Ireland will have the distinction of providing the best venue in the history of the Ryder Cup on this side of the Atlantic when The K Club plays host to the biennial showpiece in 2005. A clear reflection of that status is an anticipated attendance ceiling of 40,000 - up 30 per cent on recent stagings.

Details were confirmed at a press conference in Dublin yesterday of a deal which is expected to provide a significant boost to this country as a destination for golf tourism. "Your population may be small but your impact in golf is enormous," said Ken Schofield, executive director of the European Tour.

Schofield was referring directly to the significant investment in tournament golf which has brought the Ryder Cup here, quite apart from a payment of £7 million - half from the Government and the other half shared between Aer Lingus, AIB and Waterford Crystal. And there was no doubting his preference for a proprietary establishment as a suitable venue.

"Portmarnock's time as a Ryder Cup venue would have been for the 1973 matches, which went to Muirfield," he said pointedly. Schofield then added: "We're in a timescale in which a proprietary establishment as a sound business resource is a powerful factor in choosing a venue.

"The Ryder Cup is the single most important asset to the European Tour. It's a vital piece of our business and has enhanced the funding of many of our tournaments.

"In that context, Mount Juliet and Druids Glen, which have staged the Irish Open in the 1990s, stood ready to play host to the Ryder Cup. But it is going to The K Club whose support of the European Open (since 1995), incidentally, pre-dates the decision to bring the event (Ryder Cup) to Ireland."

Though the European Tour played a powerful role in this particular exercise, technically the decision was made by the six-member Ryder Cup committee. It includes the 1982 Irish Open champion John O'Leary, along with Neil Coles and Phil Weaver (joint chairmen), Angel Gallardo, David Huish and Brian Anderson.

For Dr Michael Smurfit, it is the realisation of a dream. But life goes on, and in his capacity as chairman of the Jefferson Smurfit Group, which owns The K Club, he was in Venezuela yesterday on business. His reaction was: "It has been our ambition to build a complex worthy of staging the most prestigious golfing competition in the world."

He added: "The importance of this event for Irish sport, Irish tourism and for the country as a whole cannot be overstated. All our clubs will benefit from this decision and I feel it will lead to more great courses being designed and developed here."

Which brings to mind my experience on the Saturday of the 1997 Ryder Cup at Valderrama, where I was among the throng pressing against the fairway ropes of the long 17th. Hardly able to contain his excitement at the whole spectacle, Dr Smurfit turned to me and with his fingers crossed said: "Imagine this at The K Club."

The Minister for Sport, Dr McDaid, was also unable to attend the announcement. But he said: "I regard my negotiating this holding of the Ryder Cup matches as a major feature of my tenure of office. I must also thank Enda Kenny and Bernard Allen (ministers in the previous Government) who, in their tenure of office, did much to advance Ireland's case."

Meanwhile, there was a generous response yesterday from Denis Kane, chief executive of Druids Glen. "We wish The K Club every success and are confident their effort will enhance the status of courses such as ourselves, Mount Juliet, Portmarnock and Ballybunion in Irish golf."

The K Club's status as potentially the best European venue since the Ryder Cup was instituted in 1927 is based on the quality of the Arnold Palmer design and the spectator space afforded by a meandering course covering 220 acres. In my view, it is the strongest parkland layout in this country and will be entitled to world status when the greens are eventually brought up to the highest standards.

"There can be no greater accolade than to have our creation played by the elite of world golf, the Ryder Cuppers," said Palmer, who holds the distinction of being the last playing captain of a Ryder Cup team - in 1963.

These are important points to be set against the inevitable emphasis on money, specifically the huge contribution the Smurfit Group are making to the European Tour. Apart from their commitment to the European Open for a second, three-year period ending in 2000, they make an annual contribution of £200,000 to the Cannes Open.

After applying unsuccessfully in 1989 - two years before the course was opened - for the 1993 Ryder Cup, they then had to confront a major drainage problem. But by way of keeping their sights at the highest level, they set themselves a 10-year target in 1995.

As a reward for their determination, they have now landed the biggest event in professional golf in this country since the Canada Cup at Portmarnock in 1960.