Fairway Files: Cavendish – MacKenzie’s Buxton Blueprint

Words by Jack Tranter

Set in the hills of Buxton and sketched by the hand of Dr Alister MacKenzie, Cavendish is as raw and clever as it is beautiful. While it’s often dubbed the spiritual predecessor to Augusta, Cavendish doesn’t need to ride shotgun to any reputation. It doesn’t rely on length, intimidation, or extravagance. Cavendish is subtle, strategic, and brimming with identity.

Warming (and Wising) Up

The opening stretch is gentle at first glance. Three par 4’s that play back and forth across sloping ground. Whilst they may seem fairly unassuming, they immediately introduce one of the core defences: its greens. Each one is a puzzle. Blind tee shots, tilted fairways, and deceptive approaches ensure your head is fully in the game early doors.

The fourth is the first of five par 3s, and a real peach. A little drop shot across a brook to a tiny target nestled between water and grassy slopes. Short, yes. But absolutely devilish.

The ‘Real’ Cavendish Emerges

From the fifth onwards, Cavendish reveals itself in full. With ravines, brooks, bold elevation changes, it’s a real architectural adventure. 

The fifth introduces a brook and a copse down the right that shouldn’t be in play… but often is. The routing begins to wind in and out of mature woodland, with trees and shrubs framing narrow undulated green sights that lure you in both functionally and aesthetically. The sixth is a straight away par 4 that drops you back down from the tee towards the lower portion of the golf course, and leads you beautifully to the seventh; a stunning short par 4 framed by Azaleas that offers a really feast for the mind strategically. In full bloom, the Azaleas bring a wildly discussed essence of Augusta to the Derbyshire hills. 

Craters and Chasm’s

The tenth for me is the most jaw-dropping hole. A long par 4 where your tee shot threads between a large crater on the left and OB right. The second plays to a green that sits high above a chasm short with a stream running below. An absolute feast for the eyes that requires precision and respect from tee to green.

As you drop down from the eleventh tee, another  hazard guarded green appears. Miss long or short, and you’re in trouble. It’s not flashy, but it is surgical.

The par 3s here don’t shout at you, but they don’t need to. The thirteenth is a standout, cut into the side of a hill and lengthy. The narrow green site only adds to the drama, mis-club at your peril.

Then the fourteenth. A lone par 5 that slides uphill and left, with a stone wall marking out-of-bounds and a raised green that refuses to yield. The false front is a classic MacKenzie calling card. It’s surreal, rural, and utterly brilliant.

The par 3 fifteenth is short, played from an elevated tee across a gaping valley to a devilish green site, it’s Cavendish at full expression. The club selection has to be perfect. Anything else, and you’re scrambling once again. Sixteen drops you down once again towards the clubhouse with spectacular views across the fairways, to a sunken green guarded by thick rough all the way down the left flank. 

Cavendish in Closing

The final two holes in my opinion offer a fantastic ‘match play’ close. Seventeen a par 3, playing mostly into and off the right winds that make club selection once again key, the narrow and sloping green once again offering little solitude with putter in hand.

Eighteen is a fabulous hole. The fairway buckles and then banks from left to right, encouraging a ‘blast’ to the relatively flat section that is the best viewing gallery for the approach. The picturesque white Clubhouse watches on from the left, with the patio often packed with golfers that have made the same walk eagerly anticipating something spectacular from the fairway into the for once generous green.

Cavendish isn’t just about the greens, though they are world-class. It’s about the rhythm, full of surprises, and the gives a sense that no hole is just a ‘filler’. From long carries to subtle strategic traps, it feels like the kind of place you could play every day and still uncover new angles, new ideas, and new shots.

A joy to walk. A puzzle to solve. And a privilege to play.