William Herbert Fowler

William Herbert Fowler ( born May 28, 1856 in Tottenham, Middlesex, † April 13, 1941 in London) was a golf course architect, the main proponent of the Golden Age of golf architecture.

Life and work

Herbert Fowler was born as the son of a lawyer in a wealthy family and later suggested itself a legal career. First, he played mainly cricket and chased. For golf he was only at the age of 35 years, took him as a business partner to Royal North Devon. There he developed into a good player and got in 1902 by his brother the job to create a golf course at Walton Heath. He invested whole two years in the routing, for that time an unimaginably long time. Shortly after its opening in May 1904, the place had acquired a tremendous reputation, so Fowler soon got other jobs, including Yelverton (1905 ), a revision of Royal North Devon (1908 ) and Ganton (1911 ). In 1915 he built another place in Walton Heath, which, like a St Andrews Old Course and New Course leads since then.

After the First World War, Fowler initially worked alone ( Beau Desert, 1921), but then went into a partnership with Tom Simpson (eg, Cruden Bay in 1926, and the Red and the Blue Course at the Berkshire Golf Club, 1928). Later, John Frederick Abercromby (eg, Knole Park, 1924) and Arthur Croome were added. While his partners were mainly responsible for the European business, Fowler in the early 1920s focused on the U.S., where he worked among others in the Los Angeles Country Club (1921 ) and Cape Cod ( Eastward Ho!, 1924). Later he returned to Europe, among other things, according to Saunton, where he had already in 1919 transformed the East Course. In 1935, he laid there on the West Course, but the Second World War, fell victim to. Overall, he worked on nearly 50 places.

One of his trademarks was the so-called " Fowler Graves ," particularly deep, but fair to playing bunker, as their front to the Green through only gradually increased. But regard punitive elements and natural design, he was guided by Willie Park Junior, the latter, he converted more consistently. So he used practically never walls or other enclosures to accentuate its greens. Instead of defining the course of a fairway through the use of game technically not really necessary bunkers or other elements, he left it rather in an open area. From him the quote is narrated that God build the golf courses and man meddle the less, the better for all concerned. Fowler is one of the maßvollsten architects of the golden age, who always put the quality of his work over the quantity, and the playability of the optics.