Restoring Killarney to former glories

GOOD enough to host the Irish Open on a couple of occasions in the early 1990s, the Killeen Course at Killarney, as we used to know it, is no more.

True, the routing plan has not been altered to any great extent in the redevelopment work by golf course architects Donald Steel and Tom McKenzie but you will hardly recognise Killeen when it reopens for play in the early months of next summer.

At the moment, the place looks like a new course in the making and, essentially, that's what it will be. The revamping will have cost in the region of €2m with the members providing €1,000 each.

"We started off by telling the architects that we wanted the greens and tees done and didn't want the course shifted around", explained superintendent David McIndoe. "They considered joining the ninth and tenth to make it into one par five and a few other changes as well. I had no difficulty with that but a lot of people felt that it was a good course that should essentially stay the same. So there's not much difference except for the introduction of a few bunkers and all 18 greens and tees have been reshaped and a wee few slightly relocated."

The first hole running along Lough Leane remains much the same although the green and those at the 3rd and 4th are being moved closer to the water. "Because of that", jokes McIndoe, "the bunkers seems a friendly place." For a green-keeper of his experience and knowledge - he has been the head man at Killarney now for more than 20 years - the arrival of the sand-based greens is a huge blessing.

"The soil was horrendous", Dave declared. "You couldn't keep the greens going with all the heavy traffic and it was a miracle that we did so. In the old days, I got away with murder because I was allowed to spike as much as I wanted. You had to spike soil greens, otherwise they sealed up, especially in our wet climate, and then became very soft and mushy and that's what was happening in the last five or six years."

The road at the side of the third has been moved to allow for better angles and more options from the tee at this difficult par three. Other changes are more apparent at the fourth, where the trees on the right are no more, and again at the lakeside holes like the sixth ("we've prettied up the green and filled in the drain on the right so there's a bail-out area where there wasn't one before"), ninth and 10th.

"The wall to the left of the 10th green is new and the pond has been doubled in size to make it look as if it is part of the lake", McIndoe explained. "The architect wanted me to cut down the reeds at the back and we said we'd try and do it. But you have to be careful with environmental issues so we try to trim them off. And you can't make it all one anyway because the lake rises and falls so dramatically. When you have a lot of rain, it can rise by six, seven, even eight feet but we have also raised the green about 18 inches so the lake won't come in as happened sometimes in the past."

The course superintendent believes the 13th may well be developing into the most demanding hole on the golf course: "We've put in a new championship tee which makes it a very serious golf hole. It does play with the prevailing wind and the green is beautifully shaped but the back tees at holes like this are becoming a thing of the past, even for our fourball which usually consists of low handicap golfers.

"It will measure 480 yards, which is in keeping with modern trends whether you agree with them or not. It's reality. The wall remains, we prettied it up a few years ago, when it was falling down. The staff here have wonderful natural talents for that kind of thing."

The 14th and 15th greens have some serious contours and a feature that McIndoe loves is that "if you're not very good, you can still play a run-up between the bunkers. I like that concept. The good golfer is always going to fire it in but a guy way back there with a three wood or three iron will be able to run it in if he's accurate enough. Tom McKenzie plays a lot of his golf at Dornoch and so he's a bit of a links man and so likes to offer guys an option."

Killeen's 17th has always been controversial. Legend suggests that Dr Billy O'Sullivan, Killarney's eminence grise, was responsible for its design that made for a very wide but not very deep green with a pot bunker in front and severe fall offs on all sides. It aroused animated and often derogatory comments over the years and I'm a little surprised that, in the revamp, the opportunity hasn't been taken to make the green a little more player friendly.

The fairway bunkers at the 18th to the right have been reshaped and a third installed while a huge pond has been introduced directly in front of the green. Enthuses McIndoe: "I think it's going to be a tremendous finisher. It was a good hole in the first place although the green was a bit bland. Now you've got a green with a bit of character and water right to the edge."

It will be all up and running within 12 months. Killeen will be back to its pristine glory and yet a far more enjoyable and attractive test of golf.