Lake Merced Golf Club: The Return to Alister MacKenzie

Alex Elias

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Courtesy of Holderness & Bourne

Originally designed in 1923 by Willie Lock, Lake Merced Golf Club underwent a renovation by Alister MacKenzie in 1929. In the decades that followed, the construction of a freeway forced Robert Muir Graves to re-route the course in 1962, and in 1996, Rees Jones oversaw a renovation of the greens and bunkers. In 2020, Lake Merced hired Hanse Golf Course Design to renovate the course.

Initially brought in to achieve Lake Merced’s objectives, architect Gil Hanse and partner Jim Wagner presented a plan to restore the course to MacKenzie’s design.

“The impetus was we needed to update the greens, bunkers, and irrigation, and possibly re-locate the driving range,” said Pat Steffes, Head Golf Professional at Lake Merced Golf Club. “But when Gil arrived, he was immediately confident we could restore the vast majority of MacKenzie’s original design. That was the big transition in the renovation. The scope became much bigger—every hole would be completely changed and the range would move across the property.”

​In all, Hanse and Wagner rebuilt 18 greens, refurbished 150,000 square feet of bunkering, restored and expanded every tee complex,  relocated the practice facility across the property, and installed a new irrigation system.

“Fourteen of the holes were restored to MacKenzie’s original design, as Hanse worked mainly from a 1938 aerial photo. Three were made sympathetic to the original design—for example, the current 17th is similar to MacKenzie’s 18th, though the bunkers are now on the left rather than the right—and Hanse designed one new hole, the 16th,” said Steffes.

Courtesy of Evan Schiller (@evan_schiller_photography)

The northwest corner of the course saw the most dramatic transformation, particularly at the Par-4 12th and Par-3 13th. Highlighting No. 12 as his favorite, Steffes said, “It’s a golf hole you don’t see in many places, especially in our area. It’s a 476-yard Par-4 that plays shorter, but you’re still going to have a decent club in, hitting downhill to a punchbowl green, fairway-cut around it with tremendous bunkering. It’s just a really unique hole that Gil was able to recapture.”

Courtesy of Evan Schiller (@evan_schiller_photography)

Courtesy of Tim Ball

“Immediately after, you play the Par-3 13th, which, to determine the scale, Gil estimated using the shoulder width of people standing next to one another in an old photo,” said Steffes. “The bunkering is incredible. It’s a pretty simple hole at only 150 yards from the back tee, but it’s a little scary when you stand on the tee. There are bunkers that shouldn’t be in play, but you’re thinking about them as you’re hitting.”

As Steffes alluded to the deceptive bunkering on No. 13, MacKenzie’s deceptive bunkering​ has been restored throughout the course.

“When you view the course now, you know it’s the course that was meant to be played. You see MacKenzie’s style,” said Steffes. “One feature is his deceptive bunkering, where a bunker is offset from the green but appears as if it’s greenside. No. 1 is a great example. The bunkers are twenty-five yards short, but if you’re playing the hole for the first time, you would think they were greenside.”

Comparing the course post-renovation, Steffes said, “The old design was very one-dimensional. It didn’t demand nearly the same creativity. You now have three shots you can hit into basically any green. You can fly it, bump it, or putt, and you can utilize more of the short-grass contours.”

As Lake Merced re-opened in 2022, Steffes said, “The foresight of Gil and the membership to go ahead and commit to something like this can’t be overlooked. We are incredibly proud of our MacKenzie lineage, and to have brought back the history is very unique. A lot of places either can’t do it or don’t get the opportunity.”