Hawtree Design

The Hawtree Golf Architecture Company has the longest known history of golf course architecture.

Founded by Frederick George Hawtree in 1912, the company was run by his son Frederick William Hawtree when he joined the company in 1938.

After studying at Tonbridge School in Kent and later at Queen’s College, Oxford, where he read modern languages, Frederick Jr.

immediately became involved in his father's architectural firm after graduating in 1938; before the beginning of World War II.

He then served in the Royal Artillery in Indonesia, spending the last years of the conflict as a Japanese prisoner of war.

The construction part of the Hawtree company closed when Frederick Sr. died in 1955, allowing him to concentrate entirely on golf course design under the new "Hawtree & Son" banner.

Over the next twenty-five years, around eighty new courses were developed by the company on four continents.

During this period, the firm acquired great notoriety in the United Kingdom by renovating the courses at Royal Liverpool and Royal Birkdale.

Frederick Junior decided to explore new markets across the Atlantic, then worked with Donald Harradine on a few courses in Switzerland.

He then headed to France and Belgium to work on 36-hole projects at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche and Royal Waterloo Golf Club.

He also landed contracts for several golf courses in Spain, Portugal and Germany, while working on new courses in Ireland and in South Africa.

Frederick's son, Martin Grant Hawtree, joined the family business in 1973, after completing degree courses at the universities of East Anglia and Liverpool, then took charge of the business in 1984.

Before Martin’s arrival, Hawtree’s name was well known in Britain, Ireland and mainland Europe.

But since then, the firm's horizon has broadened to Canada and Australia.

Fred Hawtree Junior died in September 2000 at his home in Woodstock, Oxford.

• Books and other literary works by Fred Hawtree Junior:

• "The golf course, planning, design, construction and maintenance" in 1984

• “Colt & Co. Course Architects” in 1991

• “Triple Baugé, Promenades in Medieval Golf” in 1996

• “Aspects of Golf Architecture I, 1889-1924, an Anthology” in 1998

• “Aspects of Course Architecture II, 1924-1971, an Anthology” in 1999

In 1989 Frederick Hawtree received the National Turfgrass Council Award for his outstanding contribution to the turf industry.

In 1996 he received the Silver Medal from the British Institute of Golf Course Architects and was made an Honorary Fellow of the Institute in 1998.

He was made an honorary member of the British and International Greenkeepers' Association in 1999.

Fred also published the book “Simpson & Co. Golf Architects” posthumously edited by Rhod McEwan in 2016. ”

Son and grandson of golf course architects, Martin Hawtree has continued the family tradition and built an international architectural practice of considerable note and reputation. Hawtree Junior is best known for renovation work at venerable classics such as Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool and Formby in England, Lahinch and Portmarnock in Ireland, Fontainebleau in France, Yarra Yarra in Australia and the Toronto Golf Club in Canada. His work at Lahinch was quite wide reaching, and involved restoring some lost MacKenzie design features as well as building a couple of new holes.

Hawtree is an interesting architect, he clearly has great design pedigree and the quality of some of his renovation work is first-rate – such as Portmarnock, Lahinch and Toronto. He also did a great job building his father’s lost 12th hole at Royal Birkdale.