On a social visit to Baltray recently, Peadar Cafferky, the Co Sligo captain, was accompanied by his club professional, Leslie Robinson. While there, they couldn't avoid hearing a rather disturbing conversation among fellow golfers who were planning a trip around the western seaboard.
Their main ports of call would be Enniscrone, Carn, Westport and Connemara. With not even a mention of Rosses Point, Cafferky couldn't contain himself. "Why not Co Sligo?," he enquired. "Because the greens there are rubbish," came the reply.
That might have been true a few years ago, when ongoing problems eventually made it necessary to switch the West of Ireland Championship to Enniscrone. But not any more. In fact, Co Sligo officials are so upbeat about the remedial work done in the meantime, that they may be seeking a return of the championship at a special meeting in July.
Ten greens on the championship course have been re-sodded, quite apart from those on four completed holes on the former wetlands known as Bomore, to the right of the fifth fairway. This will eventually become nine holes of championship standard, giving the club access to 27 in all.
It is impressive work, which has been overseen by the Scots-born course superintendent, George Patterson, who was appointed in 1995. Those familiar with Co Sligo's recent successes in inter-club competitions at national level, will know that Patterson, a one-handicapper, has won two Bulmers Senior Cup medals since his arrival at Rosses Point.
He has also had the satisfaction of having his handiwork praised by an illustrious, fellow Scot. It happened last month when Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson, was happy to get away from the gloom around Old Trafford and fulfill a rather convenient commitment with the United supporters' club in Sligo.
"Alex and Sean Fallon (the former Celtic assistant manager), came up to visit us at Rosses Point on Friday, April 20th and the three of us played golf early the following morning," said Cafferky. "Ferguson was baffled as to why the course wasn't busier. And after I had explained our problems, he described the place as `unbelievable. The first chance I get I'll be back.' "
On returning to Rosses Point earlier this month, I found it easy to understand his enthusiasm. Bathed in brilliant sunshine, there was rich, new growth to be seen at every turn. And the Bomore holes were a revelation, given my memory of a former scrubland.
I had not been there since a proud tradition, dating back to 1923, had been broken with the switching of the 1997 West of Ireland to the links at Enniscrone. The decision was taken by the Connacht Branch, with reluctant agreement from the championship's spiritual home.
The West had been a constant, Easter fixture at Rosses Point since 1931. Now, desperate club officials tried without success to have the championship switched to an alternative date later in the year, as had been done in 1992. But Branch officials insisted on the traditional slot and we sensed that somehow, Easter wouldn't be the same.
Clearly, Co Sligo had reached the point of no return. Recalling the club's centenary year in 1994, the then captain, Oliver McDonagh, told me: "That was when things came to a head. We got through the West all right, but there were obvious problems during the Women's Close in May, when players had to contend with ugly, bare patches on the greens."
He went on: "The realisation came to us that we were a Harry Colt (the celebrated course architect) layout that had been living on past glory. Still, we struggled on to fulfill the commitment of staging the Cups and Shields in September. But when the season was over, we called an extraordinary general meeting at which the members were informed of the crisis.
"They gave full support to our proposed remedial action, including the appointment of a new, highly-qualified greens superintendent." Since then, crucial continuity has been maintained through the appointment of McDonagh as links chairman. And the necessary funding - £200,000 so far - was sanctioned.
In the autumn of 1996, the club embarked on a re-sodding programme. "If the work had gone well and the weather was favourable, we felt we had sufficient time to have the greens right for the West the following Easter," he said. "But the weather was hostile and we knew our only option was to seek a postponement."
On this occasion, however, the Connacht branch were determined to retain the Easter slot in the fixture list, because of the difficulty in finding alternative dates later in the year. So, they went west towards Killala Bay, where the Irish Close Championship had been played in 1993.
Meanwhile, the re-sodding programme at Rosses Point gained impetus through a decision to send Patterson to a special, agronomical facility in Yorkshire two years ago. His brief was to buy sufficient turf to re-sod eight greens - four on the championship course and four on Bomore.
So, Patterson bought 4,500 cubic metres of the best Yorkshire turf at £2.17stg per cubic metre. "It was a gamble," admitted the greenkeeper. "We did four greens on the main course and four in Bomore and, quite frankly, we didn't know whether the sods would adapt to the change of environment."
But they did, prompting further work last summer. With careful attention from the Scot and his staff, fescue grasses have been over-seeded with a harder-wearing bent and from what I could see during my visit, a strong, uniform growth has been achieved. Judgement on their quality as putting surfaces, however, would have to be reserved, insofar as the greens had been pawl-forked and top-dressed at the time.
These developments have taken place against a background of comments from visitors, who would readily acknowledge the quality of the Co Sligo layout, but would often express disappointment with its presentation. Quite frankly, it nearly always looked scruffy.
That particular problem, however, has also been addressed. Indeed it was a delight to note the attractive use of railway sleepers to shore the banks of the streams guarding the approaches to the seventh and 14th greens.
All of this work was supervised by the club's consultant agronomist, Ian McClements from Northern Ireland. And the design work at Bomore has been done by Jonathan Tucker from Bingley.
Even at this stage of its development, Tucker's work is very impressive. I was particularly taken by the fourth hole, a par-three of 135 yards from the medal tee. Club selection will be absolutely critical in view of the steeply-banked stream - a continuation of the one fronting the championship seventh - which borders the back and right-hand side of the green.
Indeed, a measure of how the new holes can be absorbed into the championship layout is the fact that the back tee for this hole is only about 10 paces right of the seventh green. And the short hole is followed by a strong, 560-yard par five which dog-legs left, around a menacing pond.
In years gone by, the locals raced horses at Bomore, where there is also the shell of a hangar from what was once a small airfield. Measuring about 100 acres, it increases the overall dimensions of the Co Sligo venue to about 370 acres. So, space is clearly not a problem.
The new nine will give the club countless options, the most important being that each individual hole on the championship course can be rested, if necessary, for two months. Officials also see evening golfers from the town, playing the first five holes on the main layout, then the nine at Bomore, to complete 14 in all.
Meanwhile, as things stand with the re-sodding work, 10 greens on the championship course - the first four along with the sixth, seventh, ninth, 12th, 14th and 15th - have been re-surfaced with Yorkshire turf.
While that work was going on, Patterson and his staff were overseeding the other eight greens with the same grasses. And a determination to achieve the desired results was evident from the worker on his knees on the seventh green, removing undesirable intruders by hand.
"If the present work is deemed satisfactory, we will have a meeting with GUI officials in July with a view to having the West of Ireland Championship back here next Easter," said McDonagh. "But if, having talked with George (Patterson), our consultant and designer, we find that we haven't achieved the necessary uniformity of speed and bounce in all 18 championship greens, the West will have to wait for another year.
"Instead, we would embark on resodding the remaining eight greens as a programme for next winter. That is a measure of how seriously we are taking this entire project."
As I left the course and headed for the car-park, I noticed an attractive, stained-wood litter-bin against the clubhouse wall. It represented the new image of a proud club which has learned the painful lesson that even great courses need to be nurtured.
