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish had been commissioned. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. When I finished

inspire you. Occasionally on a new development the site has little feature, so you use your imagination and draw on your knowledge of the great courses to create something special. The historic architects were very restricted in how much earth they could move and made the most of natural features. I have applied this to my own designs to provide best value for money for the client. Having played and worked on many classic courses I know what works well and what doesn’t.

resTorATIoN MANKen Moodie describes his life in golf and his minimalist design approach.

‘On a classic course, you can learn a great deal from the original design’

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‘Even on the holes on the moor that play back and

forth parallel to each other, there is no sense of tedium’

Walter Hagen drives off at Moortown in the 1929 Ryder Cup.

ABOVE AND RIGHT: The evil bunker that Moodie has restored on the 10th, with the tee of the 11th visible on the horizon on the left. LEFT: The ‘lighthouse’ cluster of bunkers on the 12th that Moodie painstakingly marked out using little flags in order to create an exact copy of the original hazard created by MacKenzie in 1909.

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do not want too much club in your hand as you try to find these greens. Often small, almost all of them possess evil run-offs. Once on, the challenge is not over with the more subtle borrows often as perplexing as MacKenzie’s famous tiers.

One of Moortown’s strengths is its variety; even when the four holes on top of the moor play back and forth parallel to each other, there’s no sense of tedium. On this stretch, the turf is even more springy and even more ripe for sweet irons shots; that same gorgeous feeling common to Surrey’s superstars. As at many of those illustrious names, you are instantly aware you are somewhere special as you swing into Moortown’s enclosed driveway; a large sign at the entrance notes the course’s place in Ryder Cup history.

Pulling into the car park, you are greeted by a clubhouse, pro shop, putting green and patio area that are all neat but not especially grand. It all points to Moortown being a golfer’s golf club.

This is a little ironic given it was a trio of non golfers who founded the club in 1908. It took the foresight of MacKenzie to see the potential in the heathery bog of

‘Black Moor’. To convince the founders he was ‘their man’, the then rookie architect produced ‘Gibraltar’, the short 10th. It was a quite brilliant audition, and today remains just as delightful (Moodie has enlarged the front-left bunker to its former size – it is an enormous, evil pit – while gorse and sand await to the right of an elevated green which must witness fewer ‘gimmes’ than any other in Britain; there are just no flat putts to be found). ‘Gibraltar’ was evidence enough, and by the summer of 1909 nine holes were open. Two decades later, 15,000 spectators watched as the home side saw off Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen et al to prevail 7-5.

In the clubhouse – a more handsome affair than its façade suggests, populated by stout leather chairs, tartan carpets and a grand Billiard Room – there is a replica of the Ryder Cup, a portrait of Samuel Ryder and black and white photographs

of the matches. There is also a Ladies Ryder Cup, gifted to the ladies’ section by Ryder for their help with the matches. It is competed for annually by the club’s ladies.

Elsewhere, in rooms oozing character such as the MacKenzie Room, the Smoke Room, and the Samuel Ryder Lounge, Honours Boards hang on any wall space not taken up with black and white images. Moortown presents its history – from the Ryder Cup to the Haig Tournament to three Car Care Plan Internationals (the first of which was won by Sir Nick Faldo) – extremely well. Savouring this history in the clubhouse is a lovely way to begin or round off your Moortown experience, but the course is the real attraction – now more so than ever.

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‘The 10th green must witness fewer ‘gimmes’ than any other in Britain.There are no flat putts’

Address: Moortown GC, Harrogate Road, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS17 7DBTel: 0113 268 6521Website: moortown-golf-club.co.ukGreen fees: April & October £60, May-Sept £80, Nov-March £45.

KEY INFORMATION

18th, ‘Home’434 yards, par 4Moortown’s story began with the 10th and it is its best-known hole. But the 18th is as interesting a challenge and has witnessed great drama.

First, you absolutely must hit a solid drive in order to travel far enough along the sloping fairway to have a chance of reaching the green in regulation. If you manage that, you can start to think about your approach. With the ground feeding away from you, a fade is naturally easier to produce, and that means starting your approach at the left greenside bunkers… which means you set up aiming directly at the clubhouse windows! Increasing

the sweat on your palms is the fact there are likely to be members on the patio right next to the green, watching your every move. “It is just a great theatre,” says Martin Heggie, pro here for 11 years. “I can’t think of a better closing hole; there’s no water or anything, but it doesn’t need it.”

He’s not wrong. But if you do make a mess of this exacting closing hole, you can console yourself in the knowledge you are in good company. When Seve played here in the 1980 Haig Tournament, he ‘air mailed’ the green, the clubhouse and

the pro shop with an approach, his ball eventually coming to rest on the practice putting green.

The great Spaniard will have enjoyed trying to escape from there and would have shown equal relish for the spot found by Nigel Denham six years previously in the 1974 English Amateur. His approach found its way into the clubhouse and

he had to play his chip onto the green from the middle of the Smoke Room. Brilliantly, he knocked it through a window – helpfully (and probably illegally) opened by a member – to six feet. Sadly, he missed the putt.

Expect the unexpected on Moortown’s final hole.

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left of the dog-leg, in an ideal position for modern play (given the tee has gone back), but also one in the carry to the green from the right of the fairway which frames the hole nicely. On the 12th we reintroduced bunkers in the strip of rough which splits the fairway and also in a ‘lighthouse’ cluster of bunkers. It is like an iceberg, with only the top visible from the position of a good drive then more and more revealed as you walk over the ridge. We marked the outline of the bunker edges from an old photograph from MacKenzie’s book ‘Golf Architecture’, so it is exactly as it would have been when MacKenzie was pictured on top of it.

“I feel we have struck a good balance between restoring a MacKenzie course and providing a challenge worthy of today’s top golfers. The fact all bunkers have a unified style and the new holes are now largely indistinguishable from the old makes me feel we have done a good job.”

It all sounds very sensible and very promising – and the reality does not let one down. Moortown is now as good an inland experience as all but the very finest Surrey and Berkshire heathlands. Save for spellbinding views, Moortown ticks all the boxes. And as the heather grows, the new bunkers settle down, and the young pines rise up, it will only get better.

It can play to 6,980 yards but for most of us, the 6,452 yellows are ample, for you

A DrAMATIc coNcLusIoN Get your drive to here and you can at least think of finding the green in regulation.