england Laying a Claim on London’s Suburbs

     The people responsible for the first Seve Ballesteros-designed golf course in the United Kingdom have unveiled plans to build two more golf properties in the suburbs of northwestern London, England.
     Tony and Anne Menai Davis, the owners of Shire London in Barnet, have already broken ground on phase one of a 27-hole complex that will complement their new West London Golf Centre in Northolt. Next, they’re hoping to secure permission to build what they’ve called an “extraordinary” 18-hole course in Edgwater. When the facilities are completed, they’ll all be within a few minutes’ drive of each other.
     The West London practice center, which includes a retail golf shop and a coffee house, opened in late 2012. In the fall of this year, the center is expected to open a nine-hole, 3,500-yard course, and its 18-hole course, to be called West London Links, is scheduled to open in 2016.
     But West London’s courses aren’t expected to match the “championship-standard” track in Edgware, which the Menai Davises aim to open by the end of the decade. The identity of the course’s designer hasn’t been revealed, but Tony has said that it’ll be “one of the world's most celebrated golf course architects” who’ll be doing his first course in the United Kingdom.
     The Menai Davises enabled Ballesteros’ to make his U.K. debut in 2007, after they completely re-created what’s been described as “a pancake-flat” site with fill from the construction of Wembley Stadium. The property, once the home of Bridgedown Golf Club, now features the 7,200-yard Masters Course, a nine-hole “challenge” course, and a practice center.
     I’m just speculating here, but it may be that the Menai Davises have even more golf development in their future. In promotional materials accompanying the West London facility, they refer to “at least one other extraordinary new course” that they plan to open “before the decade is out.” We know about the course in Edgware. Could there be another?

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the January 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.