Course and distance winner

BEFORE there was The Golf Channel, Tim Brooke-Taylor, magazines and brochures, there was word of mouth.

Today, from an elevated plateau of plaudits and plaques, it is easy for Pat Ruddy, designer and owner of the European Club in Co Wicklow to say that his par 72 links is the best PR machine he has at his disposal, but anyone who has succumbed to the 7,300-yard beast, has good reason to believe him. "If I go out selling this place to a person who has never seen it, much less played it, I'm on the wrong track," explains Ruddy, celebrating a decade in business at Brittas Bay. "I don't market it or have a salesman on the road. If I have to sell a round of golf to someone, I'm his servant. If he comes in the gate of his own volition, he's my guest."

There are few proprietors in this country as passionate about "his child" at Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow than Ruddy, but fewer still who agonise as much over that fickle paymaster the discerning golfer. "I'm always nervous about what people think when I see them coming in the 18th," he says. "Remember I have taken five hours of a man's life, and he's not getting it back. It's critical that he believes it has been time well spent." If critics of his creation drain Ruddy's person, it's little wonder he has a substantial frame to go with a cup-half-full outlook on life. The European is one of the most extraordinary success stories of Irish golf among the top 25 courses in the world, according to reputable polls, and frequently referred to when serious magazines get down to picking their top global golf holes.