It's time to start counting the cost, here and in Britain. And it is clear that on a number of levels, golfing authorities will be paying a considerable price for the terrorist horrors in the US last month, which caused the postponement of the Ryder Cup.

Leading Irish golf clubs, especially in the south-west of the country, are experiencing a fall-off in green-fee revenue of up to 25 per cent. But the Old Head of Kinsale, where the majority of visitors are from the US, have been especially badly hit.

Yesterday alone, they had 100 cancellations. Given their green fee of £190, this amounted to a loss of £19,000 in one day, quite apart from food and drink. "We are down about 60 per cent on the month of September ," said general manager Jim O'Brien.

When a clear picture of the implications of September 11th began to emerge, the directors of the Old Head instructed their staff to give refunds "without hesitation".

Said O'Brien: "Though there was obviously the option of re-scheduling bookings, we offered money back without question. It has cost us quite a lot in the short term, but given the dreadful circumstances, we felt it was the right thing to do."

In fact the Old Head expect to lose 2,000 rounds by the end of their season in the first week of November. And full refunds for 1,100 rounds have already been paid, though 24 Americans turned up yesterday, as arranged.

The K Club, who are also strongly reliant on the American market, are down 20 per cent on September, but they have succeeded in stabilising the situation for the next two months. "We are re-focusing our marketing efforts on Europe and the UK in particular," said director of golf Paul Crowe yesterday.

Mount Juliet's market is more home based, with the result that they are reporting no significant impact from last month's events.

"In fact the postponement of the Ryder Cup could work to our benefit, as it has been re-scheduled for the week after next September's American Express Championship which, of course, we are staging," said director of golf Jill O'Hare.

On a broader level, however, the postponement of the biennial showpiece could result in problems over a claim for £25 million sterling in insurance compensation.

As might be expected, the Ryder Cup was insured against cancellation or postponement. But the unprecedented nature of the events which left last weekend's staging out of the question complicates matters.

"It would be fair to say that my team and the Professional Golfers' Association are in very earnest discussions with the insurers," said Ken Schofield, executive director the European Tour, last weekend. "We genuinely believe that, as an insured event, we will be paid."

Meanwhile, SWING, which represents most of the leading courses in the south-west of the country, report green-fee traffic at such prominent venues as Ballybunion, "down to a trickle".

Which reminds me of the concern of the late Sean Walsh, as secretary/manager of the club, that a greater effort was not being made to woo the British golfer.

"We are now seeing that Sean was right," said Paddy O'Looney, chief executive of SWING yesterday. "The events of September 11th have unquestionably left us in a very exposed situation.

"September is normally one of the strongest months of the year in our business - the cream of the season. But we're now looking at six disastrous weeks. A decline of 10 to 15 per cent in the market because of foot-and-mouth earlier in the season, has gone up to 25 per cent."

The overall cost to the economy of the area can be gauged from the fact that a good year would yield green-fee revenue of up to £6 million for the SWING clubs. And an additional "spend" of £10 per head can be added to that.

In a meeting with club officials today, O'Looney will be warning, among other things, about the likely impact of curtailed air routes - Aer Lingus to Newark and Baltimore, and Delta to New York - on the prospects for the coming year.

"The inescapable fact is that the cost of a week's golf package in the south-west has risen by as much as 72 per cent in recent years," O'Looney added. "And given the situation in the US, we must look to other markets."

Though no course is more dependant on the US market than the Old Head, O'Brien insisted there was no panic reaction. "For a start, we haven't looked at reducing the green-fee or changing our customer focus," he said.

But all is not doom and gloom. Down at the Highfield club in Kildare last Saturday, I watched as the last players walked up the 18th in almost total darkness at about 7.30 p.m., at the end of a decidedly busy day. Mind you, the cost to a society for a round of golf and a steak or chicken meal, was £24!