I would like to know more about Fowler - he seems to be fairly elusive. I especially would like to know more about his "partnership" with Simpson. I am beginning to believe that Simpson had more involvement in Fowler's later work than I previously thought. Lets face it, Fowler wasn't a young man when some of these gems like Berkshire were built and both Berkshires do seem to be more in the Colt/Alison/Simpson mould than Fowler's. I have no evidence, but I suspect a lot of the detail work for Berkshire was more down to Simpson than Fowler. I also have serious questions concerning Saunton.
In any case, this is all so difficult to tell because Fowler's look was very different (much more basic looking, functional architecture relying heavily on the lay of the land) pre-Colt and it seemed to change to more closely emulate Colt after Colt hit the big time. I don't know if this is down to Colt's influence on design at the time (which I think effected Willie Park Jr) or Simpson's partnership or both events in combination with other stuff. To me it seems that after Colt came along many of the courses built (and re-designed) seem to look more Coltish than previously. I don't know if Colt can be given enough credit for this change in aesthetic and to some degree strategy. The way green sites were used/developed became more complicated in that purely grade level stuff just wasn't making the mark for the best courses. In another way, it was a shame because courses like Huntercombe became obsolete in terms of elite design. I think grade level design carried on for a long while (and still is in use to some degree), but mainly for run of the mill clubs.
Ciao