MacKenzie’s Masterpiece

From one Alister Mackenzie course to another.

As we say goodbye to old friends and the major that kicks off the golf season, I would like to share with you my favorite golf course- another Alister MacKenzie design- Cypress Point.

Augusta National and Cypress Point are famously tied together thanks to a bit of bad play by Bobby Jones in the 1929 US Amateur at Pebble Beach. Bob Jones’ bad play freed him up to play two of Mackenzie’s California masterpieces. That ill fated expulsion from the Amateur allowed Jones to play on opening day of Pasatiempo with none other than Marion Hollins & then again at Cypress Point. The influence of these two courses on Jones is well documented - upon learning of Mackenzie’s affection for St Andrews, it was a lock and the rest as they say is (golf) history.

Very few, if any of the rankings of greatest golf courses list Cypress Point as their number one course (even in the USA) but to me it’s seventeen perfect holes cast zero shadow of doubt in this golfer’s mind that Cypress Point should sit on top.

Its never hosted a major, instead it’s history has been told mostly by the Crosby Clambake & private matches that few know about (outside of the famed Match of amateurs versus professionals made famous by Mark Frost’s book). This club’s legend only grows from its perfect design and its tantalizing yet forbidden views from 17 mile drive.

Cypress Point is our Field of Dreams- it is where the ghosts of legends long past still play golf in the Monterey Bay Fog. In Monterey, the summers belong to those golfing ghouls- they play about with their hickory shafted sticks when the course is covered with a mist thick enough to keep the living at bay, so that those golfing ghouls may play this glorious game.

No matter how far I am from my last visit to Cypress Point- it’s always with me. When my longing becomes to unbearable, I tune my sleep app to the “Ocean Waves of Monterey” and tee off with the other dreamers & sometimes the occasional ghoul.

In 2025 Cypress Point will host the Walker Cup. If you have the opportunity please consider attending.

The Biggest Mistake in Professional Golf History

What is the biggest mistake in the history of professional golf? There are two and they are related, though one of those mistakes might be driven more by hindsight.

The mistake(s) was/were made out of necessity, but it’s a mistake that is felt every May when we are force fed the idea that golf has a fifth major (it does not).

The PGA Tour and the PGA of America were one and the same from 1916 to 1968. By 1967 the rumblings from the tour professionals led to a coup d'é·tat of sorts. The tour professionals believed that they weren’t getting their share of the television revenue, which created a rift led by players like Palmer and Nicklaus.  The break up was made official in 1968, but under terms of that separation the PGA of America retained all rights and proceeds to the third oldest major championship in golf, the PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup. According to Jared Doerfler & his newsletter the Perfect Putt which dives into the business of golf, Doerfler estimates the PGA of America made $30M+ from the Ryder Cup at Whistling Straights (not including the television revenue). The collective losses between the two major events likely add up to billions of dollars since the break up.

Beyond the capital infusement, the loss of these two events leave the PGA Tour without a major championship under its umbrella and out of the driver seat for what has become the world’s premier international event.

Hindsight is often 20/20. Looking back, the real mistake in 1968 was giving up the PGA Championship. Afterall the Ryder Cup was a lop-sided exhibition that made no money and for decades after the separation was still a loss leader.

How do you not make the deal that includes running one of the four major championships? You have to be negotiating from a place without leverage. The tour players wanted out and they had to give the PGA of America what it wanted to get their new tour.

Within 6 years of the seperation, the PGA Tour created Tournament Players Championship which was shortened to the Players Championship, which was shortened to the Players and during the past five decades of the tournament we have been spoon fed that it’s the 5th major. Why? Because the PGA Tour gave up control of the PGA Championship in 1968.

What does the future hold?

If I ran the PGA Tour, the first thing I would do is to reunite the game. The second thing I would do with billions of dollars of cash infusion would be to make a deal with the PGA of America to purchase the PGA Championship and Ryder Cup.

Reunite the game and reunite the PGA Championship with the PGA Tour.

But that’s me.

An Artifact from the Golffice Museum

An 1895 photograph of what would become the famed 16th hole in at Cypress Point Golf Club three decades later.

Cypress Point was famous well before it became one of the greatest golf courses in the world. In 1891, President Benjamin Harrison traveled cross country via train and during his tour of the state of California he had lunch at Cypress Point (presumedly on what is now the 16th green).

the history of the 16th is equally as interesting. The hole is often credited as a par three due to the influence of Marion Hollins when she teed it up and hit a ball across the chasm. If we are to believe the maps which have been discovered in the past decade, the plans for the 16th green precede MacKenzie and date back to one of the first routings of the course by Seth Raynor.

Our golfing forefathers & foremothers were just as crazy as we are today. I am certain golfers teed it up to take on that oceanic chasm prior to the first shovel in the ground.