Michael Smurfit has taken a positive, pragmatic view of yesterday's announcement which put Ireland's staging of the Ryder Cup back to 2006. The change became a natural consequence of the decision by the European Ryder Cup committee to hold future events in even years.

So, we will not have successive Ryder Cups in 2002 and 2003, as originally proposed. Instead, this year's event, scheduled for The Belfry next week, has been postponed until September 27th-29th of next year at the same venue; the following staging at Oakland Hills will be in September 2004; then the Irish staging at the K Club will be in 2006, followed by Valhalla CC in 2008.

The other complication was the President's Cup match between the US and the International side.

This was scheduled for South Africa in November next year, but PGA Tour officials yesterday confirmed the event moves forward one year as well to occupy odd-numbered years, starting in November 2003 in South Africa.

"The reality of the situation was that the organisers had no choice," said Smurfit, chairman of the company which owns the K Club. "The alternative of having two Ryder Cups in succession would be too much. On balance, I believe it would have taken from the unique character of the tournament.

"I'm not disappointed about having to wait a further year," he added. "I think it was the right thing to do in the circumstances. The important thing is that golf's premier event is still coming to Ireland: it's just going to be one year later than we thought.

"And on the credit side, the extra year will help us with our preparations, not that we hadn't enough time already. And the additional publicity associated with an extended build-up is going to be a considerable benefit for all of us in this country."

From a financial standpoint, the change will mean a loss of "only a few thousand pounds" to the K Club, according to the director of golf, Paul Crowe.

"That was all we had spent on stationary and promotional material for 2005. Serious expenditure would not have started until next summer."

Meanwhile, Smurfit added: "As somebody who happened to be in LA last week, I have no doubt the right thing was done regarding this year's event. My initial reaction was dismay. And when my thoughts turned later to the Ryder Cup, I felt certain it couldn't take place this month, as scheduled.

"Because of the raw emotions following last week's atrocities, I don't think it would have been a match in the accepted sense of the term.

"My real fear, however, was that it might be cancelled, rather than deferred. In that context, I believe they have made a wise decision."

The European Ryder Cup board put on record yesterday their appreciation of the "superb and immediate response of the Irish Government and the K Club in agreeing to stage the matches in 2006."

They also indicated that an announcement will be made within the next 24 hours to confirm arrangements with regard to individual buyers of tickets.

"Sport," according to Smurfit, "must act responsibly. And it was clear to me in the US last week that people simply didn't want to be involved in sporting activities. Hopefully, we will soon return to some form of normalcy."

He concluded: "The best analogy I can draw is with the suffering of the British people during the Blitz. They never lost heart. In fact they came through the ordeal triumphantly. I'm confident the same thing will happen in America."