Course development/Wexford GC:Johnny Wattersonvisits Mulgannon to find out how one club has pre-empted the pressures of urban sprawl

Back when many of Ireland's golf courses were first laid out, few could have foreseen the game's exponential growth and how dramatically new technology would change the character of the sport. Those courses near towns and cities, though their architects could not know it, were particularly under threat.

When Kevlar and carbon fibre and new ball technology combined to make the 300-yard drive a possibility for the amateur rather than just a pipe dream, it was clear many old courses had become ill-fitted to the greater length of the modern game. Some venues that had been long-established soon became obsolete in terms of presenting a serious golf challenge.

Dún Laoghaire, prior to the move to the wonderful Ballyman course in the Dublin Mountains, was a case in point. The back gardens of various properties built over the years had almost fully encircled the Dún Laoghaire layout, and there was no elbow room to expand, modernise or bullet-proof the course against the new drivers and balls.

Wexford Golf Club recently celebrated the opening of their new course following the acquisition of 47 acres to add to what was already there.

The club saw the threat and acted. As new buildings began to spring up on the outskirts of the old town of Wexford and threaten the boundaries in a couple of places, the club committee decided to act.

The only course of action open to them before they were hemmed in by the walled gardens of suburbia was to acquire more land and develop a new course.

"THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN was in place for three years," says club president John McNicholas. "At the agm it was the members that decided that we should look to the future. A committee examined all of the avenues and came to the decision that total reconstruction of the golf course and a new clubhouse, costing a total of €5 million, should be brought back to the membership. They duly passed it."

And what a dramatic change it was! A total rearrangement of the original holes has combined with the creation of five new ones on the 47 acres, much of it caressing the headland that offers views over the Wexford slobs, to completely change and dramatically enhance the character of the course.

All the greens were radically restructured and several were moved by the designer Jeff Howes. And so Wexford has been transformed into a 6,345-metre championship course.

"We had to stay in the town," adds McNicholas. "The majority of our members are from the town. The original reason the club was set up was to have local people play here. We are in the middle of several housing estates. We are inside a ring road now that goes around Wexford. Most golf clubs now are outside major towns. We are inside those boundaries. Within the ring road is considered to be development area for Wexford. So we are practically the only green-field area within that area. We got no opposition. All of the residents were 100 per cent behind the project."

It's true. As happened with DúLaoghaire, you have to pass through a housing estate to enter Wexford Golf Club, and the town centre is just a few minutes' walk away. From the balcony of the spacious clubhouse - which houses locker rooms, offices, a bar, a restaurant and a conference room seating up to 50 - the Bishop's Palace, St Peter's College, the GAA ground Wexford Park, the new Opera House and the harbour are visible just beyond the rooftops.

"We're like the lungs of Wexford," says club captain Nicky Lacey as he gazes out across the estuary toward Curracloe beach.

The club was set up in 1961, when the founding members bought a 52-acre farm in an area called Mulgannon, which held commanding views. The fledgling club now had a home. At that stage the architect Hamilton Stutt of John B Stutt Ltd was called in.

THIS WAS A FIRM WITH WIDE experience of working on golf-course construction at such notable places as Carnoustie, Troon, and St Andrews. The original nine-hole layout, since altered several times, had a total yardage of 2,755, the first hole being a long par five of 510 yards.

While the course was being constructed golf was being introduced to the people of Wexford by way of pitch-and-putt, played on temporary greens. As for the main project, so enthusiastic was the response to the nine-hole course, they soon extended it to the full 18.

More recently, Howes proposed a three-phase plan to redesign the course to championship standard. Development started in 2003 with the laying out of five new holes on the recently purchased land. Between 2005 and 2007 the original 18 holes were restructured to complete a championship course that now provides a stiff challenge to golfers of all levels.

The third tee box, which is elevated and looking down toward the green 159 metres away, provides panoramic views around the entire hinterland, including Wexford Harbour.

The 399-metre, index-two fifth may be considered one of the signature holes. A narrow neck with the lake pushing in from one side makes it a hole with a high risk-reward quotient.The newest five holes comprise two par threes, two par fours and a par five.

One of the issues the committee were concerned about was that the atmosphere, which was deemed so integral to the old clubhouse, should be successfully transferred to the new one."We were worried about that," said Lacey. "There was a fear that when we moved the clubhouse we would lose that atmosphere but we actually increased it."

With an exceptionally well-stocked professional shop, operated by the club professional, Liam Bowler, Wexford Golf club now offers much more than it did.

While getting the layout right was a priority, just as important was to maintain the sense of an urban club with ultra-modern ancillary services: breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, golf clinics with a PGA-qualified instructor, practice range and corporate packages.

"We do a lot of societies and we get a lot of English and Welsh golfers coming over on day trips or weekend trips," says the secretary, Roy Doyle. "When it was lengthened by over 400 metres it went from a par 72 to a par 71 (standard scratch is 73), so it would be a good challenge for most golfers.

"There are more bunkers, the greens are tougher. In 1998 or 1999 we put down 1,500 ash trees, which are starting to come up now, and over the last 18 months we've put in about 2,500 trees, which will start coming into play in the next couple of years. It's a lovely course to play but if you want trouble, you can find it."

While green fees are, obviously, required to repay the above-mentioned €5 million, the club remains conscious it is primarily a members' club.

"It's our job to pay off the debt but there is a balance there somewhere," adds Doyle.

The 437-metre, par-four 18th hole sweeps from a high tee box down toward the clubhouse. On the recent captain's day crowds gathered to watch the players come down the straight to the final green. If they'd had any doubts that they had made the right call in terms of cost and construction, they knew then they had hit the sweet spot. A gem on the gentle slopes, overlooking the rooftops of Wexford town.