IT TOOK 10 years from concept to completion. It consumed 7,000 tons of sand, 130 acres of farmland, countless man-hours and well over £1 million of public money. And it has just two permanent residents, who spend most of the day swimming and courting each other.
But civic officials and their guests who gazed upon the four miles of well-manicured, undulating sward at the weekend were satisfied that it was well worthwhile.
It is, of course, Waterford's new municipal golf course, the latest addition to the network of courses in the south-east which are generating the region's fastest growing specialised tourism sector.
Open to everyone, seven days a week, the "Pay as you Play" course is the latest and most ambitious recreational facility provided by Waterford Corporation for the city's citizens and visitors.
With hidden sprinklers watering neat greens, attractive stone-built bridges and gleaming white sandy bunkers, the 6,700-yard, 18-hole course is a landscaping marvel. Mature trees have been preserved and two swans have taken up residence on an artificial lake at the 8th hole.
The full-time course manager, Tom Sheridan, remarks: "I've seen all the municipal courses in the country, and this is by far the best." Only a few years ago it was rough, untended farmland - "the place was a jungle".
The corporation set the project in train by purchasing the farmland, formerly attached to St Otteran's Hospital in 1990 for £220,000. FAS co-operated by supplying the manpower and labour - probably worth £700,000 - and subsequent outlay on equipment and facilities brought the corporation's own total expenditure to about £900,000.
The course at Williamstown, a few minutes from the city, will "comfortably" play 200 people on a Saturday or Sunday. They each pay £12 for a round on those days, or £10 on a weekday (with a £6 concession fee for pensioners and young people up to 2 p.m.).
Civic officials joined Christy. O'Connor snr in a ceremonial fourball to mark the official opening of what the corporation described as "an amenity for the 21st century . . . a facility for present and future generations".