Donald Steel grew up as a young boy in Hillingdon on the outskirts of London during a time of bombing raids and air raid shelters. His father was a surgeon, physician and Medical Director of a large hospital and his mother was a nursing sister.

He learned to play the game as a junior at Denham, his father’s club, where John Sheridan was appointed professional in 1946. John was the son of Jimmy Sheridan, the Sunningdale caddie master, and both men served their respective clubs for more than half a century.

Cricket was Donald’s first sporting love and he played for Fettes College, Edinburgh for four years, becoming the first person from a Scottish school to play in the Public Schools XI against the Combined Services at Lord’s in his final year, 1956.

He then enrolled at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Batchelor of Arts degree in Agriculture in 1960.

 from his university days and the journalist invited him to help out when the 

 started up in February 1961. He began as golf correspondent for the weekly newspaper on a 6-month trial period, making him the youngest specialist writer in Fleet Street at the age of 23.

His involvement in golf course design began with a story he was writing about 

, who was building two layouts at St Pierre and Ross-on-Wye. They kept in touch and a couple of years later, Ken invited Donald to work with him in his design practice in 1965.

Donald takes up the story, in an extract from his own website: “He became a partner of Cotton, 

 and Charles Lawrie. All three were fine golfers and men of great kindness and integrity. Their help and influence provided the perfect grounding for any young protégé.

On the death of Cotton in 1974 and Lawrie in 1976, Steel and Pennink worked with Michael Bonallack for five or six years but, on Pennink's death and Bonallack's appointment as Secretary of the R&A, both in 1983, Steel's thoughts turned to the founding of his own company in 1987. It proved a roller coaster ride.

Since 1987, Donald Steel has travelled more widely than any golf course architect in the world. This has entailed two thousand flights as well as half a million miles at the wheel of his own car, rental cars or enjoying the luxury of being driven. His passport bears the stamp of 25 countries.”

 joined Donald’s practice soon after it was established at the end of the 1980s and they remained with him until he became President of the English Golf Union in 2006.

From Donald Steel's website:
On the Churchillian assumption that a man is fortunate if his work and pleasure are one, Donald Steel has had forty five years doing what he has loved best. In his chosen careers of golf writing and golf course architecture, a balance of interest has given the best of both worlds. Still does.

What is more, it has earned unprecedented recognition from his two professional bodies. He has served as President of the Association of Golf Writers (1993-98) and the British Association of Golf Course Architects (1986-89).

If watching champions and studying new land passes as work, the playing side of a varied life shows (or, at least, did) that he can practise what he preaches. Proficient enough to have taken take part in the 1970 Open Championship at St Andrews, and to have represented England at International level, he was a regular contestant in amateur championships and occasional professional events (as an amateur).

In addition, he won the Oxford and Cambridge Golfing Society’s famous President's Putter on three occasions – 18 years apart. Serious Fun, a phrase adopted by Steel in 1985 and used in the title of the Society’s History, rings true.

Paul Daley, who edited a scholarly appraisal of Melbourne's great Sandbelt courses as well as several volumes on golf course architecture, paid a notable compliment:


"To assist Donald in his line of work, three skills are at hand:

At each of these elements, one may find others who may be more proficient. But, if you take these skills as a package and take a composite rating, Donald Steel is, in my opinion, the leading golfing personality in the world, and among the top 5 in our game's glorious history."

 added spice to his indoctrination by winning the first two Open championships that Steel covered. Altogether Steel reported 32 Opens in succession. After leaving the Telegraph at the end of 1989, he continued to write for Country Life having, in 1983, become only the magazine’s fourth regular writer on golf. He followed the distinguished line of Horace Hutchinson, Bernard Darwin and Pat Ward-Thomas.

“My first ‘solo’ design was the 9-hole course for Harrow School on a piece of ground full of ups and downs – hence not much use for anything else except army exercises. Radley, Charterhouse, Bradfield and Wellington followed suit. Such courses provided something for everybody in introducing a new dimension to school activities.

Greatness in a course is the sum of its individual holes. The overall length is of little consequence. Courses come in all shapes and sizes. There are no rules or formulae relating to the sequence of their design. The land dictates. Architects are the judge and must make the best of what they are given. Nobody criticizes Cypress for having successive par fives, successive short par fours and successive par threes.

