New Developments for 2003: In the heart of the rich and fertile countryside that is this part of Laois, a microcosm of Irish society is to be found; and, with it, a sign of how golf has infiltrated our very psyche.

The little village is called Killenard and the time is 30 minutes past midday. The tiny church is packed to the rafters for a funeral, and cars are parked along the road with the sort of abandonment that is quintessentially Irish. In the small national school across the way, children, blissfully ignorant of the cold, but with an inquisitive eye on the crowds converging on the church, charge around the playground in a release from their lessons.

On the other side of the entrance to the Heritage Golf and Country Club is a wonderful old pub that has a varnished trunk of a tree occupying and dominating the centre of the lounge. The walls bear homage to historic events. There are framed copies of newspapers. One refers to the sinking of the Titanic, another to President Kennedy's assassination. The good news is conveyed by copies capturing the announcement of Nelson Mandela's freedom, and of the first man to land on the Moon.

And, yet, for the children in the playground, the real future is unfolding not more than a good wedge shot away from their place of education. It's a project that will likely keep most of them in their hinterland when the time comes to work for a living. The Heritage Golf and Country Club is a €100 million project that will give Ireland its first golf course with the signature of Seve Ballesteros attached to it. There will also be an impressive three-storey 38,000 square feet clubhouse, which is under construction, a leisure centre of similar scale, a golfing academy and a luxury hotel.

The Heritage is the brainchild of Tom Keane, a property developer and hotelier from Portlaoise. He's a man who first caught the golfing bug at The Heath and who admits that this development is "a bit of a dream". It is no idle dream, though. The whole project was spawned from a belief that "there is a need for a championship course in the Midlands" and his business acumen and record would indicate that the Heritage - due to open for play in July - will not be long in establishing itself among the country's top parkland courses.

Originally Keane had another site in mind for developing the course. It was closer to Portlaoise, but once he became aware that the 260-acre site in Killenard was available, and saw for himself the potential in it, he changed his mind. At the moment the last leg of the journey to Killenard is little more than byroads - but the course itself is just two miles off the main Dublin-Cork road and the construction of the Monasterevin bypass will mean that most of the journey to Dublin is by motorway.

The course is in the final stages of construction. As you'd expect in this country, the weather is critical in determining when earth-moving machinery can and can't be used, and the rainfall for much of last year was a nuisance. Yet, the course, designed by Ballesteros and Jeff Howes, is progressing on schedule and will be ready for what Eddie Dunne, the director of golf, describes as "light traffic" come July.

Getting Ballesteros involved in the project was Keane's idea. When he originally sat around the table with his closest advisers, the names of different players they should pursue to design the course were bandied about. "Why not go for Seve?" asked Keane. "Why not?" his friends agreed. Contact was made and when Seve flew into Dublin for the 2000 Irish Open at Ballybunion he was met by

the Heritage investors who told him what they were about and gave him some literature to read. Later they flew out to Madrid to meet him. A financial offer was made, Ballesteros accepted, and the Irish-Spanish connection was formed.

On what was wide-open farmland, a wonderfully imaginative design has unfurled. There are five lakes measuring a total of nine and a half acres on the course - and the largest, all five acres of it, will come into play most dramatically on the ninth and 18th holes. Earth moving has not been excessive, but discreet mounding has given the course fine definition while about €700,000 worth of mature and semi-mature trees will be transplanted on to the course.

Eddie Doyle, who has been appointed head professional, tells how the best possible drainage system has been installed. "It's capable of taking an inch of rain an hour," he remarks. The plan is that the course will be playable the whole year round, apart from those days when frost or snow determines otherwise. The fact that the land here is limestone-based is also a considerable advantage in terms of natural drainage.

The task of getting the course into pristine condition and keeping it that way has been handed to course superintendent Anthony Fitzpatrick, formerly of the Slieve Russell. He's hoping for "a good spring" but doesn't doubt that things will be right come the time. The greens and teeing grounds have been seeded with bent grass - a 50/50 mix of PennA4 and G6 - while the fairways are rye grass and rough fescue.

One of the features of the course is the magnificent use of the man-made lakes, which are quite spectacular. The giant lake below the clubhouse is sure to provide its share of heartache to golfers coming down the final stretch but, elsewhere, there is plenty of water that comes into play. The fourth, a Par 3 of 214 yards, is likely to become one of the feature holes.

Measuring 7,345 yards from the back tees, it is a course that will require long and straight hitting, but Ballesteros has ensured that there are also shortish par fours where course management is required. One of these is the 11th, where a local quarry has been used to good effect. In all, water comes into play on 11 holes.

As of now, close to 100 memberships in the initial tranche have been filled. This current phase offers single full membership for €25,000 with a second full membership for a spouse/partner for an additional €15,000. The memberships are redeemable preference shares which form part of a member's estate and may be passed on to an immediate family beneficiary.

"We wanted to ensure that memberships were not out of people's price range," says Keane. "We are offering a top-class course and facilities which are effectively five-star with a four-star client affordability."

According to Dunne, a former Irish team captain, the Heritage will have "an ethos and atmosphere which is relaxed and informal, not too stuffy. Similar to many of the first-class facilities to be found in the States."

It seems that no sod has been left unturned in an effort for the Heritage to make a quick impact on the Irish golf scene.