Adam Lawrence writes about Herbert Fowler.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Excellent article by Adam Lawrence filling in lot’s about his personal life and how he got into the Architecture game.   Along with Abercrombie I suspect we know least about Fowler.

http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/Article/Herbert-Fowler-gilded-gentleman/2611/Default.aspx  

A few points.


I believe he lost his fortune in rubber speculation.  He certainly married well because his work as an Architect and primarily as the Manager of Walton Heath, afforded him a most comfortable lifestyle, including servants, even after his bankruptcy.

You are correct to say that Walton Heath was the first great Heathland project to get started.   He entrusted the work to Carter’s Seeds bringing them into a new business area. They also worked on Sunningdale and many many others.

He also published a fair bit of Journalism once listing Westward Ho as the world’s greatest course, shortly after completing his work on it!

Thanks for making it available Adam.



PS can't put my finger on it, even  though I greatly admire Walton Heath x2 and Saunton x2, none of the courses generate much love from me. They seem to be more of a clinical test rather than a great adventure?

[Bill_McBride]

Au contraire mon frere, I really enjoyed Walton Heath Old and found it a great walk with a series of challenging holes.  Beau Desert and Delamere Forest are two other great if low key gems.

I think it's the second green at WH Old where the next tee is literally two yards behind the putting surface.  Brilliant!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Bill, Add Bull Bay to the list. It's not a great course but it has great personality.

Thanks Adam -  useful article about a man we know so little. Wisely you don't attempt to separate Fowler's work from Simpson's. There seems to be so little surviving correspondence etc. 

[Adam Lawrence]

Tony - I think he lost his money in _everything_ speculation! While researching the piece, I spent an interesting day in the Surrey History Centre in Woking going through their collection of Fowler's papers - that is where a lot of the stuff about his business history, plus the correspondence with Smith in Spain came from. There are letters to and from the secretaries of all sorts of companies, in mining, rubber, you name it, mostly in the run up to WW1. Philip Truett, the historian of Walton Heath, who gave me a lot of help with the article, summed it up best - 'he was clearly a business disaster.'

[Mark McKeever]

Any Fowler thread is incomplete without mentioning Eastward Ho! in Chatham, Mass.  A fantastic and very underrated golf course that sits in my personal top 5.

Mark

[Tony_Muldoon]

I am playing devil's advocate a bit, because the Berkshire is where I first fell for Heathland golf and you never forget your first time.  Generalising my impressions of WH and Saunton are of pretty flat fairways and a lack of angles into greens.  Also I don’t think he was concerned too much with framing or long views and I‘m a sucker for a good view.

Once Buda is settled and Christmas is out of the way, I’ll propose a GCA Fowler weekend if it can be arranged around at Beau Desert/Delamere Forrest. Are they close enough to do both and how do they drain?


2 courses I really want to see.

 Weekend of 16th march, would be good. Favourable rates and last day of six nations.  England vs. Wales playing for 3rd place sound good? 5pm KO.  

[Adam Lawrence]

I am playing devil's advocate a bit, because the Berkshire is where I first fell for Heathland golf and you never forget your first time.  Generalising my impressions of WH and Saunton are of pretty flat fairways and a lack of angles into greens.  Also I don’t think he was concerned too much with framing or long views and I‘m a sucker for a good view.

Once Buda is settled and Christmas is out of the way, I’ll propose a GCA Fowler weekend.
 
Either at Kington or at Beau Desert/Delamere Forrest (are they close enough?).
3 courses I really want to see.

 Weekend of 16th march, would be good. Favourable rates and last day of six nations.  England vs. Wales playing for 3rd place sound good? 5pm KO.   

Kington was Col Hutchinson wasn't it?

[Tony_Muldoon]

I am playing devil's advocate a bit, because the Berkshire is where I first fell for Heathland golf and you never forget your first time.  Generalising my impressions of WH and Saunton are of pretty flat fairways and a lack of angles into greens.  Also I don’t think he was concerned too much with framing or long views and I‘m a sucker for a good view.

Once Buda is settled and Christmas is out of the way, I’ll propose a GCA Fowler weekend.
  
Either at Kington or at Beau Desert/Delamere Forrest (are they close enough?).
3 courses I really want to see.

 Weekend of 16th march, would be good. Favourable rates and last day of six nations.  England vs. Wales playing for 3rd place sound good? 5pm KO.  

Kington was Col Hutchinson wasn't it?

Ahem.  I get my first day off in 3 weeks tomorrow. 'nuff said?  Original post ammended. Thanks.

[Bill_McBride]

I am playing devil's advocate a bit, because the Berkshire is where I first fell for Heathland golf and you never forget your first time.  Generalising my impressions of WH and Saunton are of pretty flat fairways and a lack of angles into greens.  Also I don’t think he was concerned too much with framing or long views and I‘m a sucker for a good view.

Once Buda is settled and Christmas is out of the way, I’ll propose a GCA Fowler weekend if it can be arranged around at Beau Desert/Delamere Forrest. Are they close enough to do both and how do they drain?


2 courses I really want to see.

 Weekend of 16th march, would be good. Favourable rates and last day of six nations.  England vs. Wales playing for 3rd place sound good? 5pm KO.  

Tony, after Hoylake in the 2006 Buda, son David and I and Mark Bourgeois and Craig Disher played Delamere nForest and then ndrove down the M6 (?) toward Birmingham and Beau Desert.  I don't think it's more than an hour's drive, but it took us several as we got dreadfully lost. Luckily the steward waited up for us and opened the bar and the dormy house!

[Jim Eder]

Adam,

Thank you for the excellent piece. Fantastic writing and information. 


