Herbert Fowler

Herbert Fowler (1856–1941) was an English amateur who became a leading golf course architect. He spent two years planning Walton Heath, visiting on horseback to find natural green sites—an unusually thorough approach when courses were often planned in a day. Bernard Darwin said of him: "I never knew anyone who could more swiftly take on the possibilities of the ground." Fowler favoured understated, naturalistic design with simple tees, sparing bunkers, and greens on natural grade. His Old and New courses at Walton Heath remain celebrated heathland examples. Tom Simpson called Walton Heath "the first really fine inland golf course to be designed from start to finish by an amateur golfer."