Arthur Lockwood

The son of an Army officer, Arthur Lockwood was educated at Malvern College in Worcestershire, before going to Harvard University, USA. A keen golfer from an early age, he was a member of the newly formed Weston-super-Mare Golf Club as a teenager and, despite not playing, was scheduled to take part in the 1900 Olympic golf tournament. However, most of Lockwood’s golf was played in the USA after he emigrated there permanently at the beginning of the 20th century. Lockwood won the inaugural Massachusetts State Amateur Championship in 1903 at the Myopia Hunt Club. He won it again in 1905 and 1906. Also in 1906, he won the Mexico Amateur Championship at Mexico City. Despite his success as a player, however, it was as a golf course designer that Lockwood became better known.

Lockwood was involved with courses in Indiana, Kentucky and other states. He supervised the laying out of the French Lick Hotel Country Club in Indiana, and for three years was the supervisor of the Indianapolis Municipal courses.

Lockwood made a short visit to the United Kingdom in 1914, when he travelled with the previous year’s surprise US Open winner Francis Ouimet, to compete in the Open Championship at Prestwick, and the British Amateur Championship at Royal St. George’s. Lockwood returned to England permanently in 1938 and settled in the Cheltenham area and continued playing his golf at the Cotswold Hills Golf Course.

During the extended August Bank Holiday in 1939, Lockwood went on a cruise around Ireland and Scotland aboard the SS Rathlin. As the cruise was coming to an end in Southampton, Lockwood had a heart attack and was found dead in his cabin.