61 the best option. As former farmland, the site was relatively short on feature: essentially it was a tilted table sloping down towards the A40. Extensive tree planting was disallowed because of the proximity to Northolt, and the construction of significant lakes was also ruled out, so the links theme was a natural selection. Over a period from 2015, working with shaper Nigel Ely, Menai-Davis oversaw the reshaping of the ground to fit the Trajectory routing plan. They did a good job. Perhaps there are a few too many holes that follow the model of valleyed fairway with higher ground at the sides, but this is hardly an uncommon theme, even on real links. The out of play ‘dunes’ are well done, not too high or too steep, as is so often the case on such courses, and there is plenty of interest in the ground contour. Knowing your limits is an important skill in life generally, and it is to Menai-Davis’s credit that he did not try to do the entire course himself, but recognised he needed a professional golf architect to design greens, bunkers and tees. It was at this point that the firm of Mackenzie & Ebert became involved, with partner Tom Mackenzie taking the lead. Coming into a project where the routing and the earthmoving were largely complete cannot have been easy for Mackenzie, but he remained flexible, and made some subtle changes to the plan. “When we first visited, the course had already been seeded, but we came with an open mind,” says Mackenzie. “We really like the shapes that had been developed by Nigel Ely and the Menai-Davis family. We agreed that Tony’s links inspired concept seemed to fit the site well. We were able to refine the layout with the adjustment of the twelfth into a par four and the par-three thirteenth over the ditch, which we believe has produced a better overall routing. We were also able to adjust some angles through the movement of green positions and tee locations, such as shortening the seventh at the green, which allowed the fifth to extend at the tee. The pars of the seventeenth and eighteenth were also reversed to leave an exciting The routing was originally created by Seve Ballesteros’s Trajectory design firm, with Tom Mackenzie making some small tweaks after being brought in to design greens, bunkers and tees Image: Clere Golf
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