Philip Reidsays no stone has been left unturned in preparation for next weekend's Walker Cup at Royal County Down

In truth, is there a more wonderfully blessed setting in golf than the ninth tee at Royal County Down? The golfer is positioned on an elevated tee on this magnificent par four of nearly 500 yards, required to hit a blind tee-shot over the brow of the hill - literally straight at the imposing presence of Slieve Donard - before a second shot that again requires length and accuracy.

This hole, to be sure, is the epitome of links golf at its finest; and the honour of combating this sacred piece of golfing terrain will this week fall to the very top amateur players from the United States, the holders, and Britain and Ireland, who are contesting the Walker Cup for only a second time on Irish soil, following on from the 1991 encounter at Portmarnock that confirmed, if it were needed, that this age-old amateur team event is the genuine stepping stone for those who aspire to greatness in the professional game.

This latest enactment of the Walker Cup - an event first staged in 1922, an unofficial meeting of the two teams having occurred a year earlier - is the 38th match, with the Americans vastly superior in the overall results (with 31 wins, five defeats and one drawn match). Yet, the Britain and Ireland team, despite losing in Chicago two years ago, has dominated the modern history with wins at Nairn (1999), Sea Island, Georgia (2001) and Ganton (2003) indicating a significant sea change.

At 7,181 yards, with a par of 71, Royal County Down - a course originally created in the sand hills by Old Tom Morris, back in 1889, and the first of its kind to ignore the then traditional layout of nine holes out and nine holes back - will actually be the longest in Walker Cup history, playing 48 yards longer than Portmarnock in 1991 and Sea Island in 2001.

Of course, since Old Tom created the original routing, many revisions have taken place including some by club professional Seymour Dunn in 1904, while down the years Harry Vardon, George Combe and Harry Colt at one time or another had hands in upgrading and changing the links that has evolved to what it is today. The last of the modifications were made in 2005, by Donald Steel, who, having already remodelled the 18th, tinkered with the 16th hole.

Kevan Whitson, the club professional at Royal County Down, believes the course that the top amateurs players will encounter this week will enthral as well as examine.

"It doesn't get any better. If you wanted to host a matchplay championship, this would be your number one pick in the world. It has everything, including the type of build-up through the golf course where holes are going to swing. There's just no way you're going to have 18 halved hole out there.

There'll be lots of swings, lots of mistakes made . . . the golf course will ensure that."

The task of preparing the course for the Walker Cup has been undertaken by Alan Strachan, a Scottish greenkeeper who is course manager at the famed Newcastle links. The R&A only agreed to award the match to Royal County Down when the club agreed to create a new 16th hole - work undertaken by Steel - after concerns over health and safety. Once the club fulfilled that commitment, the match was headed to Northern Ireland for a first time.

Of that need for change, Strachan, who had worked at Carnoustie before moving to Royal County Down, explained: "Much of the problem came with a health-and-safety issue at either end of the hole with bottlenecks and what have you. There was no exits for the crowds to get away safely at both ends. And the 17th tee surrounded the old 16th green; there just wasn't enough room. If that didn't change, the Walker Cup didn't come here."

While recreating the 16th hole was the most significant change adopted by the host club, another quite dramatic one was to build a new tee on the second hole that brings the sea more dramatically into view, although the principal reasoning was to ensure spectator movement around the first green. It also makes the second tee shot of a match a very intimidating one indeed.

Strachan's team has also removed a lot of gorse from the course.

"It's a weed, simple as that, and we spend an awful lot of time and effort on dealing with gorse and controlling it," he said.

Gorse has been removed from the ninth (mainly to facilitate members and green fees rather than for the Walker Cup) and also to the left of the 13th and around the old 16th tee, where a natural-looking bank has been built to aid spectator viewing.

Although crowds will be up to 10,000 per day - the match takes place over two days, on Saturday and Sunday with four morning foursomes followed in the afternoon by eight singles matches - the R&A have decided on a policy of a "moving rope" so that the crowds can literally walk the fairways with the golfers in following the matches.

Those fairways, incidentally, will be of one hue. Traditionally, links fairways are normally cut dark and light; but the R&A decided they wanted them all cut in the one direction for this Walker Cup match because it was felt such a line of cutting would give a narrowing effect to the greens.

This decision was made only two months ago, so the workload on the Royal County Down greenstaff increased immediately.

"It's an aesthetic decision really. Basically that doubles our mowing time as we have to cut, drive back up and cut rather than cutting both ways . . . it's meant we've had to double our machinery requirements, so I've had to beg, borrow and steal machines," said Strachan.

The upshot, though, is that Strachan and his team - which will be aided by greenkeeping volunteers from all over Ireland and Britain as well as a couple from the United States for the actual match - has succeeded in producing a beautifully manicured links for the historic staging of the match in Royal County Down.

"I think the course now has moved into a different level in terms of quality," observed Strachan, making the comparison with the course when it last staged the British Seniors Open in 2002. Each day will bring a very early start.

"Basically we'll have a fairly small window of opportunity to cut between first light and golf starting at 8.30am so we've got two-and-a-half hours and ideally I want to have all the machines round by as far as the 13th before any play starts so there is no noise, et cetera, to distract," said Strachan.

Yet, the greens are unlikely to be as fast as they could be. The R&A have requested they be established at 10 on the stimpmeter. They were at 12, for instance, when Graeme Storm won the British Amateur over the course in 1999. Strachan, for his part, would like to see them up to 11 for the Walker Cup.

"I just think the greens perform unbelievably well when they are fast; you see the contours in play," he confessed.

The ultimate decision, however, rests with the R&A championship committee, who will dictate the speed for the match.

This is a big deal for the town of Newcastle - even if the ongoing roadworks on the main street seem badly timed. The fact Rory McIlroy, the upcoming star of Irish golf, and Jonathan Caldwell are local players (McIlroy from Holywood, Caldwell from Clandeboye) adds spice to the Walker Cup being held here.

In terms of team preparations and course preparations, no stone has been left unturned. It all points to a very successful staging of one of golf's great team events on one of the world's finest links courses.

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