Only last year, Arnold Palmer resort courses were being viewed as highly desirable venues for tournament professionals because of the scoring exploits they were yielding. But whatever about the American scene, challengers for the £1.5 million sterling Smurfit European Open will find that things have since changed significantly down here at the K Club.
January 1999, at PGA West, saw David Duval capture the Bob Hope Classic with a stunning final round of 59. And little more than six months later, Darren Clarke did almost the same, before being forced to settle for a second-round 60 on Palmer's creation at Straffan.
In the meantime, no fewer than 460 semi-mature trees have found a home in various, strategic locations of the layout. Then there has been the addition of a fair swathe of rough, and a particularly interesting new tee at the new 17th, which lengthens it by 49 yards to a 424-yard par four.
As a further change from last year, the course has been rerouted: the first eight holes on each nine have been switched around. So, after starting on the 10th, competitors will go from the old 17th to the ninth, then proceed down the established first eight holes before ending the round as usual on the 18th.
"I think it will make a much better finish for everybody," said tournament favourite Colin Montgomerie. Defending champion Lee Westwood, who double-bogeyed the old 16th on the way to victory, concurred: "It gives us four good finishing holes with water involved in all of them. It should be interesting."
And what of Clarke? "All the changes are good, very positive," he said. "There has been a huge improvement in the greens and the extra trees have made it much tighter and tougher."
The change of routing is, in essence, a trial for the 2005 Ryder Cup, as it recognises the difficulties spectators would have in seeing climactic matchplay action at the old 16th and 17th, given their riverside location. Though the new 17th also borders the Liffey, it provides far more viewing room as a par four. And it is certain to be interesting.
One suspects that Des Smyth contributed the first entry to what is likely to be a litany of tournament torment there when he ran up a 10 during the recent Christy O'Connor Pro-Am. From the new back tee, the player looks directly along the river bank and, in Smyth's case, three attempted fades with the driver were consigned to a watery grave.
Australia's Peter Senior proved to be of no help to his partners there in yesterday's pro-am when he hit two in the river. The new tee means the hole has been changed, in normal conditions, from a one-iron/three-wood teeshot and a sandwedge approach, to a driver and an eight-iron.
As many as 10 holes have been changed, largely by trees which will tighten up the driving lines appreciably, bringing the ubiquitous water more into play.
Against that background, it seems unlikely that the 21-underpar aggregate record of 267, set by Per-Ulrik Johansson at this venue in 1997, will be serious challenged. Or will it?
"There's no reason why not," said European Open regular, Thomas Bjorn. "Apart from the fact that it happens to be a very fair course, everybody's in peak form around this time of year.
"People shouldn't take the wrong message from Darren's 60. I played behind him and saw him hit a series of wonderful shots. On his game there aren't many better players. It was an exceptional round, by any standards."
Bjorn concluded: "The scoring has to do with the time of year and the quality of the field, not the course."
It has been well documented how Clarke followed a second-round 60 with a third-round 66, which included a hole-in-one. And with a six-stroke lead over the field, he proceeded to shoot a closing 75 to be caught and passed by Westwood, who came from seven strokes back for a famous victory.
Indeed a measure of the importance of this title is that Montgomerie is decidedly anxious to remedy its omission from his 24 European successes.
"As you probably know, I enter tournaments to win and I am conscious of not having won this one," said the Scot, who needs only a top-five finish to pass £10 million in tournament earnings on this side of the Atlantic.
He has taken two weeks off since the disappointment of slumping to a share of 46th place in last month's US Open at Pebble Beach. Some of the time, however, was spent in Houston with his coach Paul Marchand.
Clarke and Padraig Harrington are the top Irish challengers, though Paul McGinley got a timely lift in confidence from a share of third place in the Murphy's Irish Open at Ballybunion last Sunday. In the event, Harrington's decision in having his coach, Bob Torrance, fly over from Scotland last Monday, seems to have paid off.
"Padraig's looking really good," Torrance said yesterday. "He gets stronger all the time, especially up here," he added, pointing to his head.
This is a special tournament for the Dubliner in that it marked his debut as a professional in September 1995, when he failed to make the cut. But rapid maturity was evident in an opening 65 the following year, when he was tied 10th.
Since then, Harrington was tied 50th when challenging for a Ryder Cup place in 1997, having memorably played the opening two rounds in the company of Seve Ballesteros. Then came a share of 23rd behind Mathias Gronberg in 1998, and he was tied 18th last year.
I expect him to head the Irish challenge this weekend, when a re-energised Montgomerie, the potential 10-million-pound-man, looks like being the player to beat.
