Hawtree is the longest continuous practice of golf course construction and design on record. Currently, Martin Hawtree is the third generation practitioner in a business started by his grandfather, 

, more than a hundred years ago. His father, 

, ran the firm after World War II before passing on the baton to Martin.

Grandfather Fred Hawtree’s involvement with golf saw him start out as a greenkeeper at Sundridge Park before forming his own construction company in 1912, working mainly with 

, with whom he had worked with at Sundridge Park. After serving with the Army during World War I, he resumed his construction business then teamed up with with 

, another of the “Great Triumvirate” in 1922.

Hawtree looked after the technical aspects of the jobs, whilst Taylor handled early meetings with clients and official openings. They had a team of Irish foreman who worked on the construction side of things and, all told, around fifty new layouts were built and another fifty redesigned up until the end of the 1930s.

Hawtree’s son, Frederick William Hawtree, was born in 1916 and educated at Tonbridge School then at Queen’s College, Oxford 1935-38, reading modern languages. During World War II, he served in the Royal Artillery and was held as a Prisoner of War by the Japanese when Java fell in 1942.

The construction part of the Hawtree company was closed when Fred Sr. passed away in 1955, allowing his son to concentrate on golf course design. During the next twenty-five years, around eighty new courses were completed by the company across four continents. Perhaps Fred Jr.’s most famous work was the re-modelling of Royal Birkdale in 1967 and 1974.

Martin Grant Hawtree joined the family firm in 1973, having secured a BA Hons degree at the University of East Anglia then a Masters and later a Doctorate at the University of Liverpool. As his father Fred wound down his involvement in the company to concentrate on writing, Martin took more control of the business.

Simon Gidman was an early associate – co-designing courses at the likes of Brampton Park, Ramsdale Park and Thornbury – and several other designers have been employed by the practice down the years, including Stephen McFarlane, Caspar Grauballe and (currently) Russell Talley.

Martin has worked as a consultant for the R&A since 2006 and has been involved in renovation work at Open venues such as St Andrews, Royal Birkdale, Royal Liverpool, Carnoustie and Muirfield. He’s also carried out remedial work on classic courses at venerable establishments like Royal Aberdeen and Sunningdale.

Before Martin’s arrival, the Hawtree name was well known in Great Britain & Ireland and on the continent of Europe in France and Belgium and he set out to consolidate this position.

Several new courses were built in France but it’s the new millennium renovation work at Chantilly (three holes on the Vineuil course), Fontainebleau (new greens, tees and bunkers) and Les Aisses (a total revamp of the 18-hole Les Aisses layout) that really stands out in this country.

Next door in Belgium, Martin has worked on upgrading the courses at Rinkven, Royal Ostend, Royal Haiunaut and Royal Belgium and he’s recently laid out a modern 30-hole golf facility at Naxhelet, overlooking the Mehaigne and Meuse valleys, which is built around a very chic 35-bedroomed hotel.

Elsewhere within Europe, Hawtree has worked on projects in the following countries: Denmark (Simon’s in 1993); Turkey (Titanic in 1997); Portugal (Vilamoura (Old) remodel in 1997); Poland (Mazury in 2002); and Sweden (Elisefarm in 2005) – interestingly, the Swedish design was the first undertaken in that nation since Martin’s grandfather completed the Old course at Bastad in 1929.

Nearer to home, he has rejuvenated a number of Ireland’s finest links layouts: several greens on the Championship course at Portmarnock have been reworked; the Old course at Lahinch (host venue for the 2019 Irish Open) was restored at the end of the 1990s; and there have been more recent alterations made to Dooks, Royal Dublin and The Island.

Further afield in the English-speaking world, Martin has undertaken a couple of Canadian assignments. The first of these was a new course in Springfield, Ontario for Tarandowah Golfer Club in 2006 and this was followed up shortly after with a total restoration of the old 

 layout at Toronto Golf Club in Mississauga, Ontario.

The architect has also operated in Australia, acting as a consultant for Huntingdale, Kooyonga, Royal Melbourne and Yarra Yarra.

Hawtree has occasionally set off at a bit of a tangent into other markets – Golden Greens in India (1992), Djerba in Tunisia (1995) and Royal Kiev in Ukraine (2008) spring to mind – but much of his architectural effort is still concentrated closer to the firm’s base in Oxfordshire.

Some of Martin’s work has been controversial, to say the least. The changes made to Royal Birkdale (and the new 17th green in particular) prior to the 2008 Open got tongues wagging but that was nothing compared to the howls of derision aimed in his direction when he made alterations to the Old course at St Andrews (including modifying the 11th green) in 2012/13.

If Hawtree felt those jobs with the R&A were high profile, then they were small potatoes compared to working for Donald Trump at two of his most prized golfing assets. His first commission was to construct the owner’s new links outside Aberdeen in 2011/12 and the second project two years later involved the redesign of the 

Planetgolf.com: “Hawtree Junior is best known for renovation work at venerable classics such as Royal Birkdale and Royal Liverpool 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 

 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.”

Writing in The Architects of Golf, the authors commented as follows: “While families such as the Dunns and the Maples may have worked longer in the business world of golf in general, the Hawtree dynasty – Frederic G., Fred W. and Martin – was probably involved in the longest continuous practice of golf course architecture on record, dating from 1912.”

Martin Hawtree

Martin Grant Hawtree joined the family firm in 1973 and took over the practice in 1984. To date, Hawtree is the longest continuous practice of golf course architecture on record.

