Kirklees is a small county with an outsized golfing pedigree. Across its twelve clubs you find a working mix of five parkland courses, three moorland layouts and two heathland tracks, spread through Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Cleckheaton, Mirfield and Bradford. What sets the area apart is how many of these courses share the same architect: Dr Alister MacKenzie, who went on to design Augusta National, Cypress Point and Royal Melbourne, left more fingerprints on this corner of West Yorkshire than almost anywhere else in England.
MacKenzie's Yorkshire Signature
Cleckheaton Golf Club, opened on 29th July 1922, was one of MacKenzie's earlier commissions and still holds one of Yorkshire's longest par threes. A few miles away at Dewsbury District, near Mirfield, his 1891-founded parkland course sits on a hilltop with natural undulations; the 9th green is the acknowledged signature hole and the 14th has an approach shot golfers talk about long after the round. At Crosland Heath in Huddersfield, the heathland layout is said to be little changed from MacKenzie's original design a century ago, with heather-lined fairways, old quarries worked into the routing, and an opening four holes that play to all four points of the compass on firm, free-draining turf. Marsden, up on Pennine moorland at the edge of the Peak District National Park, is perhaps the most dramatic of the four, overlooking Wessenden Valley with a signature par 3 sixth guarded by a barn.
Moorland and Heathland Golf on Higher Ground
Beyond the MacKenzie courses, Kirklees' moorland golf rewards a bit of nerve. Outlane, three miles from Huddersfield, sits on elevated ground with views stretching to Emley Moor Mast and Castle Hill, and its three signature holes require ravine carries over Longwood Brook — the 8th is claimed to be the longest par 3 in Yorkshire from the white tees. East Bierley, a nine-hole club near Bradford dating to 1909 and settled on its current site since 1923, blends parkland and moorland character and has been steadily upgraded over the last two decades. For heathland with a quirk, Hanging Heaton in Dewsbury offers