The discovery of a Legendary architect plan at Faversham Golf Club

Faversham’s Course Manager, Rob Clark, has recently undertaken extensive research into the history of the course to discover old design features… and his findings were pretty exciting!

The club now needs to rewrite the history books because Rob has found and proven that the course plan was in fact designed by none other than Dr Alister MacKenzie!

Where and when did you first discover the plans and what were your first thoughts?

Dr Alister Mackenzie’s plan was found on a rainy day when I decided to search through some old club documents which were stored away in a cupboard in our men’s locker room. The plan was stored in a box with other historical research - used to write our club centenary book in 2002. The plan was in immaculate condition and folded inside a wallet titled: Ordinance Plan 1907 Edition Faversham Golf Club. It was clear that the plan was the basis for the course we play today, and the proposal also had our original 18-hole routing marked in blue pen, proposals marked in red pen and new green positions, tee positions with bunkers and mounding heavily shaded in an unusual style.

Who designed the original plans?

Faversham originated in 1902 on Nagden Marshes near Graveney. In 1911, the club moved to Belmont Park, which was the Estate of the 4th Baron Lord Harris. Lord Harris was a colonial administrator and Governor of Bombay but was best known for developing cricket. He captained Kent and England from 1870-1889. Belmont Park estate was situated on chalk rolling terrain and the golf club hired the services of James Braid to set out a 9-hole routing. Braid was then unable to attend to finish his proposals and the club then hired the services of JH Taylor, who endorsed the routing of Braid but with the addition of 25 grass bunkers without sand.

The course then evolved through the years and extended to 18 holes after the first world war, around 1922.

Have the plans been verified as Alister Mackenzie’s work?

The plan has been verified by several Alister Mackenzie experts - which include Joshua Petite from the Mackenzie Institute and Neil Crafter from the Mackenzie society. Neil Crafter has created a timeline of Mackenzie’s life and Faversham will now be added to this timeline.

What are you planning to do with the discovery?

The club are now looking to create a history room inside the clubhouse where the plan will be presented, along with club minute book snippets which show the communications with Mackenzie and his brother Charles Mackenzie during 1924-25.

How have members reacted?

The members have in general been excited that their course had such an influence from Mackenzie - especially once they understand that he designed Augusta National. This has given our course an identity which can now be used for future design work and, potentially, restore or instate features which Mackenzie originally intended. Members have seen the value in this and can now fully understand the reasoning behind any future projects and course changes.

What are the next steps and who is involved?

The club have now invested in a modern course architect - Martin Ebert from Mackenzie and Ebert. Martin was given a brief to restore or instate the course to the original plan by Dr Alister Mackenzie, but also ensure that the course remained relevant for the modern game. From the Mackenzie plan, we could see that six holes were not routed from his proposals because the club didn’t acquire the land needed at the time. Since then, the club acquired that land in the early 1990s, and this was then used for the current practice ground. Martin has now drawn up a draft masterplan which explores the possibility of routing the course much more how Mackenzie intended and adding more length to the course. The plans include moving the current practice ground to a new piece of land which is adjacent to the clubhouse and owned by Belmont Estate. This will then allow the new layout to incorporate the old practice ground and significantly improve and lengthen this section of the course, which wasn’t possible when Mackenzie proposed the idea back in 1925.

The early negotiations with Belmont Estate have been positive and Martin will soon be completing a full detailed final course masterplan. This will hopefully give the course an exciting long-term project for future generations to enjoy and see the course progress to its full potential, but also give the course a true identity as a Mackenzie course - along with a world renowned modern architect.

Other changes: Grass species conversion

The course is part of a broader parkland area and, due to its location on chalk, it drains effectively across much of the course. The fairways are naturally rich in fine fescue/bent grasses, as previous greenkeepers left them alone. However, Faversham had faced some challenges with short cutting lengths and tree covered areas; as a result, these stressed grasses were disease-ridden and expensive to maintain, necessitating copious amounts of water, fertiliser and pesticides, which is not effective greenkeeping.

On those challenges, Rob said: “It was always a struggle with the pressure of anthracnose disease and also the long summer droughts that this part of Kent would experience most years. With the disease attacks and the moisture stresses, the short rooted annual meadow grass (Poa Aannua) suffered.”

