Michael Smurfit painted an exciting, ambitious picture of the future of tournament golf at The K Club yesterday, when he envisaged the 2005 Ryder Cup and the European Open being held there on different courses. Such a stunning undertaking will become possible with the scheduled completion of the second course in 2003.

A scale model of the 36-hole complex dominates his office in the clubhouse. It shows a layout with major water features on the far side of the River Liffey from what are now the eighth and 16th greens on the "old course."

"Our target is to commence work on it next March," said the chairman of the Jefferson Smurfit Group, owners of the Straffan complex. "It should be completed by 2003 which will allow us to look after our members as best as possible in the build-up to the Ryder Cup. And we are also conscious of future competition when the new Mark O'Meara and Colin Montgomerie courses at Carton House come on stream."

All relevant planning has been cleared on a project which will cost £12 million, including a clubhouse, conference centre and leisure facility. Indeed the intention is to make it entirely self-contained, just like the set-up for the present course, which was officially opened nine years ago this month.

"If we want to, we can stage the European Open on the new course in 2005," he said. "The topography is clearly different from this side of the river but with all the expertise of modern golf-course construction, I'm confident we can produce a layout of appropriate quality. And it's exciting to think that we could have two major events on the two courses in the same year."

He also expressed total satisfaction with the changed routing which, though discarded by the members early this year, brought unanimous approval last weekend from competitors who saw the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th - par-four, par-five, par-four, par-five - as four strong and very demanding finishing holes, ideal for matchplay battles in the Ryder Cup.

Meanwhile, Smurfit is holding firm to his target of having the European Open on the week immediately prior to the British Open - the slot currently held by the Loch Lomond Invitational which starts tomorrow. His quest of that slot meant running back to back with the Murphy's Irish Open this year.

Did he find this regrettable? "Not really, because it was a choice we had to make" he replied. "You could argue that it was better for tournament golf here to have the two events succeeding each other in that the equipment was here, most of the players were here and, either way, the two events were on opposite sides of the country, separated by 150 miles."

He went on: "Though as sponsors we would have a significant imput, it is not necessarily our shout as to whether we get the dates we want. But it is no secret that the week before the British Open would be the ideal date for us because I believe we would get the leading American players who would want to play on a Ryder Cup course.

"I am happy, however, with the overall position of our tournament. It's promoting what we set out to do and we've got great sub-sponsors, having signed a deal with Lucient Technologies. So there's a lot of positive things happening which eases the burden on us as primary sponsors."

As to the inclement weather which saw the tournament lashed by squally showers over the weekend: it may be no harm to remind ourselves of a rather impressive fact about tournament golf in Irish weather. In the 26 stagings of the Irish Open since it was revived by Carrolls in 1975, it has never been necessary to reduce it below 72 holes or extend it into Monday, because of the weather.

So far, the same applies to the European Open since it came under the Smurfit banner in 1995. All of which contrasts sharply with the situation in the US when there are regular upheavals of tournament schedules because of rain or lightning storms or, in the recent case of the US Open at Pebble Beach, because of fog.

Which proves that while the image of endless rain projected in Angela's Ashes may apply to the back streets of Limerick, it is clearly not relevant to our golfing terrain.