Donald Maclennan Arklay Steel (born 23 August 1937 in

Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civil ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbourin ...

) is a former

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

er and is a noted

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The ...

designer, as well as being a writer and journalist. Educated at

Fettes College Fettes College () is a co-educational independent boarding and day school in Edinburgh, Scotland, with over two-thirds of its pupils in residence on campus. The school was originally a boarding school for boys only and became co-ed in 1983. In ...

and

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, he has designed a large number of golf courses or modifications to existing courses, mostly in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Several late 20th century and early 21st century golf course architects worked under Steel in their early careers, among them Martin Ebert,

Jonathan Gaunt Jonathan Gaunt is a golf course architect, a member of the EIGCA and the director of Gaunt Golf Design. Gaunt or his company have designed over 30 golf courses since 1987, mostly in the UK. These include Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club in Dur ...

, Tom Mackenzie. Steel has also written a number of books about

. He was golf correspondent for the ''

Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, founded in February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph'', also published by the Telegraph ...

'' from its launch in 1961 until 1989, and has written for '' Country Life'' since 1983. In 1957, he played

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

for

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

in the

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

, making six appearances.

Golf courses (new)

* Abaco Club * Amarilla * Aquidneck Club * Barseback (Pine) * Bom Sucesso * Boothferry Golf Club * Bovey Castle * Bradfield * Byneset Golf Club * Carnegie Course at Skibo Castle * Charterhouse * Harrow School * Radley *St. Andrews (Strathtyrum), *Victoria Golf and Country Resort, Digana, Sri Lanka *Wellington

Golf courses (renovations)

* Royal St. George's * St. Andrews (Eden), 1989 * St. Andrews (Jubilee), * The Machrie

References

External links

Donald Steel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, Donald 1937 births Living people People from Hillingdon People educated at Fettes College Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge English male golfers Golf course architects English cricketers Buckinghamshire cricketers English writers English male journalists