GOOD READ: Aspects of Golf Course Architecture

1 April 2008

The late Fred Hawtree, a golf architect since 1938, edited the second volume of this anthology in 1999, towards the end of his life. Now, specialist golf publisher Grant Books has produced a limited edition of 600 copies, and it is surely a must-read for anyone with an interest in the subject. Fred's son Martin has contributed a piece about his father, and the book includes essays by many of the greats of the field, including legendary names such as JF Abercrombie, CH Alison, Tom Simpson (and his partner Molly Gourlay, surely the first female golf architect) as well as Colonel Hoskins of Woodhall Spa fame, amateur golfer and architecture critic Harold Hilton, and more modern names such as Don Harradine, Eddie Hackett and Hamilton Stutt. At 204 pages, including a number of diagrams, portraits and photographs, this is a slim volume, but one that will richly repay the time spend reading it, and to which readers will surely return over and over again.