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.

Caspar Grauballe

South & West Sweden

Scandinavian Mixed

Sweden

Vallda is located in Kungsbacka just south of Sweden's second largest city Gothenburg. In the Göteborg area you will find some 30 quality golf courses, amongst them Sweden's oldest course, Göteborg Golf Club and the modern Hills Golf Club. Making its mark in such a fine company is a tall order, but the team at Vallda Golf & Country club has managed to deliver against the promise.

The vision was to create a course with the playing qualities of the classic heathland courses and renowned architect Martin Hawtree and his associate Caspar Grauballe created a course that although not particularly long is a fair test for both the low and high handicap player. It is generous from the tee for the long handicap player, and for the short handicap player the tricky green areas present an exhilarating challenge.

Vallda is quite open and relatively flat and with the wavy tall fescue contrasting the green fairways it is particularly visually pleasing. Although the course is still relatively young, the playing surfaces already exhibit the firm qualities one would expect to find on a quality heathland course.

The secret behind the club’s unusually firm and fast playing surfaces lies in the environmentally conscious maintenance practices – minimum fertiliser and irrigation and generous applications of sand, which encourages a deeper grass root zone. As a result the club has been able to retain the red fescue sown all the way from tee to green a decade ago despite not being blessed with naturally sandy soil throughout the property.

What makes Vallda such a fun course to play is without doubt the green areas. Boldly bunkered and craftily undulated demand excellent course management, and depending on the pin placement, a number of approach options are available, from the high pitch, to the classic bump and run. Regardless of the choice it will require crisp execution as the greens are quite firm where a misjudged shot will quickly leave a tricky chip to save par.

In an area with many fine courses, Vallda is surely one of the finest.

Vallda

Kristianstad (Åhus Östra)

Continental Europe

Opened in 2009, the course at Vallda Golf and Country Club was fashioned by Hawtree Design in a classic British style, inspired by London’s heathland. With fescue seeded playing surfaces, Hawtree has created the feel good factor.