DISCOVERING ALEX RUSSELL
AUSTRALIA’S foremost golf course designer was honoured recently with the release of his biography, Discovering Alex Russell, the Man and His Legacy, by Neil Crafter and John Green.
Most players with a sense of history can associate Russell’s name with the design of the East Course at Royal Melbourne while those who tend to bore you to tears (present company included) at dinner parties or in the bar can add Lake Karrinyup in Perth, Paraparaumu Beach in New Zealand and Yarra Yarra in Melbourne’s Sandbelt to the list.
This alone makes him a significant figure in our game and many aficionados until now have lamented his lack of wider recognition. Another view is that it is good the book has taken so long because it has been done properly. The golfing annals contain many works on worthwhile subjects that could have been done so much better but Crafter and Green have nailed this one.
Suffice to say, they come well-credentialed. Green, 88, is a retired GP, a three-time club champion at Royal Melbourne and a passionate and knowledgeable lover of the game’s history. Crafter is a real architect (neither Alister MacKenzie nor Russell had formal qualifications in this area), who played Eisenhower Cup for Australia while his sister, Jane, won on both the US and Australian pro tours.
Russell’s name is inextricably linked to MacKenzie because they collaborated on the latter’s design of the West Course at Royal Melbourne in 1926. This can give the impression that Russell (pictured right) was riding on the great Scot’s coat tails. MacKenzie was world famous at the time, came recommended by the R&A, charged like a wounded bull for his services and went on to design Augusta National, home of the US Masters.
However, on the comparatively small stage in Melbourne he saw in Russell someone who shared and understood his design philosophy and on the strength of this made him a business partner to oversee the construction with legendary course superintendent Mick Morcom.
If the collaboration on the West Course had just been a flash in the pan, we would have heard no more of Russell. As it was, he designed the other courses on his own and as Peter Thomson, five-time British Open champion and course designer, says astutely in the book’s foreword: “In a notable coincidence, two consecutive events on the Australasian Tour of the summer of 2001-2002 were played over courses that were the planning brainchild of Alex Russell. The Johnny Walker Classic that season was played at Lake Karrinyup while the venue for the Heineken Classic was Royal Melbourne’s famed Composite Course. In the same season the New Zealand Open was held at Paraparaumu Beach and the Australian Ladies Open was decided at Yarra Yarra, a remarkable achievement for one architect.” While they shared the philosophy that shaped the Sandbelt in Melbourne, and heavily influenced golf course design around the world – and served their country at war – they did not have much else in common. Russell commanded an artillery battalion in World War I and won the Military Cross for bravery; MacKenzie served with the British Army in the Boer War but as personalities they were very different. The Scot was no shrinking violet when it came to the press while Russell, the scion of a wealthy grazing dynasty, kept his public utterances to the minimum and enjoyed playing with his own class on his own course at ‘Mawollok’ – one of the family holdings near Geelong. Before golf, MacKenzie had been a doctor. Cambridge educated Russell did not need to work for a living but for a time was the private secretary of Prime Minister Stanley Bruce, who went on to become the first Australian captain of the R&A.
Despite Russell’s reticence, the authors have managed to unearth some nuggets: “A hole is not worth a damn if no one comments on it one way or another,” he said. And: “If a hole has to be blind, make it bloody blind.”
Perhaps the best came from a maid at ‘Mawallok’ who said on the occasion of him winning the 1924 Australian Open as an amateur on his home course at Royal Melbourne: “Well he would. He plays golf every day, don’t he?”
Russell (1892-1961), who did not suffer fools lightly, would approve of this book. It is meticulously researched, well written and a rich trove of historical illustrations.
It also has gems of trivia from which can be extrapolated: What do Alex Russell, Norman von Nida and Jack Nicklaus have in common? All have their names pronounced incorrectly. Russell spelt his name Alex but always referred to himself as Alec. The Von’s name is universally pronounced ‘Needa’, while he said Nigh-dah. And the Bear calls himself Nick-louse. Steer well clear of the famed Scot. Even he was not sure, signing his name both ‘MacKenzie’ and ‘Mackenzie’.
Alex Russell: The Man and His Legacy by Neil Crafter and John Green, 256 pages hardback, profusely illustrated with many period images and plans. It is available for $95 plus shipping from