It is almost seven years since a select group of Irish professionals were so impressed with the newly-opened golf complex at Citywest that they felt obliged to tell the owner, Jim Mansfield, just how good it was. Whereupon he uttered the priceless reply: "You're right. In fact it's too damn good for you hoors."

In his wicked, abrasive way, Mansfield delights in playing down his interest in a game which he doesn't play and has no intention of taking up. Yet, within five years, he plans to control golf-based developments in Co Dublin with a combined value of u1 billion (repeat billion) £1 billion (repeat billion) pounds.

"I don't have the patience for golf but I could always see this place working," he said of the course which was designed by Christy O'Connor Jnr and is home to the Hibernian GC. "The entire complex here made a profit of £4 million last year and we expect a similar dividend from a turnover of £13 million in the current 12 months."

The Citywest experience has whetted Mansfield's appetite for far bigger fish. Pending planning permission, work will begin in May of this year on a £500 million project in the Palmerstown Stud, adjoining Goff's Auditorium at Kill.

Those who know Citywest will have observed that Mansfield thinks on a grand scale. From an overall holding of 800 acres near Kill, he will be turning 400 acres over to a golf course designed by O'Connor Jnr in association with the Jack Nicklaus organisation. Why 400 acres? "Because we plan to build about 130 houses which, along with a hotel and infrastructural work including a flyover to the other side of the dual carriageway, will account for £500 million," he replied.

Nicklaus's people have been on site for the last six months and Mansfield is currently negotiating the purchase of a site to accommodate the fly-over. "If all goes well, we hope to meet a target date in 2005, in time for the Ryder Cup," he said. Clearly there will be no problem in filling the new hotel at that time.

Another course at Citywest, on the far side of the Saggart Road from the existing layout, is expected to be opened in May. "By the time everything is completed, I reckon our investment in golf at Saggart and Palmerstown Stud, will total about £1 billion," Mansfield adds.

He enjoys being around golfers and has formed a close bond with O'Connor Jnr. And when the Irish Women's Open was staged at Citywest in 1996, he thought nothing of throwing the keys of his Rolls Royce to England's Laura Davies, who duly took it off for a spin.

Meanwhile, in terms of making money from the game, he has proved to this observer that a sharp business brain is a lot more valuable than an appreciation of the golf swing. Which would explain why, at £25 on weekdays and £30 at weekends, the green fees at Citywest have remained unchanged since the professionals walked into a verbal ambush there in 1994.

"Enough is enough. Golf balls have reached their limits. There's a serious risk that any further changes will destroy the game as we know it."

- Peter Dawson, secretary of the Royal and Ancient, speaking this week.