The Shire was Seve Ballesteros’ first course design in England and, Ross Biddiscombe discovers, is just like the great man himself – attractive with deadliness just below the surface

The next piece of interesting info about The Shire is that it’s not actually built on a new site for a golf course. Bridgedown Golf Club was the original course on the 200-acre plot, but it ran into a number of difficulties,mostly financial. In 2001, Tony Menai Davis (who made his money in the landfill business) came along to fulfil a dream of building his own course. A man of simple directness, Tony decided Seve – always his golfing hero - was the only man to design his course, so he just rang up the great man’s office and soon found himself talking to the swashbuckling Spaniard.

Six years, 12,000 planted trees, 1,500 gorse bushes and one million tons of earthmoving later and The Shire opened in spring this year. Seve made several trips to London to oversee the design and build; he also lent his name to a teaching academy on site. There are also all sorts of high-tech add-ons such as video analysis and a peak performance psychologist, but the focus of any visit will be the golf course itself.

With six par-3s, 4s and 5s, Seve’s design is anything but boring and it’s the sort of course that will likely draw you back more than once. One reason is that it is a pretty severe test of golf, especially off the medal tees and if you don’t have your ‘A’ game with you.

The fun starts at the very first, an attractive looking par- 3. Now I say ‘attractive-looking’, but I’m being slightly ironic. If you’re feeling a little achy on the first tee or are fighting a hook or some such swing problem, The Shire’s first hole does not quite provide an antidote because it has a thin, two-tier green with water on three sides and a carry across that water which is not much less than 140 of the hole’s total 154-yard length.

Staying close to the clubhouse check out the 18th, a signature hole in every respect – a par-4 at 419yds with an ‘S’-shaped water hazard that wraps around another thin and hillocky green. You need a precise drive and second shot to get home without a nightmare finish here.

The fact is you could easily both start and end with absolute disasters at The Shire. However,as long as you know that Seve has laid down a challenge, then you will not be disappointed; he doesn’t make easy courses to satisfy lazy, resort golfers.

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