Philip Reid talks to the hottest thing in course architecture, David McLay Kidd, who designed the West Course at Powerscourt

In a recent American golfing magazine, there's a eye-catching full-page colour advertisement in which a gentleman with a tartan kilt is pictured atop a cliff. He's in the process of swinging a golf club in the direction of the sea - the Pacific Ocean, it transpires - and it is obvious that there is a fair old wind swirling around.

The golfer in question is David McLay Kidd and what makes the choice of him as the focal point for the ad all the more intriguing is that the message being conveyed has nothing at all to do with golf, but with advertising a computer software system.

The use of Kidd in the advertisement, however, demonstrates that his reputation as the hottest new thing in course architecture is growing stronger. A few years ago, this Scot - the son of Jimmy, the course manager at Gleneagles - was hardly known in the cut-throat world of golf course design where, increasingly, it seemed that one of the requisites was that you were, or are, a tournament professional. Most developers want a signature name, a top golfer, to put on their new course.

Kidd was never a professional golfer, but golf has always run through his blood. His big break came some eight years ago when an American businessman named Mike Keiser was looking for a course designer for an isolated and wild piece of property he owned on the Oregon coast. Keiser didn't want a typical American course. He wanted something different, and looked to Kidd, from the home of golf, for the inspiration.

The course that was subsequently created was Bandon Dunes, now a near legendary golf only resort, which sports two courses among Golf magazine's top 100 in the world. That layout made Kidd's reputation as a designer - and he has also designed the Queenwood club in Surrey, England, and, more recently, created the West Course at Powerscourt in Co Wicklow which has now opened to the public.

So it is that the man named by Golf World magazine in 1999 as "the hottest architect in golf", has put his name to the West Course at Powerscourt and everyone is thrilled and delighted at the way things have turned out.

"We saw him as a new kid on the block, but one who is unquestionably going to be one of the top," remarked Bernard Gibbons, the director of golf at Powerscourt. And that foresight and confidence has been rewarded with a fine new course that is quite a different animal to the existing East Course - designed by Peter McEvoy - and has helped put Powerscourt to the top-end of the golf market in Ireland.

Bandon Dunes continues to win accolades from his peers and from golf publications around the world. But Kidd is driven to create new masterpieces, and is aware that golf courses, like fashion, fall in and out of style. "Ratings can be a fickle thing," he said. "I've done some great projects that haven't received any notice."

Kidd is fully aware that creating some of the world's best golf courses isn't always as alluring as it appears to some outsiders. "When you're out in the slime and the mud, it doesn't seem that glamorous." Yet, the end product invariably leaves a sense of fulfilment - and there can be no doubt that what has been achieved at Powerscourt, with the magnificent Sugarloaf as a backdrop on a number of holes, and the use of a ravine which crosses the undulating landscape has produced a course worthy of his name.

The other day, Kidd was on hand to survey the result of his handiwork in a project that exceeded €3.5 million. "The course is better than I could have expected," remarked Kidd, whose previous visit was last October at which stage all the design work was completed and it was entrusted to the Powerscourt grounds staff to nurture and manicure the course during the last phase of the growing-in period.

"They've done a magnificent job," conceded Kidd.

The course measures 6,390 metres off the back men's tees and 4,678 metres off the women's and offers variety that will ensure that a player's interest never wanes. "As a designer, I try to allow the natural features of the site to inspire me to create unique rather than pastiche golf holes. You will find that I have not replicated any holes I've come across elsewhere in my work," said Kidd.

"I think I've managed to let this course explore around corners and over brows . . . it allows the player to feel a sense of adventure. As well as following the contours of the land, the routing of the course was intended to develop this sense of exploration," insisted Kidd.

"My intention was to create a challenging course but to do so in a fashion that allowed the occasional golfer to have fun without being beaten up. The fairways have quite a bit of width and the greens are a little larger than usual . . . but this does not make attacking golf any easier as the bunkering is set up to catch the aggressor and the greens are penal if not in the right spot."

From the start, with Powerscourt House behind you as you stand on the first tee, the course is one that beguiles and challenges. The first hole is a par five of 563 metres (619 yards) - not a start for the faint-hearted - that, particularly if it plays into the wind, will battle-harden you for the task ahead.

In the main, though, the course is one that rewards brain and skill rather than brawn. The onus is on finding the fairway, sufficiently generous not to intimidate off the tee, but the real reward comes from finding the green with your approach, a task easier said than done.

The greens on the West Course are, if anything, more undulating than those on the older East Course. The quality, however, is superb. The same A4 grass that has proven so successful on the likes of Mount Juliet - where the professionals in last year's AmEx championship claimed were the best on the circuit all year - and Carton House has been nurtured here and the putting surfaces on all 18 greens are, quite simply, wonderful.

Kidd went for what he describes as "soft movements" in constructing a course that meanders its way around a piece of terrain that is naturally beautiful. "I've tried to create a running playing golf course," he said, "where the only shot in is to hit the ball short of green. My intention was to allow a running shot, rather than throwing ball all the way in."

Indeed, the greens have been designed with moundings to the side and breaks that allow the player to shape and use the mounds to work the ball back onto the putting surface.

Of particular appeal are the par threes: the sixth is played from an elevated tee to a green that is hard to hold - especially if the wind is blowing - while the 17th could emerge as the signature hole. Again, it is played from a high, elevated tee to a smallish green 187 metres (205 yards) away with a number of greenside bunkers for added protection. The finishing hole is a risk-and-reward par five with a lake down the left hand side.

"I believe this is a course with lots and lots of nuances," insisted Kidd, "a subtle course, one where the members will have to figure things out." What is certain is that it will find a place within the top bracket of parkland courses in the country sooner rather than later.