Philip was the son of Alexander Mackenzie Ross, who was born in Edinburgh in 1850, on the doorstep of the historic Bruntsfield Links,. He was the owner of the Café Royal Hotel in the Scottish capital and was also the most successful exhibition caterer of his day.

On the golfing front, Alexander was a member of the Edinburgh Burgess Golfing Society and a frequent medallist at Gullane, Luffness and North Berwick. Along with his friend Colonel Baird, he laid out the first holes at Mildenhall, before Tom Dunn was called in to extend the short course in 1890.

Ross Sr. was Captain at Luffness New in 1897 when a number of members broke away to form Kilspindie the following year, and he assisted Ben Sayers with the design of the new course. He was also on the committee that oversaw the introduction of the second course at Gullane between 1898 and 1900.

Considering his father’s involvement in golf course construction, it wasn’t such an unexpected step when Philip moved into golf course architecture after The Great War. Indeed, it’s said that as a boy he’d already laid out a miniature course on land next to the family home at Hill House on top of Gullane Hill.

Further biography details to follow…

Extracts:

"P. M. Ross learned golf at Royal Musselburgh and won several amateur medals as a youth. He served with the British Army during World War I and upon discharge looked for a golf-related job. By chance he met golf architect Tom Simpson, who hired him as a construction boss in 1920. By the mid-Twenties, Ross was a full partner in the firm of Simpson and Ross." The Golf Course Geoff Cornish and Ron Whitten

“Mackenzie Ross was not as prolific an architect as many of his competitors, yet the courses he designed or remodelled illustrated his genius, each layout having a considerable impact on modern golf course design. His skill was his ability to see the potential in a site and then maximise it.

He wouldn’t make a decision until he had considered it hard and long. He would explore the alternatives, weigh up the benefits and constraints, and only then would he eventually commit himself to a layout for the course.

His work can be regarded as of equal merit to that of such legendary contemporary architects as Fowler, Colt, MacKenzie and Simpson.

They all understood the intricacies of the game itself, and they studied closely the designs of the older courses from which they found inspiration. They all seemed to possess a similar vision – to maintain the mystique of the game, and to keep this element alive.” Jonathan Gaunt in a Golf Course Architecture article from April 2007.