Welsh-born golf course architect Ian Scott-Taylor was extended an honorary overseas individual membership to The Alister MacKenzie Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Scott-Taylor, whose practice is based in Maryland, is one of only two international architects in the Society, which is headquartered at Alwoodley Golf Club, a MacKenzie course, in Leeds, England.
Scott-Taylor, a student and admirer of MacKenzie’s architectural style, also has a close family connection to one of golf’s great “Golden Age” designers whose work in Britain and the United States was done in the first half of the 1900s. Scott-Taylor’s grandfather, a medical doctor as was MacKenzie, was an acquaintance of the Doctor before he became a designer of some of the game’s most famous golf courses.
“My grandfather, Dr. David Scott-Taylor, and Dr MacKenzie first met in Edinburgh,” Scott-Taylor recalls. “Grandfather was at the university’s medical college, was a scratch golfer and also had the reputation as a fine rugby player. MacKenzie was keen on rugby and they became fast friends. They both served in the British Army during World War I and later my grandfather became a surgeon at Chester Royal Infirmary and would host MacKenzie at his home there and also in Wales at Holyhead.
“On one such visit to Holyhead, grandfather took MacKenzie to Nefyn to play and he was so struck with the dramatic cliff top holes that he set about looking for land to emulate what he had experienced. I believe this trip became the inspiration for his design of Cypress Point and also his work at Monterey Peninsula Country Club’s Dunes Course.”
Scott-Taylor also is a member of the The Tillinghast Association and the Donald Ross Society.
Ian Scott-Taylor Golf Architect LLC www.ianscott-taylor.com
Alister MacKenzie Society www.alistermackenzie.co.uk