Mark Rowlinson did a wonderful piece on Delamere. http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,42989.0.html His piece caused me to need to play it and it was fantastic. I could play there every day. And the pro and the others I meet were terrific people. Just a treasure and a place I can't wait to visit again.

[John Mayhugh]

Tony,
Thanks for posting the link to that article.  For some time now, I've been meaning to write Adam and let him know how much I enjoyed it.  Fowler is possibly my favorite architect, especially because of the variety of courses tied to the sites.  There are plenty of them that aren't flat, but the courses really do take the character of the land. The two Ho!s look nothing alike, but Bull Bay could be a cousin to Eastward Ho!  It's hard to think of anyone else who can seem so restrained in the cases of greens that transition almost seamlessly from the fairway yet have the wildness of others perched on knobs.

Note the variety in some photos from Fowler courses I've played.  

Royal North Devon, where he learned to play and later worked.





Walton Heath





Beau Desert





Saunton East





Bull Bay





Eastward Ho!  





Might as well also mention the 18th at Pebble, which turned out to be a pretty good idea.  (photo borrowed from Tim Bert)



Want to see Delamere Forest next time I'm over.  

[Sean_A]

Thanks Adam, I am always eager to read about Fowler.  The guy is hard to pinpoint architecturally because of his reliance on letting the site dominate the design like no other archie I know of. 

I would like to know the Saunton story.  While completing disagreeing with Spangle's theory of no angles, I still don't know exactly who is responsible for what.  I know Pennink created two courses out of the what was left of the two Fowler courses, but I don't know what he added or subtracted.  I also know a ton of bunkers were added after Pennink finished his work, some are dreadful things that stand out as such. 

Spangles - let me know when/if you plan a Delamere/Beau Deal - I am interested.

Ciao

[Adam Lawrence]

I also learned recently that a biography of Fowler is in production. Will report more when I hear it

[Niall C]

Bill, Add Bull Bay to the list. It's not a great course but it has great personality.

Thanks Adam -  useful article about a man we know so little. Wisely you don't attempt to separate Fowler's work from Simpson's. There seems to be so little surviving correspondence etc. 

Mark

I think Bulls Bay was much more Simpson than Fowler but as ever could very well be wrong.

Niall

[James Boon]

Tony,

Excellent idea for a Fowler weekend. I've not done the journey myself but would expect it to be about an hour and a halts drive between the two. Especially keen as I was hoping to organise a trip there around Christmas but couldn't get it to work out. But as I've already made contact, would be happy to help with organising if you wanted/ decided to take it forwards. Lets discuss at Worplesdon.

Adam,

Excellent article!

Cheers,

James

[Duncan Cheslett]

The idea of a weekend combining these two gems certainly sparks my interest!

[Paul_Turner]

Adam

I enjoyed the article, lots more information and insight into the man.

The great 16th at Walton Heath Old (I think it was originally the 17th) crops up in v early paintings of the course.  It doesn't look much diffferent now.

Sean
I think we pieced together the changes at Saunton, it's in the archives somewhere.  It was been changed a lot but I think a fair amount of Fowler is left.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Tony,

 Lets discuss at Worplesdon.


James

Perfect

[Bill_McBride]

Adam

I enjoyed the article, lots more information and insight into the man.

The great 16th at Walton Heath Old (I think it was originally the 17th) crops up in v early paintings of the course.  It doesn't look much diffferent now.

I really liked the huge cross bunker at 18 on the Old.   Is that the original 18th?

Sean
I think we pieced together the changes at Saunton, it's in the archives somewhere.  It was been changed a lot but I think a fair amount of Fowler is left.

[Peter Pallotta]

Tony - thanks much for posting that.

Adam - first rate writing. So many interesting things - to me, how different (the very wealthy) Fowler's approach was to the (quite wealthy) CBM's approach - the latter seeming more formalized (in the learning), didactic (in the intention), and public (in the sharing). 

Peter

[Paul_Turner]

Bill

Yes I think so.  The par 3 17th was added later.

[Ivan Morris]

I second the nomination of Beau Desert as a very special place to play golf.

[Niall C]

Brian,

Many thanks for posting those pictures of a misty Walton Heath. It brought to mind my one and only visit to Walton Heath to have a look round. We walked out onto the course early in the morning with the mist reducing visibility top probably no more than 50 yards then all of a suddent the sun began to burn off the mist and we found ourselves in the middle of this wonderful golfing landscape. A magical moment.

Niall

[Sean_A]

I want to see Walton Heath and Berkshire again - its been ever such a long time since I last saw either.  Despite some dreadful weather, my last go at Saunton East proved to me the course is very impressive if just a wee bit shy of great - more or less on par with Beau Desert (but I favour Beau).  I am not sure Saunton could ever be great,  but I am convinced there is greatness in Beau Desert if the original feeling of a much more open course could ever be recaptured and if the bunkering were seen to.  In that sort of dream state Beau is easily the match of Swinley, Sunny New and possibly St Georges Hill. 

Adam - its Col Hutchison.  Old Horace was a Hutchinson.  Either way, Kington and Beau would be a good pair.

Ciao

[Sean_A]

Its interesting scrolling through the photos.  The English courses look far less manicured than Eastward Ho!  The difference too between rough lines around the greens is incredible.  I recall playing Blackwell this summer with pretty much the same rough lines around the greens as Eastward Ho!, man the fun factor was drastically reduced.  It was such an odd situation because I rarely see the sort of set-up Blackwell employed and yet I see it in photo thread after photo thread of classic American courses.  What is driving the American courses to prefer the hairy set-up?  Looking at pix of Eastward Ho! it seems hard to believe cost is an issue because that course is visually perfect in the photo taking sense of the word perfect.

Ciao