Frederick William Hawtree was born in 1916. He was the son of F.G. Hawtree who founded in 1912 the golf architectural practice and construction company, originally called Hawtree and J.H. Taylor – the name was subsequently changed to Hawtree and Son in the 1950s.
Fred was noted for his phenomenal energy and industry and apart from designing many new courses and travelling extensively across the world. Like his father before him Fred was a very enthusiastic supporter of the Greenkeepers’ Association, which his father founded in 1912.
Between 1945 and 1980 Hawtree designed some 80 new courses over four continents and re-modelled 400 others. He was a founding member in 1971, and later President, of the British Association of Golf Course Architects and in 1989 he received the National Turfgrass Council’s award for his outstanding contribution to the turfgrass 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.
In his later years Fred became a prolific golf writer not only for magazine publications but also books and other literary works. Fred Hawtree died in September 2000 at his home in Woodstock, Oxford.
