Mount Juliet snares a prize specimen

In terms of prestige, it is just one step removed from a major. But, in sheer monetary terms, it is actually ahead, and yesterday's confirmation that the American Express World Golf Championship - with world number one Tiger Woods guaranteed to play and prize money in excess of $5 million - will be staged at Mount Juliet in 2002 had people from that part of the world sporting even wider grins than when the Cats returned home with the All-Ireland hurling title.

One of the four tournaments run by the International Federation of PGA Tours - the Andersen Consulting Matchplay, won by Darren Clarke earlier this season, the NEC Invitational and the EMC World Cup are the others - the American Express 72-hole strokeplay tournament will be the first world golf championship event to be staged in northern Europe. Clearly, this constitutes a coup for those involved in marketing golf in Ireland. The inaugural staging of the tournament, won by Woods, was held in Valderrama last year, and he defends that title at the same venue next month. However, as part of the federation's policy of alternating the event between the US and Europe, it will be held at the Bellerive CC in St Louis next year before coming to Mount Juliet for its fourth staging in 2002. It will be aided by a move from its traditional November slot to a time in September.

The field for the tournament will comprise between 65 and 70 players, made up of the top 50 in the world rankings plus those not already qualified from the top 20 in both the European and US moneylists, along with three players from each of the other member tours in Australasia, Japan, Asia and South Africa.

By then, tournament prizemoney is expected to have risen even higher than the total of $5 million ($1 million to the winner) currently on offer, a fact acknowledged by Keith Waters, director of international policy with the European Tour, who revealed that the tournament's title sponsors were immediately receptive when the move to Ireland was first mooted.

"Our job is to present the world's best players with a first class course," remarked Dr Tim Mahony, chairman of Mount Juliet. Indeed, Mahony has already met with course designer Jack Nicklaus to seek his recommendations on any possible course alterations, and one of his design team, Dirk Bouts, recently visited the Thomastown venue. Any changes to the course, however, are expected to be miniscule - and the more tangible work, in fact, will start within the next two weeks when all 18 greens will be redeveloped using a new type of creeping bent grass which has been grown on site. This work is to be supervised by course architect Jeff Howes, who was involved in the original construction of the course, and course superintendent Aidan O'Hara.

"Given the standard of our greens, the decision to resurface them might surprise a lot people," said Mahony. "In fact, we've had a few bids put in for our old greens - they are not for sale - but we want Mount Juliet to be measured against the best in a world context, and our determination has strengthened now that we have been invited to host the American Express championship when the most distinguished field ever assembled in this country comes to our club." It is expected that the new greens will be fully in play by next May.

The arrival of the championship in Ireland is no accident. Apart from the money invested in securing the Ryder Cup for the country (at the K Club in 2005), the Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, has made £2.5 million available to Bord Failte each year up to 2002 to attract major international events. The AmEx championship will benefit to the tune of around £650,000 from that fund over a two-year period in marketing and promotion.

"We've been working hard to attract world-class sporting events to Ireland, especially in the area of golf, and that hard work, which has seen real partnership between the Government and private sector, is paying dividends," said McDaid.

With Woods, who has a long-term contract with American Express, guaranteed to play, and American television network ABC already signed up to telecast the event (one of 140 countries due to screen pictures), the strokeplay tournament is a considerable coup for Irish sport.

Intriguingly, there is also the possibility that Ireland could stage other World Golf Championship events, with the World Cup (which is being held in Argentina in December, Japan next year and pencilled in for the US in 2002) a very live possibility.

"Realistically, this is the first WGC event that could have come to Ireland," said Waters, who is the European Tour's representative to the International Federation, "but it is feasible that another one will, in time, be staged here. The World Cup will travel, but plans for 2003 to 2006 have not been finalised yet."

For now, the prospect of Woods et al visiting these shores for the American Express from September 19th-22nd, 2002, presents a mighty tempting appetiser to the Ryder Cup in 2005. In terms of staging tournaments, Ireland has never had it so good!