Championship VenueBucket List

Moortown Golf Club

Leeds, West Yorkshire · Designed by Alister MacKenzie (1909) · Est. 1909

Moortown holds a special place in golf history as the venue for the 1929 Ryder Cup — the first ever played on British soil — where a home team captained by George Duncan beat Walter Hagen's Americans. It was also one of the earliest courses designed by Alister MacKenzie, who lived in Leeds and would go on to create Cypress Point and Augusta National; Moortown is where he began to work out the ideas that would make him the most famous architect in golf.

Laid out in 1909 on moorland heath north of Leeds, it runs to around 7,000 yards, par 71, over springy turf between heather, gorse and silver birch. MacKenzie's bunkering and greens give it real strategic bite, and it has stayed at championship standard, hosting Ryder Cups, the Brabazon Trophy and countless top amateur and professional events over the decades.

Its most storied hole is the par-3 10th, "Gibraltar" — the very first hole MacKenzie built at Moortown, laid out as a demonstration to persuade the members, and a green defended by bunkers and mounding that still bears his stamp. Visitors are welcome.

Holes worth knowing

110th "Gibraltar" (par-3) — the first hole MacKenzie built here, laid out to convince the members to hire him; its bunkered, mounded green still defines the course.
2The heather-and-gorse two-shotters — MacKenzie's strategic bunkering and bold greens give Moortown genuine championship teeth across the round.

Highlights

First Ryder Cup on British soil (1929)
An early Alister MacKenzie design
The famous "Gibraltar" par-3 10th
Championship moorland heath near Leeds

Good to know

→This is where the Ryder Cup first came to Britain in 1929 — a genuine piece of the game's history, and the home team won.
→Alister MacKenzie lived in Leeds and cut his teeth here before Cypress Point and Augusta — Moortown is an early sketch of a genius at work.
→"Gibraltar," the par-3 10th, was his demonstration hole, built first to win the commission — study its defences, they are pure MacKenzie.
→The north-Leeds heaths are a cluster: Alwoodley (also MacKenzie) and Sand Moor are minutes away, making a superb two- or three-course day.
→Leeds Bradford Airport is 20 minutes and Leeds city centre 15 — Harrogate's spa-town hotels and restaurants make a comfortable nearby base.