Philip Reidon the lasting allure of the festival of golf which will attract the cream of Ireland's club golfers to Shandon Park this week

Who could have envisaged that the Bulmers Irish Cups and Shields festival of golf would become what it is today? The genesis for what has evolved into the unique competition - the biggest of its kind in the world - was a meeting conducted on March 15th, 1895.

At that time, 21 clubs were affiliated to the Golfing Union of Ireland and the governing body's council put it to them that it would be a good idea to hold inter-club competition with the instructions that players be selected "as far as possible to ensure a good match but not necessarily victory for the larger club". The germ of the idea resulted in those pioneering clubs donating money to acquire trophies. Royal Dublin gave £10. Royal Portrush, Portmarnock, Royal County Down and Bray gave £5 each. Foxrock gave £3. Malahide, Dublin University, Sutton and Lahinch gave £2 each.

North West, Greenore, County Louth, Athlone, Ormeau, Knock, Greenisland and Malone gave £1 each.

When the pounds were counted up, the GUI added some of their own and commissioned two trophies - the Senior Cup and the Junior Cup - which were first played for in 1900.

Now, some 107 years later, the friendly competition may remain, but the quest for a green pennant is now pursued with even greater passion, time and effort . . . and the inter-club competitions have developed into a true festival of golf with players of all standards catered for.

From those early days, the Cups and Shields have grown. Nowadays, there are over 400 clubs affiliated to the GUI with many clubs bursting at the seams with a record high number of players playing golf in Ireland.

This week's Irish Cups and Shields starts tomorrow at Shandon Park Golf Club in the eastern suburbs of Belfast and, to get there, the competing clubs have expended a huge amount of time and energy. And money.

Year on year, it seems, the cost of pursuing a green pennant increases to such an extent that many a club treasurer has gotten a headache wondering how to finance what the quest costs.

Not that any player or captain from the 20 clubs who have managed to progress this far, from competitions that started shortly after Easter, will care one iota about the club treasurer's headaches. For them, the pursuit of an All-Ireland title becomes an obsession, similar to the Gaelic footballer in pursuit of the Sam Maguire or the hurler chasing the Liam MacCarthy.

Each and every member of teams visiting Shandon Park will see at first hand what winning a green pennant means to a club: there are 20 of them adorning the walls of the Belfast club, 13 of them won in the Irish Senior Cup which makes them the most successful club - after Portmarnock - in that particular role of honour.

Unfortunately for them, Shandon Park have not managed to get a team to this year's finals, so that number of green pennants will remain unchanged for the time being at least.

The player

When Niall Goulding, a former Irish international and past West of Ireland champion, was asked to undertake the captaincy of Portmarnock's Senior Cup team three years ago, he did so in the belief that his role would solely be that of captaining the team.

Little did he know that circumstances would decree that his role would also include playing again for Portmarnock. When Walker Cup player Noel Fox turned professional and Aengus McAllister's collegiate commitments in the United States meant his unavailability, Goulding dusted off the clubs and combined the roles of captain and player.

"It took me three years to perfect the role," quipped Goulding, who guided Portmarnock to victory in Leinster in the Senior Cup, so securing a place in the national finals. "I didn't actually play the first year but with Foxy turning pro and Aengus going Stateside, I found myself in a situation by accident rather than design that I would have to play. In a way, it put extra pressure on me to get my game into shape."

Still, few expected them to succeed with a team comprised of a couple of players in their 50s and two more in their 40s . . . and with the promising teenager Geoff Lenehan using the wise old heads around him to make a significant improvement in his own game and an important contribution to the team's success.

But Portmarnock's provincial win was, nevertheless, a surprise as Goulding himself acknowledges. "Yes, it was quite an elderly team, but one with a great deal of experience. There is a huge Senior Cup tradition in Portmarnock. I remember there was a time in Portmarnock that we teed it up at the start of the Senior Cup campaign (expecting) to win. But for the past couple of years we were losing in the first and second rounds and the mantle of being favourites was gone this year."

Perhaps it was the element of surprise, or maybe the underdogs role was one that suited Portmarnock. But, seemingly from nowhere, they have earned a ticket to the big show again. Portmarnock have won the Senior Cup more than any other club. The last of the club's 18 wins came at Lisburn in 2003 and, now, four years later, the cycle brings them back to an Ulster course as Leinster champions and a semi-final encounter with Banbridge. Co Sligo and Castletroy are in the other Senior Cup semi-final.

