Dr. Mackenzie in South America: Buenos Aires, Argentina

After hopping on the ferry from Montevideo, Uruguay I landed in Puerto Madero 3 hours later ready to explore Buenos Aires.  Beyond the typical sight seeing I had a specific goal in mind (as always), to see the golf on offer in the area.  My first full day visiting Buenos Aires I made my way to the city's public course El Campo de Golf de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires  Its a mouth-full...I paid 30 Argentinia Pesos for my round of golf, that is all of $6.84 USD.  The course is within the city limits and was a short cab ride from the city center.  I was drawn to the course in particular because Dr. Alister Mackenzie also paid a visit back in 1934 to renovate and redesign the routing.

The property is completely flat, well used and a bit raggedy.  I found it to be on par with the conditions of the NYC courses I grew up playing in Staten Island (but with bermuda grass).  

There are back to back double greens on the front nine 2/9 and 3/16!  This surprised me, as well as a double tee in the middle of the back nine.  I'll also never forget the shocker of a par-3 with 50 foot trees directly in front of the tee.  I barely got my 8-iron over and onto the green.  Anything less than perfect is in jail!  Other than the two double greens and the par 3 10th, the greens were not particularly special.  The real challenge lies in narrow openings to approach the greens which are guarded by shallow bunkers.

Kinda' funky for a public track, which seems to serve the city very well.


For more pictures, check out the slideshow, with captions!