How much do we know about Fowler and Crystal Springs?

[Sven Nilsen]

The Fowler attribution for Crystal Springs has always puzzled me.  Certain sources have 1920 (C&W), others have 1924 (the club's website).  The Annual Guides first note the course in 1921, noting that it was organized in 1920. 

There's a 1921 ad for "Fowler & Simpson" that notes some of Fowler's work in California from that year.  Crystal Springs in not noted in the list of work completed.

Then there's the write up of the course in the April, 1923 edition of San Francisco Water (the Spring Valley Water Association periodical) written by the club's president.  While the article does not cite any dates, it does make it sound like the course was not brand new nor still under construction.  In the brief description of the course, Oscar Boldemann writes:

"Last year a well-known Scotch golfer who was making a tour of the world visited the Crystal Springs course and made the assertion that it was the best golf land he had seen in America."

Fowler was English (and perhaps better known for his cricket skills and design work than his golfing ability), but there's a chance this was a mistaken reference.  If not, what famous Scottish golfers were touring California c. 1922-1923?

[Patrick Kiser]

The short answer ... not much is known.  The other possibly in the area at the time from Scotland ... could have been William Watson.

However, our own Pete Galea has a mapping of the original routing and it appears Fowler may have been on it.  Hopefully, Pete is still looking into GCA, since his move back to NY.  He was the super at Crystal Springs at one point in time.  Pete once mentioned the Walton Heath museum had been helpful with his search on Crystal Springs.  Here's a thread that captures some of this:
http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,2932.0

For a while I suspected the 12th was an original Fowler because it reminded me of the 14th at Lincoln Park.  And of course ... Fowler was supposedly at Lincoln Park as well.  That's how I drew the connection, because there were similarities between the two holes in my opinion.

But Pete corrected that notion with the following:

#12 is not a Fowler original,
he never had it going up the hill.
That hole was by Billy Bell Jr. (1964?)
when the course was redone to make room
for highway 280. The same time that
Cal, and Lake Merced were nudged over.
I have a copy of Fowler's plans (Dec. 1920),
but was never able to locate Bell's.

Anyway, Fowler was involved on all kinds of courses in the Bay Area.  Sean Tully might even have a laundry list.  Sadly, and like many a NorCal classic course, a road or freeway changed things.  The 280 significantly impacted and changed Crystal Springs.

[Sven Nilsen]

Patrick:

Thanks for the followup.

Pete's words regarding the 1920 plan are pretty strong evidence that the 1924 date is well off.

Doubt the reference in the 1923 write-up was to Watson, I don't think he was touring the world at that point.

Sven

[Kevin_Reilly]

Doubt the reference in the 1923 write-up was to Watson, I don't think he was touring the world at that point.

Sven

Orinda CC across the Bay opened its course in 1924.

[Sean_Tully]

Doubt the reference in the 1923 write-up was to Watson, I don't think he was touring the world at that point.

Sven

Orinda CC across the Bay opened its course in 1924.

Sven-

To follow up on what Kevin has added:
Agree that it would not have been Watson, he was too busy working to be doing any touring or playing too much golf around this period. Could be just about anybody, but in my reading of the quote it sounds more like a golfer than an architect.  There was a number of Scottish visitors to the Bay area, but it could be something as simple as a way of saying a golf course is good by having some Scottish guy saying so.

Watson was fairly busy in the Bay area for this time period of 1920-29ish. Fowler was out here for a period of time between 1920-23. Both were rather prolific and competed for the same work in many cases.

Tully

[Gib_Papazian]

I literally grew up playing Crystal Springs - after which it was the home course of my Burlingame Panther high school golf squad. There is absolutely not one micron of Fowler left out there - and I'm not sure how much Bell there is either. The "Fowler course" supposedly ran east from the clubhouse out into what is now I-280; you can see places to the south where fairways were abandoned during all the re-routings.

The only holes that strike me as quasi-original (Bell?) are #10 (aside from the tee), 14 and 17. #18 is so clumsy that the green complex could not have been built by anybody but a talentless amateur. That ghastly driving range was constructed in 1974, between my Freshman and Sophomore years.  

Pete Galea was Superintendent because his wife at the time was Charlie Leider's daughter. Charlie, an excellent player who held the course record, was Head Pro for many years. His father Eli held the lease at Crystal Springs for decades - spending most of his time playing cards in the clubhouse.

In the last 45 years (as far as my memory stretches), there is only three holes on the front side that have not been drastically altered - a combination of "in-house" work and even two putting surfaces by Bob Graves.

#12 - running up the hill - may have been drawn up by Bell, but the par-3 13th green (back down the hill) was literally designed and built by Charlie Leider at the age of 22. There was an extensive remodel plan drawn up by Gary Linn around 1998, but the City of San Francisco suck so much money out of CourseCo (who are managing it) that the only improvements have been minor due to budget constraints.

[Niall C]

Sven

Re Fowler, he was certainly a man of many parts but I would think by the early 1920's he was probably known primarily as being part of the golfing establishment being a former well-known contender at amateur championships, a long standing member of the R&A and various committees, along with Colt one of the earliest "amateur" golf course architects to make money out of gca, and finally an occasional contributor to various publications. I'd suggest his cricketing skills were perhaps lesser known.

With regards to the scotsman referred to in the article, there could be any number of contenders but I wonder if it was Ben Sayers. Don't have my notes in front of me but his son George went to work at Merion about 1913 (I think off the top of my head) and Ben subsequently paid a visit and did a bit of a tour round the US playing various other courses. I'd need to check but could have been about that time.

Niall

[Peter Galea]

Pete Galea was Superintendent because his wife at the time was Charlie Leider's daughter.

I was superintendent at Crystal Springs for nine years and CGCS, prior to marrying Charlie's daughter.
I was actually married to someone else's daughter when I got the job.
If you present something as fact, it should be factual.
Pete

But really, what does this have to do with what we know about W. Herbert Fowler?

[Bill_McBride]

Pete Galea was Superintendent because his wife at the time was Charlie Leider's daughter.

I was superintendent at Crystal Springs for nine years and CGCS, prior to marrying Charlie's daughter.
I was actually married to someone else's daughter when I got the job.
If you present something as fact, it should be factual.
Pete

But really, what does this have to do with what we know about W. Herbert Fowler?

Pete, you're expecting Gib to tell the truth all the time?     

Hope you are doing well in New York. 

[Gib_Papazian]

Absolutely, positively my bad here. I spit out that post without really rereading it closely. The intention was that Pete was (only) still the Superintendent (as opposed to going on to greener pastures) because he was married to the daughter. Obviously, Pete is highly skilled at what he does and the mess-o-matic the City of San Francisco inflicted upon that golf course in the run-up to awarding the management contract was an insane circus. In the end, my friend Tom Isaak ended up with the golf course, but I wonder what a wondrous place it could be with the meddling of those disturbed loons in the S.F. PUC.

My roots at Crystal go back to 1967 - I've got a picture of my Dad and I on the 1st tee - but it remains a terribly wasted opportunity.