William Watson

Golf Course Architect

William (Willie) Watson was a Scottish-born golf course architect (born 1860 in Fife, Scotland; died 1941, Los Angeles) who became a prominent designer during golf’s Golden Age. He emigrated to the United States in 1898 and over his career laid out or redesigned over a hundred courses from coast to coast, including early landmark works such as Minikahda Club in Minneapolis, Garvanza Links in Los Angeles, and celebrated California courses like the Olympic Club, Harding Park, Olympia Fields and others.

Watson designed the original nine-hole layout at Fort Washington Golf & Country Club in Fresno in 1923, expanding it later, and is credited as the course’s designer. In Michigan, he was enlisted by the Belvedere Club to design a course “worthy of national reputation” beginning in 1925; the full 18-hole Belvedere Golf Club opened in 1927 and remains one of his finest surviving works, recently restored using his original plans.

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