The potato patch which became a great course

Twenty five years after Dave Thomas and Peter Alliss transformed a field into what became the best known of all the Ryder Cup venues, the Brabazon parkland is still evolving.

A pretty aweless analogy, perhaps, but apt: what Bordeaux is to wine, what Cornwall is to meat-filled pastries, so North Warwickshire is to potatoes. This is truly King Edward's realm.

Field after field is devoted to the growth of the humble spud and one field in particular, one very big field covering 550 acres, grew them in profusion. Probably grew too many of them, probably helped to overstretch the market and some 30 years ago, someone had the idea of turning this potato patch into a golf course. And the rest, as they say, is history.

There had been an old hotel on the fringe of this large agricultural sweep for some years and in 1971 Greenalls bought it from Allied Vintners. Fours later they closed the hotel, brought in the shipping company Ellerman Lines as partners, refurbished the building and started to develop the surrounding land for golf.

In came Dave Thomas and Peter Alliss to design the lay-out and in May 1977, six months after the hotel had re-opened, the guests and all and sundry could play two courses, the Brabazon and the Derby.

The Belfry, as the entire complex became known, was on its way to becoming the most famous – the most patronised, anyway – Ryder Cup venue on the two continents on which it is played. It stages its fourth Ryder Cup next weekend. Its fourth in 17 years.

These days it likes very much to be known as the De Vere Belfry, this company having taken over from Greenalls who acquired sole ownership 21 years ago. De Vere (who now have a third course, the Dave Thomas-designed PGA National) have spent millions on redesigning the Brabazon and there are many who will say that they needed to.

On its 21st birthday, it was put down for a £2.4m facelift -- which was more than was spent on making it a golf course in the first place. Recently, De Vere have committed themselves to a £22m redevelopment programme overall. The Brabazon today can scarcely be associated with the crude, immature terrain whence it sprang; it will not be at all familiar to those who saw the first Ryder Cup match there in 1985.

In short, in its 25-year history the Brabazon has been virtually two different courses. They made 120 significant changes to it four years ago and they are still tinkering. Thomas cannot keep his hands off the place and he makes no apologies for that.

When the course was undergoing construction, Thomas would take a driver on to the site and bang a few balls about in order to give him an idea of what the demands should be off the tee. The 10th particularly intrigued him.

This is the par-four hole that starts quite near to the hotel that winds over 310 yards into a little hollow by the side of a little lake. There is a hill on the right hand side of the green and the Welshman, who in his playing days, probably hit a golf ball further than any of his fellow professionals, experimented with what today would be known as a power fade.

If the ball missed the green, right, it would – or it might – take the slope of the hill and curl around onto the putting surface. It is a theory that he has subsequently discouraged because there are some pretty big trees on that hill and anything that might curl in from the bank is likely to find any one of a string of bunkers.

When the Brabazon opened for tournament play -- the State Express was first to use it -- the 10th earned a dollop of fame when Severiano Ballesteros drove its entire length. Then Greg Norman did the same, only better. Ballesteros "only" had a birdie whereas Norman sank his first putt.

They put plaques up to commemorate these daring feats but they are not there are more. Somebody pinched them and there is now no great compulsion to replicate them because the hole has lost its magic. For the Ryder Cup and for the professional tournaments that are now held at The Belfry, in order to bribe the players to try to do what Thomas always intended them to do, they have shortened the hole. It is mostly played from the women's tees and even then, the top men disdain it.

The common attack is seven-iron, wedge -- when you are in contention for anything, anyway. But was that the sound of Dave Thomas laughing during the Benson & Hedges International in May when Colin Montgomerie played it, from the front, with two little irons – and put his third shot in the water?

The 10th, along with the 18th, was intended to be the course's signature hole but it is utterly dismissable as it is played today. Not so the 18th, of course. This is the one hole that has stood the test of time; the same hole, in every respect, from Day One. A big carry over a lake and second shot over water the difficulty of which is determined by the length of the first.

Fred Couples addressed the green with a nine-iron in 1989 but it was a two-iron for his opponent, Christie O'Connor Jnr. O'Connor hit his ball 240 yards to within three feet and so demoralised Couples that the American shanked his approach.

When the course was first laid, it was a shabby entity because, while it was well sculpted, little of what was planted would grow there. The fairways were tufted, like paddyfields, and it took some time to realise there was a top-soil deficiency. Thousands of tons of soil were then spread and the result was Eden-like.

The Brabazon, today, is as lush an inland course as there is in the country. The tree-planting initiatives have been an obvious success and a course that once lacked definition is much more than the slogger's paradise that it used to be.

Perhaps the hole that did most to sustain that impression was the old par-four third: 470 yards, uphill and not an interesting feature at any point. So Thomas got rid of it. After 200-odd yards now, the hole turns acutely left and those who fancy a second to the green have a large, man-made lake to contend with.

This is the new third hole's Ryder Cup debut and it will be one of the main spectator areas. So much to see and now, thanks to the mounding programme that was introduced along most of the fairways, so many places to see it from.

There are claims from all over Europe to stage the Ryder Cups of the future and we have to wonder if this is the last to be held at The Belfry. If it is, the old potato patch is certainly going out in style.