Architectural teaching has always been based on the principle that strategic architecture is more worthy than the Penal school of thought. That is why a study of the Old Course at St Andrews used to be a must. The strategic belief is providing alternatives, highlighting positional play, recognising the ability to flight the ball, encouraging guile and ingenuity, and rewarding skill. The punishment must fit the crime. Good architects tempt and tease not torment. Subtlety and sympathy are the substance of strategy.”

Planet Golf:
Aside from boasting an impressive Amateur resume, Donald Steel is a respected golf writer and historian who started in the design business in 1965 with Frank Pennink. Steel subsequently established his own practice and has since famously consulted at all of the British Open championship venues. He has also designed a number of new golf courses from scratch.

Lorne Rubenstein:
Mackenzie and Ebert worked for a Renaissance man of golf. He wrote golf for the 

, a British national newspaper, for nearly 20 years. He contributed a column under the title ‘A Golf Commentary’ for the English magazine 

 was the first book written specifically about links golf, and it’s a classic itself. Steel is as gifted a speaker as a writer; for years, he’s been one of the most engaging and sought-after after-dinner speakers in the game.

Books of which Steel was author, co-author, editor or co-editor include.

The Shell International Encyclopedia of Golf

 – with Peter Ryde & Herbert Warren Wind (1975)

Sunday Telegraph Golf Course Guide to Britain and Ireland

Classic Golf Links of Great Britain and Ireland 

Thin End of the Wedge – a life in golf 

When asked to share a ‘famous golf celebrities’ anecdote, Donald answered: “The only one I will relate concerns my participation in the Open [at St Andrews in 1970] when, on the 16th hole in the second round, I played so well left that I encountered Arnold Palmer going the other way on the 3rd. Understandably aghast, he asked, ‘what are you doing here, Donald?’ ‘Oh, downgrading the championship you came to save,’ I replied.”

Donald Steel

Cricket was Donald Steel's first sporting love and he played for Fettes College, becoming the first person from a Scottish school to play in the Public Schools XI against the Combined Services at Lord’s.

 was born in the west of Scotland, the son of a mechanical engineer father and a mother who was a historian and Old Norse linguist. While still a teenager, his family moved to the Highlands and he spent a good part of his formative golfing years in Dornoch working as a greenkeeper and a caddy.

He carried Seve Ballesteros’s bag when he came to play an exhibition match at his old club and he later spent a year on the European Tour caddying for professionals like Andrew Oldcorn and Jeff Hawkes. Mackenzie studied at Edinburgh College of Art and Heriot Watt University, playing to a low single figure handicap when competing in university golf matches.

Tom graduated with a Landscape Architecture degree in 1989 and began work almost immediately with 

, which was a dream start for a young man setting out in his design career. A member of West Sussex Golf Club, he’s also a member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, serving as president from 2015 to 2107.

 enrolled at Cambridge University to study engineering, organising the university golf club’s tour to the northeast of the United States of America in 1989, the year of the 100th Varsity Match, when the squad played at the likes of Merion, Pine Valley and Shinnecock Hills. After gaining a degree in his chosen subject, Martin did a postgraduate year which meant another year of university golf, naturally.

He applied for many jobs within the golf industry and ended up interviewing for what he hoped would be a management position at Foxhills Country Club & Resort. Instead, he was offered a start as a waiter! As it turned out, he became friendly with (and later married) one of the Spanish waitresses, Ana Alonso from Santander, who had been studying law in Madrid but was then learning English in England.

She introduced Martin to Manuel Ballesteros when they were in the north of Spain on a visit but the lack of a relevant qualification in a subject such as agronomy prevented him getting a start with Amen Corner, Seve’s design firm. Instead, he returned home and spent time as a night shift shelf stacker in a local supermarket before his big breakthrough into golf happened through Andy Mackenzie, whose brother Tom had been working for a year with architect Donald Steel.

 article by Peter Masters in June 2019, the author has this to say about Martin’s early days with Donald Steel:

It started as something of an apprenticeship but quite quickly progressed into a strong three-man team with Steel leading from the front before allowing his younger fledglings to deal with the more detailed design work. He rarely drew any maps or plans, preferring to work on site with the developers and constructors.

