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.

There is one reason and no secret to its elevated status: it is a superb track, from one through 18. Asking its 58-year-old creator to nominate his favourite holes is like insisting he chooses one of his five children over the rest "No 17 off the back sticks is a great hole, but so is the 12th down by the beach. The 10th is a monster, and I think the 3rd is a great par 5." What he chose/neglected to eliminate was the small matter of the three holes selected among the world's top 500 the lowest indexed 7th, a testosterone-testing par four, and No's 13 (par 5) and 14 (par 3). While "The European Club" might suggest grandeur and formality, you don't have to cough politely and curtsy in the clubhouse and stirring your tea properly is not as important as it seems to be elsewhere.

Ruddy has handled design plans for a number of tracks, including Druids Glen and Ballyliffin, but this was the first he had complete autonomy on when he opened for business on St Stephen's Day 10 years ago. "We weren't commercially ready at the time, but we had eighty cars in the car park that day. I'll never forget it. I had wanted a course of my own since I was a boy.

"I went in stages, from the complete euphoria of having a wonderful links to develop, through that awful doubting stage of night-time watering and daytime drainage when you really struggle with the vision, through to the images returning as the place takes shape.

"The layout of the land is virtually unchanged from the day I bought it. This type of terrain talks to you the trick is listening."

The passionate way Pat Ruddy describes his creation makes the apparently ludicrous rejection of a £20m offer for the European Club appear perfectly reasonable. "I haven't lost my sanity in any way. It's not like a forgot to post a winning lottery ticket or threw it away. I have this place still," he gesticulates. "My mind is still full of ideas for it."

After a winter of fine-tuning, and pushing back tees and greens to deal with technology's irresistible progress (to the tune of 300,000), plans are also in the making for an extension to the clubhouse, though Ruddy has always been unapologetic for ploughing most of his money into the course "the only reason I ever went to a place was to play the golf course." The Irish Golf Institute ranking of Ireland's 30 greatest courses of the 20th Century put the European fifth behind Royal Portrush, Portmarnock, Royal Co Down and Ballybunion (Old), but to a large swathe of the ball-striking population outside Dublin (or certainly south and west of Kilkenny), it's like Croatia great destination, but kinda off the radar. Dooks Golf Club, near Glenbeigh, in Kerry, possibly suffers from a similar handicap outside Munster.

"Getting recognised in your own field can be difficult, but we do OK," he smiles, and you remember that last July, he had a visit from Tiger Woods and David Duval. "I'd say we are still one of the quietest courses in Ireland, but paying £1m for this 20 acres was one of the luckiest breaks I have had in my life. How many links courses get built in a lifetime? There's probably only 150 of them worldwide, so we are noticeable and notable in the world of golf."

Though Pat Ruddy's ideals appear corinthian in spirit, he applies one of the most basic tenets of good business steady expansion, good value (green fees are 100) and critically, a good product.

Uniquely, the links features 20 holes (two extra holes are in play most days) with dramatic views of the Irish Sea from no fewer than 16 of them.

The combination of dunes, deep sand traps, howling breezes and large undulating greens the 12th green is 112 yards long ensure the golfer employs everything in his bag plus bravery, shot-plotting and consistent ball-striking.

Archaic features such as blind shots have been eliminated in the main, with 14 holes offering a completed tee-to-green vista; and the landing area for the drive is clearly visible on the others.

Plaques advertise in advance the world-ranked holes, but Ruddy a former journalist has plenty of allies around the world to talk up his venture.

A recent issue of Golf Odyssey teeing itself up as the sophisticated guide to golf travel described the European as "a truly inspirational links," but one suspects Ruddy might frame its summing up: "No one can say they have played the best of Irish golf unless they have played the European ... featuring brilliant routing in which no hole is less than very good. Six or seven of the holes are truly great."

One fears that the east coast's best-kept golf secret has been outed.