“Fusarium disease would always be a big problem throughout winter - even when we could use the chemicals that are now banned. The greens complexes had become extremely shaded over the years from tree planting and the ingress of native woodland that was always unmanaged and been allowed to grow close to playing surfaces including tees.”

In 2021, after returning to Faversham, Rob and his team had a revolution of tree removal and agronomic change to fine grasses. His first appointment was Gordon Irvine as a consultant. On this Rob said: “Gordon was someone who I had followed for several years. After getting into contact with him, it was clear that his methods (learnt from Jim Arthur in the 1990s when he was course manager at Mill Ride) would subsequently help with advising on the turn around of our fine grasses.”

Rob knew there would be challenges in the changes he wanted to make to the grass: “Due to many issues arising from trees, it meant that many greens were extremely shaded and they were almost 100% annual meadow grass (poa annua). Gordon highlighted many trees which would need to be removed around playing surfaces to allow enough air and light to support fine grass surfaces. This has been an extremely difficult and sensitive subject at the club, as many specimen feature trees were lost during the storm of 1987 and, with concerns about global warming, was perhaps a reason no tree management was carried out over the years.”

“Nevertheless, we have gradually educated our members on the benefits and, after many tree removal projects, we are now getting much more positive comments from this work. After years of failing annual meadow grass greens suffering from disease and upheaval from invasive practices to remove thatch, members were keen to break the cycle.”

Going into the sixth year of the programme, Rob summarised the results so far: “We have seen an unbelievable change; from nearly 100% annual meadow grass greens, to most greens now being dominated with fine grasses. These are cut no lower than 4mm and run at the ideal speed for recreational golf of between 8.5’ and 9.5’.”

“At the start of the project, browntop bent was the initial grass of choice, to give an edge with dominance over the annual meadow grass; although now, we are slowly moving over to fescue on a number of the most successful greens. Our eventual goal is to achieve a balance of fescue/bent greens over the whole course, and it will be so much more of an enjoyable playing challenge.”

About Rob

Rob started as an apprentice greenkeeper in 2006, after a brief spell trying to play professional golf. Rob wanted to remain in the golf industry and loved the thought of learning what goes into maintaining golf courses; what better place to learn than his home club Faversham?

Faversham employed Rob for ten years and, in that time, he completed a level 2, level 3 and eventually a level 4 in Sports Turf Management Diploma. In 2017, Rob left Faversham after an opportunity to join the team at Royal St. George’s came up. He spent two years under the leadership of Paul Larsen and learnt about the importance of fine perennial grasses.

During his time at St George’s, he was amazed at the year-round quality of all surfaces - with little input from fertiliser, water and fungicides. After completing just under two years at St George’s, Rob felt that he had reinvented his greenkeeping knowledge and he took an opportunity to join Littlestone as first-assistant under the leadership of course manager Malcolm Grand. He commented: “The move to Littlestone allowed me to further improve my knowledge on the running game and Malcolm had a profound influence on my understanding of fine turf.”

“After 18 months at Littlestone, I then had the opportunity of moving back to my home club as a course manager. I felt that I was ready for the challenge and my experience over the last four years certainly influenced my plans on how the course could be improved agronomically.”

Who is Dr Alister Mackenzie?

Mackenzie was renowned for his ability to blend design features seamlessly into the natural beauty of his sites.

Harry Colt stayed with MacKenzie on his visit to Alwoodley Golf Club in 1907, and he was impressed by MacKenzie’s greens and bunker models. Colt immediately encouraged him to assist with his work at Alwoodley, and over the next few years, MacKenzie gradually abandoned his medical practice to pursue his passion for golf course design. His first accomplishment was earning first place in the CB Macdonald’s Country Life magazine competition for the finest two-shot hole design for the projected Lido GC on Long Island, New York. This achievement earned Mackenzie a lot of attention on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1926, MacKenzie made his first journey to the United States, when he joined forces with Harry Colt and Charles Alison, which is unusual given that they had ended their collaboration in 1923. This was the beginning of MacKenzie’s global expedition, with his first famous design, Cypress Point, commissioned in 1926. In the years that followed, MacKenzie designed some of today’s most prominent courses, including Royal Melbourne in Australia (1926), New South Wales GC in Australia (1928) and Pasatiempo in California (1929), before collaborating closely with Bobby Jones to create Augusta.