Hawtree is the longest continuous practice of golf course construction and design on record. Started by 

 in 1912, the firm was then managed by his son Frederick William Hawtree when he joined the firm in 1938. Grandson 

 entered the family business in the early 1970s, taking over operations a decade later.

Educated first at Tonbridge School in Kent then Queen’s College, Oxford, where he read modern languages, Fred immediately became involved in his father’s design firm upon graduation, before World War II suddenly intervened. He served with the Royal Artillery in Indonesia, spending the last few years of the conflict as a Japanese prisoner of war.

The construction part of the Hawtree company was closed down when Fred Senior passed away in 1955, allowing his son to concentrate fully on golf course design under the new Hawtree & Son banner. During the next twenty-five years, around eighty new courses were completed by the company across four continents.

The firm is probably best known during this period on the domestic front for renovations made to Royal Liverpool and Royal Birkdale, though the revamp of the Hillside course next door to Birkdale is also high on the list of major Hawtree achievements.

Fred expanded the firm’s reach into new overseas markets, collaborating with Donald Harradine on a couple of courses in Switzerland and venturing into France and Belgium to work on substantial 36-hole projects at Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche and Royal Waterloo.

He also picked up other occasional European commissions in Spain, Portugal and Germany, as well as adding new courses on either side of the border in Ireland at Westport, County Mayo and Malone in Belfast.

One-off assignments in further flung countries such as El Salvador, Morocco and Zimbabwe were also completed and Fred’s designs at the Country Club of Johannesburg (late 1960s) and Plettenberg Bay (late 1970s) are still highly regarded today.

He was assisted in the early 1970s by his partner A.H.F. Jiggens, known as “Jigg,” who had previously worked as an engineer and planning officer at the City of Chester. Jiggens would go on to hold office at the British Golf Greenkeepers’ Association.

Fred’s son, Martin Grant Hawtree, also joined the family firm in 1973, having completed degree courses at the Universities of East Anglia and Liverpool, and he took over the running of the practice in 1984. Before Martin’s arrival, the Hawtree name was well known in Great Britain & Ireland and on the continent of Europe but he has since extended the firm’s horizons into Canada and Australia.

, writes about Fred’s latter years as follows: “In a similar vein to Geoffrey Cornish, Hawtree reduced his design workload while adapting to advancing senior years. An excellent substitute lay in waiting; the all-encompassing tasks of research and writing.”

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

Fred W. Hawtree's biography at the European Institute of Golf Course Architects is as follows:

“Fred was noted for his phenomenal energy and industry and apart from designing many new courses and travelling extensively across the world he also ran and developed the Addington Court Public Courses in Surrey during this period.

Like his father before him Fred was a very enthusiastic supporter of the Greenkeepers’ Association, which his father founded in 1912, and Fred himself was a long standing Vice President of the British Golf Greenkeepers’ Association.

 and regularly contributed editorials between 1960-74. During the 1960s and 70s he served on the English Golf Union Council and Executive and also on the Golf Development Council and Executive until its winding up in the 1980s.

He was a founder member in 1971, and later President, of the British Association of Golf Course Architects, which was the first attempt in this country to establish a profession of golf course architects.

For many years he served as a private member on the board of the Sports Turf Research Institute at Bingley and was also a member of the Turfgrass Advisory Committee.

In his later years Fred Hawtree was a prolific writer not only for magazine publications but also books and other literary works. His publications include:-

The Golf Course, Planning, Design, Construction & Maintenance”

Triple Baugé, Promenades in Medieval Golf” 

Aspects of Golf Course Architecture I, 1889-1924, an Anthology”

Aspects of Golf Course Architecture II, 1924-1971, an Anthology”

In 1989 he received the National Turfgrass Council’s award for his outstanding contribution to the turf grass industry. In 1996 he received the silver medal of the British Institute of Golf Course Architects and was made an honorary member of the Institute in 1998. He was awarded a distinguished honorary membership of the British and International Greenkeepers’ Association in 1999.”

 published posthumously by Rhod McEwan in 2016.

Fred W. Hawtree

Fred W. Hawtree was a founder member and later President of the British Association of Golf Course Architects, which was the first attempt in the UK to form a golf course architecture profession.

Gloucestershire

England

One of only a few English clubs to boast three full length 18-hole courses, the Old course occupies a separate site on Minchinhampton Common to the west of the town, while the other two layouts are located between the villages of Avening and Cherington to southeast of Minchinhampton town.

Both the Avening and Cherington courses are an amalgam of a mid-1970s 18-hole F.W. Hawtree layout to which Martin Hawtree (F.W’s son), added a further 18 holes in 1995. Each course utilises a combination of holes fashioned by father and son.

The joins are not seamless, especially if you study the green complexes. The older Fred W greens are smaller with less movement, whereas Martin’s larger greens offer more pin positions and have greater undulations.

There’s genuinely very little difference in quality between Minchinhampton’s two “new” courses. When Open Regional Qualifying was held here in the early 2000s the Cherington course was used, but the R&A later deployed a composite course because the Cherington – which is the longer of the two – only measures 6,459 yards from the tips.

Open Regional Qualifying returned to Minchinhampton in 2018 when The Open was held at Carnoustie, and a composite course was again utilised, consisting of holes 1, 2 and 18 of the Cherington and 1-3 and 7-18 of the Avening layout. According to the R&A: “This composite layout reforms the original layout, which is referred to as The Avening Championship Course.”

Minchinhampton (Avening)

Kendleshire (Hollows & Ruffet)

Britain & Ireland

One of only a few English clubs to boast three full length 18-hole courses. The Avening is located to the southeast of Minchinhampton town and many, including the R&A, prefer this layout to the Cherington course.