One of my first, competitive rounds of golf was at the old, nine-hole Dungarvan course at Ballinacourty. It was in an annual society outing, which went on to become a source of tremendous enjoyment every September, for Dublin-based devotees of the Royal and Ancient game.

In the process, Ballinacourty came to be a very special place where, over the years, many of us made lasting friendships with the local members. So, against that background, there was more than a hint of nostalgia about my recent return there.

The purpose of the visit was to look over the course in its transformed state as the Gold Coast GC, owned by the former Waterford hurler, John McGrath. Indeed he and his wife Ann also own the adjoining Gold Coast Hotel and the Clonea Strand Hotel, a few miles down the road.

This was the second time in recent weeks that I had found myself viewing a newly-constructed nine-hole addition to an existing layout, aimed at extending facilities to a full, 18-hole course. The previous location was Bantry Park, where my interest was essentially in the new holes, given that it was my first visit.

Gradually, nine-hole courses are vanishing from the Irish golf scene, most of them experiencing a re-birth as a part of bigger things. Times have certainly changed from the turn of the century when as many as 90 per cent of the country's courses were nine-hole stretches. Indeed they were considered to be so important to the development of the game that Rev John Love Morrow, secretary of the Golfing Union of Ireland, saw fit to set out precise guidelines for the construction of nine-hole courses.

Referring to the "drive and pitch holes" (par fours), Rev Morrow wrote: "Originally, when golf was confined mainly to Scotland, this was the commonest and it was the most important hole on the course. In more recent times, the futile attempt to model all courses on the championship course, has too frequently abolished it, or at least, shorn it of its distinctive values. Ideally, it should be a reproduction of the short hole, with the addition of a good tee-shot to get into position for playing the difficult pitch with any likelihood of success."

Down at Ballinacourty, the designer, Maurice Fives, was offered a splendid opportunity of putting this into practice. He did it admirably in the construction of the 397-yard 15th, which is probably the outstanding hole on the Gold Coast.

There, Fives located a tee back in the newly-acquired land which had made the extension possible. The drive is over an elbow of the shoreline down towards the area of the tee at the old eighth, which was a devilishly tricky par-three measuring 158 yards. A combination of the two distances provides a hole of 397 yards to a green guarded to the front and on both sides by five bunkers.

But I get ahead of myself. By the time they celebrated 50 years at Ballinacourty in 1989, the members of Dungarvan GC were seriously contemplating a move elsewhere. Repeated attempts at buying additional land from the neighbouring Pfizer-Quigley Magnesite factory, had come to nothing.

They were leaving a delightful course where six holes - the first, second, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth - changed for the second trip around and where four par fives gave it an overall length of 6,282 yards.

Eventually, the decision was made in 1990 to move to a new location, the third in the club's history. Their original home, from 1923 to 1929, was the Cunnigar links, which was designed by Denis Cassidy, later the professional at Castletroy.

Then, for 54 years, Dungarvan GC prospered at Ballinacourty before they moved down the road to their present home at Knocknagranagh in 1993. There, the club now have a course measuring 6,788 yards off the back tees and a thriving membership of 660. And for £290,000, they sold Ballinacourty to McGrath, who was, and remains a Dungarvan GC member.

His prospect of doing anything special with the place seemed fairly remote, given its modest 46 acres. But fate took a hand. While he was in the US in 1994, word reached McGrath that the Pfizer factory were ready to sell.

For an outlay of £240,000 he acquired 54 acres which gave him an integrated site. Fives was given the design contract and by the time he had completed his routing, there was sufficient room for 18 holes and enough left over for a modest practice area between the 10th and 11th fairways.

While McGrath and the company's accountant, Mark Lenihan, showed me over the course, I got to wondering about its new, exotic name. By way of explanation, McGrath began: "There was a pub down here called the Gold Coast. It seems that the owner was out there in a boat one day when he looked back towards the shore which, apparently, had a golden hue to it in the bright sunshine. `The Gold Coast,' he thought to himself."

It is unquestionably a delightful site, looking out at the Atlantic from the mouth of Dungarvan Bay. And at the far end of the factory land is the lighthouse, dominating the whole area. Work started in September 1995; was completed a year later and the course was officially opened last month by GUI president, Peter O'Hara.

Fives had the good sense to retain six of the old Dungarvan holes, which were noted for their magnificent greens. They are the new first (old fourth), second (fifth), third (sixth), 16th (ninth), 17th (first), 18th (second). In fact the course could be divided into three sections - the original holes of Ballinacourty, the seventh, eighth and ninth down by the lighthouse and those holes in between.

Down around the turn is a particularly charming area where the short seventh looks out towards Ballyvoyle Head and Tramore beyond, while the ninth green has Helvick Head as a backdrop. Between them is the short, 176-yard eighth, which, like the tee-shot at the 15th, is played over an elbow of the shore, making it a shorter version of the spectacular 16th at Cypress Point.

The 10th, 12th and 13th holes are played into the prevailing wind. They are followed by five, tough finishing holes, starting with the par-three 14th (197 yards off the medal tee) and culminating in the brutish, 560-yards 18th, which is played to a new green close by the location of the tee at the old, short third.

One of the most interesting aspects of the old, nine-hole courses was the generally high standard of their design. The architects of the period would have seen this as a priority, knowing that the members would be playing the same holes twice in the course of an 18hole round.

So, they couldn't afford to include in their layout the odd "weak" hole, which would be acceptable in an 18-hole layout. If the same principles are applied when extending nine holes to 18, the chances are that the end product will be impressive. Happily for the Gold Coast at Ballinacourty, Fives has ensured that this is the case.