The Belfry - Warwickshire

[JungleJ]

There are three courses at The Belfry - "the spiritual home of the Ryder Cup" and headquarters of the PGA.

The Derby course is a 5400 yard layout, suitable for all levels of golfers and even golf shoes are not required.

The PGA National is the #2 course, playing 6600 from the back tees. It is intended to be an inland links - the main features are cavernous fairway and greenside bunkers. It does have some pretty interesting holes with deceptive bunkering. It was in pretty good condition in April and is an enjoyable test of golf. Probably overpriced at £75 a round, but it is there to soak up extra demand.

The Brabazon is the world-famous course that has hosted three Ryder Cups and many European Tour events. Here are my impressions:

This course is more of a parkland course and it feels quite American. The green complexes are generally quite interesting and virtually every green requires a lofted shot. I can't think of a green that would accept a running approach - either the green is heavily bunkered at the front, or behind water, or both. It is quite a "target golf" kind of course, which is not in itself a bad thing.

Fairways in general are open. For the pros I am sure the narrow them up a bit and let the rough grow higher - for us the rough was OK to deal with and only shots way off line were severely punished. The fairway bunkers are in the typical places although I'd say that from the daily tees only shorter hitters would be troubled and from the white tees (second longest) only quite long hitters would be troubled.

There is a fair amount of water. A lot of it is somewhat irrelevant, being close to the tee boxes or way off line. However quite a few holes have ditches about 40 or 50 yards short of the green. This forced us into a lot of lay up shots since we would otherwise only get to the green by running the ball up. For someone not confident in their wedge play this could be a big problem.

The course is hosting a Tour event in May and so the greens were still being dressed. They were true but not as quick or slippery as they will be three weeks from now. I adjusted to the pace quite quickly and made a few for once.

Standout holes:

Obviously the 10th - 311 from the pro tees and 284 from the daily box. You can't really see the green from the tee box, but you CAN see the water, and there is a large bunker on the tee side of the water as well. The green is easily 50 yards deep and quite narrow. The prime layup areas (for those not long or brave enough to take on the green) are about 90 yards from the front of the green, so depending on where the pin is you could be looking at a sand wedge up to 7 iron. You can also lay up and be pretty much pin high, and so aiming at a landing area not much more than 20 feet deep, so your distance control is vital. This is a great, great golf hole - a very intimidating short hole.

The 18th is also amazing - the drive across the water with a real risk/reward factor. And you have to take the water on twice! There is a plaque in the fairway marking the spot from which Christy O'Connor jr hit his famous 2 iron in the 1989 Ryder Cup.

A methodical player who executes well can make a good score here. A mid or mid-high handicapper need not be over intimidated if they are prepared to lay up a lot and chip and putt carefully. The better player can choose tees to his/her liking and will find the pins tricky to get at.

The walk-on green fee is pretty high, around £140. Personally I am not sure it is worth it, but when you are on the 10th tee or the 18th fairway it feels pretty special.

My advice would be, if you can get here, is to book on their Sunday night stayover special. We paid £169 for dinner, bed and breakfast and rounds on the Derby and Brabazon courses. We then on the day paid £10 to upgrade to the PGA National. At those prices it has to be considered a bargain, and the place is very well organised.

It took exactly 5 hours to play the Brabazon (shotgun start). We were paired with a mother giving her son a birthday present - neither of them were very good so we might have gone a bit faster but since we wanted to enjoy the course we didn't mind the 5 hours.

FWIW my brother in law thought the Brabazon was the best course he had ever played. I wasn't so sure myself but it is up there and I am very glad I got to play there.