"The Cups and Shields are fantastic," said Goulding. "I think the team nature appeals to every golfer. All you have to do is see the way that Padraig (Harrington)and Paul (McGinley) and Darren (Clarke) respond when put into a team situation in the Ryder Cup. They love it, and I think there is something about that on a different level in the Cups and Shields. There is a terrific camaraderie, and the team ethos makes the competition all the more special."

The course

The one fear course superintendent Jeff Lamb had as he prepared the finely manicured course at Shandon Park for the Irish Cups and Shields was that modern equipment - combined with increased fitness programmes of the players - would overpower a layout that, in this day and age, is considered quite short at just over 6,200 yards with a par of 70.

"Basically, the course isn't up to championship standard length-wise," conceded Lamb, whose solution - taking a leaf out of the notebook of Carnoustie in 1999 - has been to narrow the landing areas on the fairways to "make the holes a wee bit tougher" and to allow the rough to grow to a depth of three inches so that wayward tee shots will be suitably penalised.

He has also used another trick of the trade, deepening the rough on the angle of doglegs to discourage players from simply trying to overpower the course.

"We want them to use strategy, to use brain instead of brawn," said Lamb of the philosophy designed to make this week's national finals a test for all category of players. "You know, guys just hit the ball so far these days that they expect to hit driver-wedge into most holes and we are trying to present a test that will make them use strategy off the tee."

In fairness, Lamb and his greenstaff team have also put in place an intermediate cut of rough - to a height of one inch - that will act as a buffer between the fairway and the heavy rough. One thing is certain, players will find Shandon Park to be in excellent shape for the staging of the prestigious inter-club finals. Although the amount of rain throughout the summer put Lamb, like every other greenkeeper in the country, into a position where it was virtually impossible to get machinery in to cut parts of the course, the recent good weather has been perfectly timed in getting the course in to pristine shape.

And with slick greens, the stimpmeter reading up to between 12 and 13, the putter could well prove to be the most important club in a player's bag.

Shandon Park added some 300 yards on to the length of the course inside the past five years, which means that blue and white courses will be in use for the finals: the blue stakes will be used for the Senior Cup, Barton Shield and Junior Cup, the white for the Jimmy Bruen Shield and the Pierce Purcell Shield.

Although generally flat, Shandon Park's bunkering and the fact that many fairways are lined with mature trees means the course will provide a fine test.

The signature hole is the short 10th, a par three where players hit from a height to a small green surrounded by bunkers with the added hazard of a river that works its way short left of the putting surface.

However, it is the run from the 15th that is likely to decide who wins green pennants. The par three 15th starts a run home that will pose many tough questions. The 16th has trees right and water left, while the 18th is a tree-lined dogleg.

The trophies

Barton Shield

Commemorating the former Golfing Union of Ireland president, the Hon Mr Justice Barton, the first club to win the Shield were Portmarnock in 1920. Clubs are represented by two foursomes pairings (playing off scratch).

Irish Junior Cup

Inaugurated in 1900, teams are comprised of five players of five-handicap and over, playing matchplay (off scratch). John Ball Jnr is featured on the lid. A member of Royal Liverpool GC, Ball was British Amateur Champion in 1888, 1890, 1892, 1894, 1899, 1902, 1909 and 1912, and runner-up in 1887 and 1895. He was also British Open Champion in 1890 and Irish Amateur Open Champion in 1893, 1894 and 1899.

Irish Senior Cup

Instituted in 1900, the Senior Cup is the most coveted trophy in club golf. Teams consist of five players in singles matchplay (off scratch). The figure on the lid is that of Fred G Tait. A member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, Tait was British Amateur Champion in 1896 and 1898 and runner-up in 1893, 1894, 1895 and 1899.

Jimmy Bruen Shield

The Jimmy Bruen Shield is named in honour of a great Cork golfer who inspired Britain and Ireland to their first Walker Cup victory, at St Andrews in 1938, when still an 18-year-old schoolboy at Presentation Brothers. Jimmy Bruen captured the British Amateur Championship in 1946 and enjoyed many other notable successes before injury brought a premature end to the career of a man who is invariably remembered for his huge hitting off the tee and remarkable powers of recovery.

Pierce Purcell Shield

Named after Prof Purcell, one of Ireland's outstanding golf administrators from the 1920s to the 1960s, the inaugural competition, in 1970, was won by Massereene.

Five foursomes pairings represent each club, comprised of minimum individual handicap of 12 and maximum combined of 27.