Beavering away to good effect

The muck clings to boots like superglue, and each step requires all the physical effort of an Irish rugby back escaping the clutches of an Argentinian forward. Impossible. It's not yet mid-day but already one of the CAT dump trucks has its lights on full beam. An October day in Beaverstown Golf Club and, despite the weather, the remodelling crew are sculpting and shaping and doing the dirty work under dark grey skies.

This is what its like at the coal face. Messy, but in its own way rewarding. Four weeks ago, the workmen moved in on the north county Dublin club that is located in densely populated golfing territory. Six courses lie within the environs of Donabate, and Beaverstown - founded in 1984 - is undergoing major surgery. It's a highly progressive, enlightened, approach by the club's members to make sure they are not left behind by modern developments.

The raw state of the course makes it hard to visualise what it will be like come September when the ten newly built greens and tee-boxes and additional bunkers and a couple of "new" holes come into play. But Peter McEvoy's job is to see such things in his head. As a player, and more recently as a Walker Cup captain, McEvoy could visualise shots and emerge a winner. As a designer, he has proven he has the same capacity to succeed. "I'm a hands-on type of guy," he explains. "I like to be there when greens are being shaped."

Moving in on someone else's design is all part of the job as more and more courses decide to upgrade. McEvoy, though, is an admirer of the courses created by the late Eddie Hackett, the man who designed Beaverstown. "The routing is a good one," explains McEvoy, "and, generally speaking, his lay-outs from what I have experienced are pretty good."

And, yet, McEvoy has had to change the routing over the home stretch. "For safety factors," he quickly explains. The reason is a major new housing development which will shortly adjoin the fairway of what is now the 14th hole while, arguably, for members and visitors alike, the most significant change will be the complete turnaround of the short 17th hole, considered the course's feature hole.

Again, the change is due to safety factors. As the hole is currently played, a railway line and a housing estate lie to the right and players play uphill to an elevated green. "Par threes are always most emotive. People love them," says McEvoy. "The members here love this hole, they consider it their own little corner."

However, statistics show that 87 per cent of all mis-hit shots are pushed right - which makes the 17th a particularly dangerous one with balls tending to fly onto the railway or even into gardens - and, so, the decision was taken by McEvoy to basically reverse it. "It will still have the same ambience that it has now when we are finished with it. We'll be doing plenty of gardening and planting to ensure that." Indeed, McEvoy believes it will turn out to be an even better hole with the water visible from the new tee as players play down to a new green built to the highest specifications. All the greens will be built to the top USGA specifications. The impact will be obvious from the first hole. Currently a straight-forward, somewhat boring, short par four, the hole will be transformed into a dogleg left with a pond guarding the green. Anthony Brooks is one of McEvoy's men on the ground. A number of years ago the Englishman went to Michigan State to study Sports Turf Management. Over there, he met a South African by the name of Craig Cooke. Cooke's name is in bold black lettering on much of the machinery being used in the redevelopment of Beaverstown: The three excavators, the dump trucks, the bulldozer and the tractors and finishing equipment that will be present on site for much of the next year.

Brooks and Cooke studied together and then worked together at Tony Jacklin Golfscapes and have continued their association with McEvoy's Sporting Concepts company.

Last week, the rains arrived and turned the area into a sticky wicket. Top soil lies isolated close-by, ready to be reused. Brooks casts his hand out at the area that will be the first green. In his mind he knows exactly what it will ultimately look like. To the uninitiated, it looks like a building site. Brooks explains how layers of sand and peat and pea gravel will be sculpted to create an impressive new green, and you have to take him at his word. Knowing his reputation from Rathsallagh, where he was superintendent, you also know he will be as good as his word.

Brooks talks with enthusiasm about a job that will transform Beaverstown, walking through yet more tracks to an area down by what the locals call "the Canal," the estuary that runs inland from the Irish Sea. In the corner is the new tee-box that will change the appearance of the second hole from the tee, again changing it from a straight-forward hole and placing greater emphasis on the drive.

HERE and there it is possible to see McEvoy's mind working overtime to bring greater creativity to the project. The change to the 14th has been forced upon him by the proposed new housing estate. Instead of being a dog-leg right, it will become a dog-leg left and the 15th will effectively become a new hole, a par five. It is here that the designer's mindset comes through.

The 15th green will be set in what was previously scrubland, land that on previous visits to Beaverstown, I was unaware even existed. But designers know these things and some water to the left of the green, when it is eventually constructed, will add to the aesthetic appeal. The 16th will also be pretty much a reconstructed hole, before players will wander to the 17th. Last Friday, the old 18th green was ripped up and work started on moulding the new green that will replace it. Things move quickly.

Although the Beaverstown members are continuing to play competitions, albeit on a much-shortened course, the rewards will be delivered in time. The land around the 17th hole features much upturned earth but, even in the rain, the D4C CAT excavator is working as if there is no tomorrow.

The shaping is performed by Cooke and Brooks and Walter O'Toole from Bray and the creeping bent grass that will be used in the new greens will give the Beaverstown members a putting surface that will make others green with envy. As things stand, the club has always been noted for the high quality of its maintenance. A brand new computerised irrigation system and the use of only hand-mowers on all the greens will help in bringing it up to a new level. It's what the members wanted.

The greens - measuring between 450-550 square metres each - will be constructed to the highest specifications, and will probably require the addition of one new member to the greenkeeping staff as a result. McEvoy reckons that, outside of the United States, Ireland has the highest percentage of USGA spec greens in the world. It's a result of the huge number of new courses constructed here over the past 10 years or so, and the desire of existing Irish clubs to upgrade their courses.

"One of the main factors in upgrading is because courses are much more heavily played nowadays than in years gone by. Forty or 50 years ago, golf was pretty much a gentleman's game with most courses only having at most 100 rounds a week. Courses these days are having to take eight times that volume, with between 30,000 and 40,000 rounds per year on most courses.

"The great thing about modern specifications and creeping bent is that, once they are up and running, they are designed to cope with such demands. They are healthy and free draining," says McEvoy.

If a bleak, grey October day can provide a hint of what Beaverstown can aspire to, then the desire to return when the work is concluded is all the greater. And as you negotiate a way over the hump-back bridge with the traffic lights out of order, you pass a planning application on the main gate which seeks permission for further work to the clubhouse. A progressive club on the up, in more ways than one.