It all started when an old-school north London golf club black-balled the wrong guy.

Two decades later, one man and his family’s reaction to that ill-fated interview has spawned five distinctly different golf venues to the north of the UK’s capital city, attracted tens of thousands of annual customers, and helped over half a million underprivileged children and people with disabilities to take their first steps into golf.

London businessman Tony Menai-Davis and his wife Anne were those wrong people. Annoyed that their faces didn’t fit at the traditional local golf club, he immediately set about building a golf course directly across the road. In the early 2000s he persuaded his golfing hero, Severiano Ballesteros, to design an unprecedented golf course in what became, ultimately, the charismatic and inspirational Spaniard’s only full design in the United Kingdom.

The Shire London opened in July 2007 with a fully-sold membership, and quickly set about establishing itself as a must-play venue with the Ballesteros factor as its main attractor. Tony Menai-Davis and his family, including two talented golfing sons, shared Seve’s passion for non-uniformity so there were no committees, no captains, no dress code and no reserved parking spaces.

London’s golfers got it. They loved the affordable luxury, the friendliness of the staff, the open-plan clubhouse which featured a giant teddy bear for the many children and families who embraced what ‘The Shire’ had to offer, and the fact that it lacked the snobbery and stand-offishness of some of the UK’s other prestige golf clubs.

And of course they were drawn magnetically to Ballesteros’s imaginative golf course design, full of life-or-death (and frequently watery) challenges with six Threes, six Fours, six Fives and, on each of the nines, no two consecutive holes the same par.

The Shire London quickly became one of the most successful golf clubs in the south of England. Eldest son Ceri Menai-Davis takes up the story: “The Seve name brought people here, but what kept them repeatedly coming back was the contrast between The Shire way, and the golfing establishment’s way.

“When we said no dress code we meant it, and when they visited The Shire people would relax in the clubhouse in their jeans, and talk on their phones, but out on the golf course they dressed like every other golfer.

“People respected that The Shire was a golf club with the spirit of Seve Ballesteros at its heart. He was a man of the people, but he played with respect for the sport and its traditions. We don’t force those traditions down your throat with a long list of Club Rules – but happily people respect them anyway.

“We say: ‘Enjoy your day – but don’t ruin someone else’s!’.”

The Shire London now enjoys a reputation as being in permanently beautiful condition, and being located just minutes from London’s M25 orbital motorway has made it a firm fixture on the society, corporate and celebrity golf circuits.

But as the club entered its second decade, tragedy was about to strike.

A photo taken in April 2018 shows Tony, Ceri and Cae Menai-Davis with Pete, Alice and Perry Dye at the Dye family home in Florida, USA.

A year earlier a new golf course called The Dye London was granted planning permission in Edgware, North London: a new sister venue to The Shire London, just five miles to the west. Perry Dye had taken a lead role in designing the new layout, which was to be a 7,000 yard Tour-style track with multiple tees – and the first golf course to bear the Dye name in the UK.

But within three years the golfing community had lost first Alice, then Pete, and finally Perry, and in late summer 2021 fate also struck a cruel blow to the Menai-Davis family when Ceri and Fran Menai-Davis lost their six-year-old boy, Hugh, to cancer.

“To be honest at the time it seemed impossible to survive even a single day, much less think about the future,” said Ceri Menai-Davis. “You can’t make any sense of it. But the example that Hugh set to us, his parents, as to how to behave and be strong when everything seems lost, it simply dwarfed anything we had ever known before. He gave us the courage to take another step forwards by founding It’s Never You.”

The It’s Never You charity was formed in 2022 to help the parents of children with cancer, and the Menai-Davis family decided to rename their Edgware project The Legacy Club, in memory both of Hugh and of the work they had done with the Dye family.

“The Legacy Club will be enjoyable and playable for all golfers, but will also offer a challenge worthy of a Tour venue,” commented Jeremy Slessor, managing director of European Golf Design who have been tasked with completing the project.

Ceri Menai-Davis said: “The Legacy Club will be just as welcoming and just as non-uniform as The Shire London. It will be a place where true golf lovers and newcomers to the sport can rub shoulders together in a relaxed way, with a magnificent golfing challenge waiting out there for those who choose to take it on.

“The Shire London itself was originally inspired by, and is still driven by, the legacy of one of the true giants of golf, Severiano Ballesteros.

“We have a legacy equally as heartfelt and meaningful driving us forwards at The Legacy Club, and it will be a big contributor to the charitable work we do with It’s Never You and other charities.”

One such other charity, The Golf Trust, was co-founded a decade ago by the family’s youngest son, Cae Menai-Davis. Since 2012 over 500,000 children and people with disabilities have had their first experience of golf in the UK, Africa and Central America as a result of the Trust’s work.

Over 200 golf coaches in the UK alone have now been trained by Menai-Davis and his team of volunteers to teach the sport to people with a wide range of mental and physical challenges. “We help people to live better lives through sport,” said Cae Menai-Davis. “The fact that we use golf as the vehicle is less important than the fact that being outdoors promotes health, well-being, community and better family relationships.

“We have many more challenges to overcome, but The Golf Trust is fit and ready to take the sport even further in the next decade.”

The unstoppable Menai-Davis clan also created the 36-hole Lost Jungle London adventure golf course, which is one of Europe’s largest and busiest themed golfing attractions.

And across the road from the family’s busy West London Golf Centre – a bustling nine-holer with a large driving range, golf superstore and adventure golf attraction – yet another golf course is growing in, waiting for its moment to come in 2023.

Currently named the West London Links, more is due to be revealed about the newest Menai-Davis project later in 2022.

“We don’t do job titles, we all get stuck in and do what needs doing, and we do things very much our own way,” said Ceri Menai-Davis.

“We recognise that golf is a family sport which needs more and more accessible facilities, so we are doing everything we can to open it up to a new generation of golfers – no matter what advantages or disadvantages they may have in their lives.”