Location: On western side of Bantry town, on Kenmare Road 1 1/2 miles from town, overlooking Bantry Bay.

Contact: Phone/fax: (027) 50579.

Course: Parkland by the sea; par 71 for men; 73 for women; yardage: 6,501 (back), 6,252 (medal), 5,209 (women).

Designers: Eddie Hackett (original nine), Christy O'Connor Jnr (new nine).

Opened for play: Original nine, 1975; new nine, June 1997.

Green fees: £15 (any day).

Accommodation: Westlodge Hotel, close by course, phone (027) 50360, fax (027) 50438, £105 double, £60 single. Bed and Breakfast: Eden Crest, Newtown, Bantry, (027) 51110, fax (027) 51036, £17 PPS. Shalom, Bantry, (027) 50372, £16. Ard na Greine, Bantry, (027) 51169, £16. Elsloo, Newtown, Bantry, (027) 50471, £16.

A helping wind off the sea was strong enough to transform even the most vicious hook into a gentle fade. There on a rise was an inviting white-stone marker. Further on, blue mussel lines bobbed in the choppy water, gathering a harvest for the local factory and ultimately for a lucrative market abroad.

The fifth hole at Bantry Park combined a fine golfing challenge with splendid isolation - in the most charming surroundings. Christy O'Connor Jnr, the designer of the new nine, had discharged his duties admirably. And there we were, at the official opening.

Overseas visitors have long been raving about the charms of West Cork and it seems the locals are determined to spoil them entirely. "We played eet yesterday and eet was so beautiful we came back to play eet again." The French woman golfer was clearly impressed.

For her, a welcome back to Bantry Bay meant another opportunity to savour the delights of the combined design skills of Eddie Hackett and O'Connor. It was the old master, sadly no longer with us, who gave the club its original nine-hole layout back in 1975.

At that time, Junior and his esteemed uncle responded to an invitation to play an exhibition match there against Roddy Carr and Peter Townsend. "I made friendships which have lasted over the years," he said, by way of explaining the club's decision to give him the design contract for the new nine.

Indeed friendships were cemented in regular visits to the club during which he would advise the committee, free of charge, on any problems they might have had with the existing layout. "We were also influenced by having viewed examples of his work at Lee Valley and Fota Island," said Pat Morrissey, the current chairman of the course development committee.

Golfing visitors to the extreme south-west of Cork tended to gravitate towards Glengarriff (founded in 1936) and Skibbereen (1905). Bantry's attractions lay in its historic character as a fishing port and market town, overlooking Whiddy Island and the 1796 Armada Centre. Then, of course, there was Bantry House and Gardens.

"By the mid-seventies, the business and professional people here in Bantry recognised the need for a club of their own," said Morrissey. "They felt is was time to move out of Glengarriff's shadow."

After acquiring 70 acres and the design skills of Hackett, they soon had a delightful nine-hole stretch. Membership increased each year, especially from 1985 when women gained equal status. And all the while, green-fee traffic also grew - from £20,000 in 1988 to £40,000 last year.

These two factors prompted the officers to investigate the possibility of expanding to 18 holes: their club now had to be acknowledged as an important tourist attraction, apart from meeting the recreational needs of the local community. "We simply couldn't cope with the green-fee demand in July and August," said the current captain, John Barry.

Out of the blue, an anonymous benefactor showed them the way. Whether it was a fairy godmother or godfather, nobody seems to know. Either way they're not saying. In the event, during the winter of 1993-1994, the club were presented with two small sites, extending to a modest one and a half acres.

"This was the key," said Morrissey. Their importance lay in the fact that when added to a leased site of 35 acres and a further 15 acres acquired in separate deals, they made up an integrated site, extending out to the road. When the figures were totted up, the additional nine holes would cost the club £500,000.

Maurice O'Keeffe, the club president, informed me that a few hundred yards down that road was Gurteenroe House - "Where Daniel O'Connell slept the night before the monster meeting in Skibbereen." Even the pull of such stirring events, however, would be unlikely to get the avid golfer further down the road than the first tee.

O'Connor's stretch of holes now comprises the front nine which, along with the 10th, are situated on the clubhouse side of the road. The 11th to the 18th are on the other side where mature trees offer a contrasting challenge, dominated by the forbidding dogleg 11th (462-yard par four) and the 17th (405-yard par four), which remain impressive products of Hackett's hand.

The entire course is set on parkland at the head of Bantry Bay, which stretches to the Atlantic, flanked by the mountains of the Beara Peninsula to the north and Sheep's Head and the Mizen to the south. It's a breathtaking location, where, during my visit, the landscape changed almost by the minute as a bright sun forced its way through cloudy skies.

By skilful use of the available land, O'Connor ensured that his new holes complemented the existing nine, both in length and difficulty. In fact, the overall length of the new nine is 3,235 yards (par 35) compared with 3,266 yards (par 36) for Hackett's layout.

Blindness off the tee at several of the driving holes is totally acceptable, given O'Connor's brief: the course is aimed largely at handicap golfers, be they club members or green-fee visitors. Meanwhile, putting skills will be severely tested on greens with some decidedly tricky inclines.

O'Connor makes excellent use of water at the 449-yard seventh which is unlikely to have a serious rival as the stroke-index one. After a blind tee-shot, a medium to long-iron approach is played from a downhill lie over water on the right to an elevated green, heavily guarded to the front-left by an extended bunker. The prudent higher handicapper will lay up left in two and hope for a pitch and putt par.

Despite the parkland nature of the terrain, wide expanses of water are never far from view. From the mighty Atlantic and Whiddy Island to the left of the fifth, the long sixth is flanked to the left by the freshwater Reen Donegan Lake. And further, irrigation lakes gave O'Connor splendid design options at the seventh, short eighth and ninth.

Moves are afoot to change the name of the club from Bantry Park to Bantry Bay GC. They have only recently increased their green-fee from £10 to £15 which means they are looking towards an income of £80,000 this year and from there up to £120,000 in 1998.

Meanwhile, the 500 members, who include 100 from all over Europe including England, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, have the benefit of these facilities for a relatively modest subscription of £175 a year.

Indeed, family membership at £900 includes the first year's subscription, while overseas life membership for those living outside the country six months of the year, is a snip at £5,000. Meanwhile, the opening of the new nine represented only the first phase in an ambitious three-phase development. Almost immediately, work will begin on upgrading the old nine and the final phase will be the completion of a new clubhouse in 1999.

Mind you, I understand that the existing building coped excellently with a large turn-out on the night of the official opening. Having been advised of the imminent arrival of the esteemed course designer, I made one of my better decisions by departing the scene before evening.

"We had a right good night," I was later informed by O'Connor, who travelled south with his wife Ann from Galway. I'll bet they had. " . . . and the tender sound of song and merry dancing stole softly over Bantry Bay."

Bantry Bay is among the most beautiful of Irish songs. Sadly, it is regularly butchered by bar-room balladeers who cannot hope to handle the change of key for those plaintive lines starting "As I'm sitting all alone in the gloaming, the shadows of the past draw near . . ."

O'Connor, who would qualify as a reasonably low handicap musician, knew better than to try, as the locals celebrated his work. Even the purists weren't too sure how to respond, however, when he declared: "Whether you like it or not, I'm going to sing Gal- way Bay." And he did. And brought the house down.