William Herbert Fowler

William Herbert Fowler (born May 28, 1856 in Tottenham , Middlesex , † April 13, 1941 in London ) was a golf architect who was one of the main representatives of the golden age of golf architecture .

life and work

Herbert Fowler was born into a wealthy family as the son of a lawyer and later embarked on a legal career himself. At first he mainly played cricket and hunted. He didn't get into golf until the age of 35 when a business partner took him to Royal North Devon. There he developed into a good player and in 1902 was commissioned by his brother-in-law to create a golf course in Walton Heath. He invested a full two years in routing, an unimaginably long time at the time. Shortly after it opened in May 1904, the course had already gained an enormous reputation, so that Fowler soon received further commissions, including Yelverton (1905), a revision by Royal North Devon (1908) and Ganton (1911). In 1915 he built another course in Walton Heath, which since then, like St Andrews, has an Old Course and a New Course.

After the First World War, Fowler initially worked alone (Beau Desert, 1921), but then entered into a partnership with Tom Simpson (e.g. Cruden Bay, 1926, and the Red and Blue Course of the Berkshire Golf Club, 1928). John Frederick Abercromby (e.g. Knole Park, 1924) and Arthur Croome were added later . While his partners were mainly responsible for the European business, Fowler concentrated in the early 1920s on the USA, where he worked, among other things, in the Los Angeles Country Club (1921) and in Cape Cod (Eastward Ho !, 1924). He later returned to Europe, including Saunton , where he had already redesigned the East Course in 1919. In 1935 he laid the West Course there, which, however, fell victim to the Second World War. In total, he worked at almost 50 places.

One of his trademarks were the so-called “Fowler Graves”, particularly deep, but fair play bunkers, as their front only gradually rose towards the green. With regard to punitive elements and the natural design style, he oriented himself on Willie Park junior , but he implemented the latter even more consistently. So he practically never used walls or other borders to accentuate his greens. Instead of defining the course of a fairway by using bunkers or other elements that are not technically necessary for the game, he preferred to leave it with an open area. From him the quote has been passed down that God builds the golf courses and the less people interfere, the better for everyone involved. Fowler is considered to be one of the most measured architects of the golden age, who always put the quality of his work over the quantity, and playability over the optics.

literature

• Geoffrey S. Cornish , Ronald E. Whitten: The Architects of Golf . HarperCollins, New York 1993. ISBN 0-06-270082-0