Relocated course planted in top 100

COURSE DEVELOPMENT/Donegal GC: John O'Sullivan visits the course that next month stages the Men's Irish Close Championship

The prescience of three men, Kevin Britton, Sandy Alcorn and Michael McGettigan, transformed Donegal Golf Club from an anonymous, nine-hole course on the outskirts of the town to one listed in Britain and Ireland's top 100, hewn from the Murvagh peninsula.

It involved relocation and two renowned Irish course designers, the late Eddie Hackett and more recently Pat Ruddy, to turn an ugly duckling into a course that will next month stage the Men's Irish Close Championship from June 12th-16th.

Ruddy's careful tweaking has not only lengthened the course to a monstrous 7,400 yards, but guaranteed its restoration to the top-100 courses listing.

The recent refurbishment of Hackett's original layout - Paddy Skerrit was initially consulted and it was he who recommended Hackett - would not have been possible without the intervention of Britton, Alcorn and McGettigan in the early 1970s.

The late Britton, a local shoe retailer and travel accessories manufacturer; the late Alcorn, a national school teacher, and McGettigan, a now retired butcher, were returning from a round of golf in Bundoran one winter evening.

It had been standard practice that during the winter the members of Donegal Golf Club would decamp to Bundoran to play, given that their nine-hole layout, on a drumlin on the outskirts of Donegal Town, was largely unplayable.

Donegal had been established in 1959 as a result of the generosity of the Temple family (owners of the Magee clothing firm), who had donated the land in memory of their late father, Robert. It required another tremendous gesture from the family to allow the club to sell the land on which the old nine-hole course was situated to subsidise the building of a clubhouse at Murvagh.

Affiliated to the Golf Union of Ireland the following year, the small club attracted a solid core of golfers, but the frustration was that it was largely unplayable during the winter.

Returning from Bundoran that day, a conversation was struck up about the Murvagh peninsula and the quality of land: on a whim, the intrepid trio went to view the land via the beach in a landrover, and in the gathering twilight marvelled at the location.

They enlisted the help of the local vet, Louis O'Donnell - his wife Maire (Maura) O'Donnell is the club's most celebrated golfer, a former Curtis Cup and Ireland captain - and a couple of return visits prompted them to approach the Department of Land to try to lease the 160 acres.

The department had originally hoped to plant trees on the land, but the soil wasn't conducive and so it lay untamed. The matter was concluded to the satisfaction of all parties and Donegal Golf Club was about to be relocated.

Club official Charlie McAleavey takes up the story.

"Eddie Hackett was approached to design the course and the contract agreed was for £200 in 1972. The man who did most of the construction was Packie Quinn, who used a mowing bar and link box on the back of his tractor. It was what the farmers in these parts used to cut the hay.

"There was a lot of voluntary labour employed and the greens were constructed quite simply by flattening an area and putting the sod back on top. The first time that a digger was used was when Pat (Ruddy) started on the redesign. Even when you consider the changes made to the layout, the total cost was only about a350,000."

The biggest outlay by far has been the clubhouse, constructed at a cost of a1.2 million in 2000. They club had submitted an application for a top amateur men's tournament - they have twice staged the Ladies Irish Close Championship - and when they were informed by the GUI that they would be considered when the Irish Close was due to return to Ulster, they set about revamping the course under Ruddy's guidance.

It had once been considered one of the longest courses in Britain and Ireland, but technology and the glut of new championship courses meant that was no longer the case. In all, 10 holes on the Murvagh links were "surgically enhanced", stretching the course to a massive 6,736-metres (approx 7,400-yards).

Greens, tees and fairway bunkers have been moved and reconfigured, and a meandering burn has found its way across the fairways of the 12th and 14th holes. The links is now ready to stare down the challenge of a new generation.

To understand what Ireland's top amateurs will face next month requires a whistle-stop tour of the changes that the course has undergone. The green at the par five first has been totally rebuilt to present a challenge to those seeking to be pin-side in two.

The green runs shallow and wide, with two distinct levels right and left of a front bunker. It has transformed what was previously a straight-forward par five that yielded plenty of birdies.

The second, "Westward Ho", has been transformed, with fairway mounding and bunkering forcing the landing area towards the boundary fence on the right.

The tee-shot is pivotal, and there is no respite at the green, which has been raised and graded to shed imperfect approaches into deep pot bunkers.

The final hole that has been changed on the outward journey is the ninth. It has been lengthened to just over 400 yards by introducing a new, slightly raised green behind and to the right of the original green.

Fairway and greenside bunkering work to present a strategic challenge. The 10th will enjoy the benefit of a new championship tee, slightly left to accentuate the dog-leg in the landing zone.

The 12th was previously an innocuous par five, but the introduction of vigorous mounding and bunkering in the landing area for the drive, the rerouting and reconfiguring of the burn short of the green to threaten lay-ups of various lengths, and the raising and reshaping of the green and greenside bunkering has made this hole a formidable assignment.

The alterations to the 13th have been enthusiastically greeted by the members. A featureless, flat par three been translated into a stunningly beautiful and very testing hole. The green has been raised and dog-legs around a pot bunker on the right. Surrounding mounding emphasises the beauty of the location that has a magnificent backdrop of a wooded island in Donegal Bay. It now measures 180 yards.

The extensive restructuring on the journey home continues at the 14th, known locally as "Runway". The landing zone of this par five has been bunkered and mounded with a subtle ramp in the fairway to slow a running ball and so make this hole play the full value of its 570 yards. The burn that ran quietly and innocuously along the side of the fairway then springs to life and forms a horseshoe along both sides of, and across, the fairway in the approach area. It now becomes a focal point for the golfer and his efforts to plot a course.

The new green has been raised, bunkered and sculpted into the surrounding contours. This hole may play a big part in many matches during the Irish Close Championship.

The changes on the 16th and 17th involve new greenside bunkers to place a premium on the approach shot.

The 18th hole has been given a total new lease of life and it is now a great finishing par four of 440 yards from a new championship tee, located beside the 17th green. The ridge that ran across in front of the tee and made for a blind drive has been shaved to give a view of the landing area that is now strongly mounded and bunkered.

The environs of the green have also been altered, extensive mounding providing an amphitheatre effect in a Birkdale-tone, and the putting surface, which is raised to emphasise the depth of the bunkering which is now tucked right into greenside, is sloped and pitched to provide an interesting finish for those under pressure.

Ruddy, synonymous with classic links courses, from his own at The European Club to Ballyliffin, Portsalon and Rosapenna, has produced another superb test and one that will be embraced by Ireland's top amateurs next month.