Philip Reid pays a visit to Dunmurry Springs, another fascinating new golf club in a county which is rapidly becoming a Mecca for the game

The concept is not a new one, transforming agricultural pastures into a golf course. As a foreign friend enquired recently, "is there no part of Ireland that won't eventually be a golf course?" And, certainly, the growth over the past decade or so has been remarkable.

What is different about Dunmurry Springs is the terrain has guaranteed a different kind of examination and course designer Mel Flanagan, while keeping to traditional values, has ensured that variety is the spice of life.

Built on hills just off the winding road that links Kildare town with Rathangan, Dunmurry Springs - so called because the limestone-based terrain is blessed with natural springs, which have been utilised to create a number of impressive and aesthetic water hazards - is an 18-hole course in the final stages of readiness.

The plan is to allow restricted play to members from October, but the full opening won't take place until the spring. By then, the clubhouse, due to start construction shortly, will have been completed.

Sensibly, though, the onus has been on developing the course first before the bricks and mortar element of the development. What has materialised in the fields once farmed by the Holohan family is a course that, thankfully, is not a beast in terms of length - it will play to under 7,000 yards - and yet asks enough questions of a player to be a tough examination.

Flanagan, who has established a nice portfolio of courses as a course architect, is particularly pleased with what has unfolded at Dunmurry Springs on land he described as "like an awkward child in a classroom," adding: "It was an awkward site to work with, but the result is a course where every hole gives the golfer a sporting chance."

The idea for the golf course evolved over a number of years and came from the golf playing father and son partnership of Seán and Simon Holohan.

"Our objective was to create a golf course of outstanding quality on what is a very special site," explained Seán.

Indeed, for the first-time visitor, the real surprise is that such a hilly site should be found in the plains of Co Kildare. From the highest point, by the fifth green, the vista is a breathtaking one that offers a view of no fewer than eight counties.

With an investment in excess of €7 million, it was a project that wasn't entered into lightly but the Holohans, having researched its viability, have left no stone unturned in their efforts to establish a niche in the market.

The intention, when the course opens in the springtime, is for visitors to be offered a genuinely warm welcome.

"We want to take away any stuffiness or aloofness that is sometimes associated with golf," said Una Holohan, the sales and marketing manager.

As evidence that there has been no short-cutting, some 2,000 semi-mature trees of between 20 and 25-years-of-age have been transplanted onto the course.

They include indigenous Irish trees of beech, ash and oak and complement the mature trees and hedgerows.

What has materialised is a course - share memberships are currently on offer at €12,500 in this latest tranche - that will appeal to many in Kildare, a county that is increasingly becoming a Mecca for the game.

The first hole is a par four that rises gently uphill and, indeed, Flanagan has succeeded admirably in using the terrain. Although hilly, the layout - which has two loops of nine - is such that there is no undue physical exertion and the first hole is a gentle introduction that certainly whets the appetite.

The front nine comprises of seven par fours, one par five - the sixth - and one par three, the seventh. There is tremendous variety on this stretch, with the second a dogleg that requires accuracy off the tee and the third a beautiful downhill hole to a green that is protected by a pond and which has an old tradesman's cottage as a backdrop.

"My idea was to give people a chance to get into the game, by offering some gentle opening holes, before asking the really tough questions," said Flanagan.

It is a concept that works well. And the stretch of holes from the sixth to the eighth is particularly impressive.

These were the first holes to be sown, back in May/June, and the advances in agronomy are such that you'd swear the fairways and greens have been here for many years.

The conditioning is a tribute to course superintendent Gerard McEvoy, who previously worked at the Heritage and assisted with the grow-in of the West Course at Powerscourt, and his assistant Ciarán Blackburne, who returned from the Hills Golf Club in Sweden to take up the position at Dunmurry Springs.

The sixth is a par five that doglegs to the right. It is a fine test, requiring a long and accurate drive with out-of-bounds down the right and mounding that blends in with the surrounding countryside down the left. The approach is uphill to a green that is the highest point on the course and is followed by the only par three on the outward run.

The hole is played from an elevated tee to a green that is guarded by bunkers which the designer has built to penalise.

"The bunkers are real bunkers," said Flanagan, with no apology. "I've gone back to the old style bunker where you won't get out unless you play a golf shot."

The eighth hole is a wonderful test, with the fairways framed by impressive mounding on either side. It is a hole reminiscent of the heath land courses at Gleneagles, with ample gorse and lovely, undulating fairways that could leave a player with an uphill or a downhill lie for the approach to a green surrounded by bunkers.

Flanagan has also provided a number of holes where he challenges the player to open his shoulders off the tee, and the ninth is one of them. From an elevated tee, the tree-lined fairway is sufficiently wide to tempt the big-hitters to unwind and the approach is then played to a green that is fronted by an impressive lake. Indeed, all of the lakeside greens have fabulous stonework built into them, which certainly add to the aesthetics of the course.

The last three holes to be grown in are the 10th, 11th and 12th - which comprise a mini-loop around a couple of lakes that take you back towards where the clubhouse area will be situated.

The par three 11th has the potential to be one of the trickiest holes on the course.

In fact, each of the par threes (there are three of them on the back nine) is particularly nice and the 15th, which is played almost entirely over a lake, is sure to break many a heart.

"This is not a big slog of a course, a player will always have a chance - but he has to play the shots, otherwise the course will punish," said Flanagan.

"It's challenging, but it is fair . . . it's a real golfer's course."