TRAVEL: Oulton lead revolution

IF you were in any doubt as to the changing face of golf, pay a visit to Oulton Hall in West Yorkshire. Situated a few miles south of Leeds (in a prime location near both the M1 and M62), a course has been attached to the five-star De Vere hotel for many years.

It's only now, though, that they're getting really serious about golf. And if the moment you lay eyes on their new clubhouse doesn't convince of this fact, the walk through its doors - as NCG did over the weekend - certainly will.

This is a clubhouse on a ultra-luxurious level. Where once you felt pampered in changing rooms if the water was warm, now you are treated as if you are in a five-star, achingly-chic hotel. Hotels and restaurants with good reputations in Leeds will look shabby compared to the lounge of Oulton's new clubhouse, the Claret Jug.

In fact the only thing they seemed to have overlooked in this exceptionally pleasant experience is the car parking: if you're going to build something so good, expect people to come!

You suspect there are already plans afoot for extra parking space, just as there are plans to redevelop the course itself.

A perfectly adequate parkland test as it stands today, De Vere have clearly got eyes on something more substantial and spectacular.

There are a dearth of really top-class, expansive venues in the north of England and De Vere appear ready, willing and able to fill that gap. Indeed, don't be surprised in a few years if you're watching coverage of the European Tour from Oulton Hall.

They now have the off-course facilties and quality to host the circuit and it seems a fair bet that an eye-catching course will follow. And there you have the difference.

Not much more than two decades ago Bingley St Ives, a truly brilliant course of wonderfully differing nature on the other side of Leeds to Oulton, hosted the European Tour.

Nick Faldo won there, around the time he was winning Majors at Muirfield, St Andrews and Augusta National. But he also plied his trade at Bingley. Quite simply, that will never happen again.

Golf, professional golf, is radically different. Bingley might have a terrific course but it has a small clubhouse and little room for tv compounds, hospitality tents and even spectator stands.

The future for tour golf is at large, well-equipped and ambitious venues such as De Vere Oulton Hall, which also has one of the classiest hotels in England a minute's walk from the 18th green.

Watch out for developments at Oulton and when it appears on the European Tour schedule in years to come, remember where you heard it first. By Chris Bertram