Crosland Heath

A read through the 20th revision of The Dr. Alister MacKenzie Chronology 1870 – 1934 by the MacKenzie Research Group reveals how busy Alister MacKenzie was during 1913 – inspecting, reporting and planning all over Yorkshire; from Harrogate to Halifax and from Hallamshire to Headingley.

The document fails to mention any of MacKenzie’s work at Crosland Heath so that particular project flies well under the radar of those who normally do such a brilliant job of detailing the Good Doctor’s movements back in the day. Even the Huddersfield Daily Examiner report from 7th August 1913 doesn’t name the architect:

“When the members of Cowlersley Golf Club get their new course at Crosland Heath there is one thing of which they will not be able to complain. They cannot say there is any lack of variety… it requires very little of the imaginative faculty to see that away on top of the hills above the Sands House Inn the players will have a course full of interest from the first hole to the last.”

Crosland Heath Golf Club was founded the following year, operating its new heathland course on a landscape of disused quarries and redundant farmland, with spectacular views available from its high vantage point across to Huddersfield and beyond. Not much has changed here in more than a hundred years since then.

Today’s course measures just over 6,000 yards from the back markers, playing to a par of 71; 36 out and 35 in. Highlights here include the long par four 5th (rated stoke index 1); the short par four 7th (played to a long, narrow green) and all three short holes on the back nine, each of which plays to a different point on the compass.