The Firm & Fast Golf Podcast · Shane Derby

ODG Series #7 - Discovering Alex Russell with Neil Crafter

·1 hr 27 min·4 clips

Russell and McKenzie were both Cambridge-educated, First World War artillery men with a love of golf.

Shane Derby opens by introducing Neil Crafter and the subject of the day: Alec Russell, Dr. Alistair McKenzie’s Australian design partner. The episode grows out of the 2016 book Discovering Alec Russell, written by Crafter and the late Dr. John Green. Derby and Crafter trace Russell’s family background, his early life at Beaufort on Victoria’s Western Plains, and the education that came before his golfing rise. The show then follows Russell from novice to champion golfer. It also keeps his First and Second World War service in view, treating that part of his life as central rather than incidental. A major thread is Russell’s association with McKenzie and Mick Morecambe from 1926. Crafter pushes back on the idea that Russell was simply plucked from obscurity and taught everything he knew. Instead, he presents a studious man with a real appetite for golf courses and golf course architecture. Russell read widely in the subject and kept up with the books that shaped design thinking. McKenzie’s Golf Architecture and Robert Hunter’s The Links are both part of that intellectual world. Crafter suggests that Russell also knew other important texts and had a broad familiarity with championship courses in Britain from later visits. The discussion then turns to Royal Melbourne. In 1924 the club asked Russell and member A. T. Brown to propose ideas for the Sandringham course redevelopment and the use of additional land. Crafter explains that Russell took a scientific approach to the site. He surveyed the land using civil engineering and artillery methods learned in the war. From that work he drew a contour plan and built a plasticine model of his scheme. Brown produced a separate proposal as well, leaving the club with two schemes to assess. The episode uses these details to show Russell working as a designer in his own right. Jack Dillon’s 1954 description of Russell as a fully qualified links architect and a sharp mind in matters of turf and ground gives the conversation a firm historical anchor. The East Course at Royal Melbourne stands as a lasting monument to that ability. Derby closes by thanking Crafter for his time and inviting listeners to follow the show on social channels and leave a rating or review. The result is a careful, informative portrait of a figure who helped shape Australian golf from behind the more familiar names.

As heard by us

A measured, well-researched account that puts Alec Russell back at the center of Australian golf history.

Neil Crafter and Shane Derby give Alec Russell the fuller attention he deserves, tracing his path from Beaufort and his education through war service, championship golf, and his ties to Alistair McKenzie and Mick Morecambe.

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want the backstory behind Alec Russell, Alistair McKenzie's Australian design partner.

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