This was in contrast to Tom whose skilful sketches set him aside from the other two. “The quality of his drawings blew my mind,” remembers Ebert.” I couldn’t do that, but I could do engineering contour plans defining levels of the ground. Tom copied me and that’s what we use today.”

 was formed in 2005, after Tom and Martin had spent fifteen productive years as lead designers with Donald Steel & Company. Chris Hugget, an Engineering Design graduate who did graphic design for Donald, joined the firm in 2006 and he now looks after a variety of functions for the practice, including 2D and 3D visualisation, drafting and documentation. He’s also a qualified drone pilot.

Mike Howard, a graduate in Environmental Geography at the University of Stirling with a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the University of Edinburgh, is the newest member of the team, arriving in 2016. He still plays in national tournaments but is involved in a wide range of activities, from historic research to on-site construction visits.

An important part of the firm’s effort involves offering advice to golf clubs. As their website states: “all clubs have different needs and problems and we relish our advisory work on established courses. It is amongst the most challenging work but is often the most rewarding.”

As at the end of 2018, it’s reckoned the company had offered guidance to nearly two hundred clubs since it had been formed. At that time, it was providing consultation services to seven of the ten clubs currently on the Open rota. This work forms only a small percentage of the company’s total output but it’s easily the most prestigious and high profile element of what they do.

Upgrade work at Royal Troon, Trump Turnberry and Royal Portrush has been carried out following the company’s tried and trusted formula of conducting historical research into the evolution and development of the courses, taking a close look at club archives, assessing past editions of newspapers and sourcing old ground and aerial photography.

Other completed projects to re-open to critical acclaim in recent times include the reworked Himalayas nine at Prince’s in Kent, Delamere Forest in Cheshire, the Championship layout at Trevose in Cornwall and the West course at Saunton in Devon.

Heathland regeneration programs have also been supported at clubs such as Liphook, New Zealand, Hindhead and Royal Wimbledon, where selected tree removal and restoration of heathland areas offers wildlife a more natural habitat in which to thrive.

On the international front, Martin and Tom worked in North America and a few other overseas locations during their time with Donald Steel but their foreign work has been fairly limited in the past few years. That may well change following the firm’s appointment to restore Hugh Alison’s world-ranked layout at Hirono in Japan and it’ll be interesting to see if similar assignments come their way following the completion of this one.

There are two Goodwood Golf Clubs located in different continents in Mackenzie & Ebert's portfolio. Goodwood Golf Club in Sussex, England (originally designed by 

) was a renovation project. Goodwood Golf Club in Ontario, Canada, is an original Mackenzie & Ebert design. Ironically both are private clubs.

Tom Mackenzie and Martin Ebert were lead designers at Donald Steel & Co. for fifteen years before starting their own company in 2005. They advise seven of the ten current Open venues and consult at a large number of clubs with courses ranked in our Britain & Ireland Top 100.

Mackenzie & Ebert

Mackenzie & Ebert was formed in 2005, after the duo had spent fifteen years as lead designers with Donald Steel & Co. They now provide advice to seven of the ten current Open Championship venues.

Rhode Island

The Carnegie Abbey Club was formed at the start of the new millennium and the club’s golf course is laid out on property leased from Portsmouth Abbey School, a Benedictine Boarding Prep School established back in 1926. The new ownership changed the club's name to The Aquidneck Club in 2019.

A number of fairways are said to lie on land where the Battle of Rhode Island took place in 1778 and this skirmish between opposing American and British forces is commemorated on the course with hole names such as “Bloody Run,” “Patriot’s Stand” and “Hessians' Hole”.

The course actually came to prominence the year after it opened when it featured in a “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf” televised match, played between Sam Torrance and Curtis Strange, the non-playing Ryder Cup Captains in 2002. The American won the match by three strokes.

Toughest ranked hole on the Aquidneck Club scorecard is the 412-yard 16th (”Coal Miner’s Way”), where the fairway doglegs slightly to a tiered green that’s protected by sand to the front right hand side of the putting surface.

Aquidneck Club

Newport Country Club

North America

A Donald Steel and Tom Mackenzie design, the Aquidneck Club (formerly Carnegie Abbey) is routed across wetlands where the Battle of Rhode Island was fought. Constructed with a light touch, it contains few sand traps and four holes are bunkerless.