GOLF/COURSE DEVELOPMENT: Seafield Golf and Country ClubPhilip Reid visits a course that uniquely combines woodland, heathland and seaside features

There's an American artist called Bill Pendergrass who has the art, for that is what it is, of successfully capturing the essence of a great golf hole and putting it onto canvas.

When you first enter the grey prefab structure that is the temporary home to Seafield Golf and Country Club, in the coastal town of Ballymoney in Co Wexford, two of his paintings immediately act like a magnet, attracting your attention and pulling you over so that you can peer at the lifelike azaleas and even swear that you can see the sea spray.

One painting is of the 13th hole at Augusta National, with the flowers in full bloom around the green and Rae's Creek running from one side of the frame to the other; the second painting is of the ninth hole at Pebble Beach, with the Pacific's waters pounding the rocky shoreline. Both are appropriate choices to be showcased at Seafield, for this new development has touches of both great courses. Indeed, a third painting, probably that of Ganton, should be added - for this course also has a touch of heathland to go with the parkland and the clifftop aspects.

Seafield is only a baby of a course, but it has huge potential. The prefabricated building that is serving as a clubhouse is a temporary measure. Next week, the Canon Shootout - involving Padraig Harrington, Retief Goosen and Barry Lane - will be held there, and, as soon as it is over, work will start on an impressive clubhouse that will overlook the 18th green and offer panoramic views of the Irish Sea. The clubhouse will be ready by late spring of next year. There are also plans for a hotel and discreet housing in a village-style setting on the 170 acres to give it a true resort feel.

"What really attracted me here," remarked Dara O'Neill, the director of golf, "is that there is quality in everything to do with Seafield - the course, the clubhouse, the plans for property."

A walk down the 10th fairway, towards the cliffs, confirms such talk. On the right, discreetly nestled behind a wooded area, there are what look like two massive hangars . One, in fact, is the maintenance shed for the greenkeeping machinery. The other, indeed, is a hangar or, perhaps more correctly, a covered heliport. It will be used to house helicopters!

The concept of businessman David Cullen and his brother Stephen, a former Olympic swimmer, Seafield - just 20 minutes drive south from the European Club - is a very welcome addition to the fine courses on the eastern seaboard. Designed by Peter McEvoy, the former Britain and Ireland Walker Cup captain, it is to his credit that, in this day and age of ever-longer designs, he has produced a course that measures just 6,447 yards and, yet, one that will require virtually every club in the bag to be used.

The vista of the sea is the over-riding image. Although the horizon can be glimpsed through the woodland of the opening few holes, from the sixth hole onward it is a constant companion - and, yet, it is on the 11th tee-box, perched on a clifftop with the sea to the right, that it really impacts and effectively stays with you for the remainder of the journey.

Seafield, though, has a unique feel in that it combines woodland, heathland and seaside characteristics. "It's not very often you get the opportunity to design a course on such terrain and with such spectacular views," commented McEvoy. "Given the location and the sense of place, I believe that Seafield will become a much loved golf course with that special ambience that makes one want to come back again and again."

Built to USGA specifications, the course has developed remarkably well. On my first visit there last September, only the early holes, created through woodland, were close to being ready - but, now, the course is deemed significantly good enough to play host to players of the calibre of Harrington and Goosen in a shootout, which will happen next Monday.

Nothing has been spared, however, in getting things right. Killian Poynton, one of the growing breed of Irish greenkeepers to learn his craft in the United States, in his case at the renowned Penn State University, was appointed course superintendent from early on in the project and has nurtured it like a delicate baby; so much so that it has prospered and matured as well as anyone could have envisaged.

All of the early holes take in the woodland while the second segment, resembling heathland, offers some extremely interesting holes. It is indicative of the desire to have as good a course as possible that a late decision was made to add three pot bunkers down the right-hand side of the fifth fairway and also to construct a 40-yards long bunker down the left to increase the aesthetic appeal of this particular hole, which brings you towards the imposing Tara Hill.

The third piece of the jigsaw is all about a seaside effect - overlooking as it does Ballymoney Strand - which has many pot bunkers and, in time, will also feature tall fescue grasses to accentuate the seaside appeal of the course.

The opening few holes are typical parkland and will act as a gentle introduction. The first hole is what McEvoy refers to as an "easy start, in the classic traditions of the game". It measures just 325 yards with the approach to a green nestled into the hillside while the second is a 487-yards par five from an elevated tee. Low handicappers will consider this a possible two-shotter, although the second shot must carry the edge of trees over a pond that guards the green.

"The very first hole I saw when I visited the site," is McEvoy's comment on the third, another short par four measuring 320 yards. It is framed by mature woodland with a pond and a stream adding to the natural appeal. Once on the green, it is possible to hear the sound of water tinkling close by, while the fourth is the first par three to a well contoured green surrounded by trees.

That short hole ends the parkland feel, and from the fifth hole there is a change to a heathland texture. This stretch features what is probably the toughest hole on the course, the 460-yards par four sixth hole. Off the back tee, the drive must carry a lake and thread itself between fairway bunkers and the out-of-bounds on the left. For the second shot, a tree that dominates the middle of the fairway becomes an added factor.

After the heathland segment comes the seaside holes, with the sound of the water crashing against the cliffs serving as an acoustic accompaniment on several holes. There are two magnificent short holes on the back nine, the 11th - measuring 180 yards, although it seems longer from the tee-box that is perched just yards from the clifftop - and the 16th, which measures 202 yards. This hole is played into the backdrop of the Irish Sea but it is the water in front of the green that is the danger.

The 17th hole runs back up along the cliffs and shares a double green with the 11th, while the 18th is, in some ways, similar to the final hole at Druids Glen in that it has man-made weirs running down one part of the fairway and in front of the greens and it is also an uphill par four.

With south Dublin within an hour's reach, and an ever-improving road network, Seafield could well attract a number fleeing the metropolis. The current tranche of preferential share membership is on offer at €19,000.

O'Neill, not surprisingly, is enthusiastic about the evolving project. All his life he has been in golf. Firstly as a professional, and then as a promoter. Involved in a bad car crash in his mid 20s while in the United States, O'Neill, on recovering fitness, discovered there was no developmental tour for young players and, so, he set one up. He made sufficient money not to have to return to the dog-eat-dog world of actually playing for his living.

When he sold the tour in the US, he moved back to Europe, started another developmental tour and, then, sold that too. His move into golf management at Seafield is viewed as anatural progression.

"No expense has been spared in getting this project right, it is all about quality," he insisted.

"Given the location and the sense of place, I believe that Seafield will become a much loved golf course with that special ambience that makes one want to come back again and again"

- Course designer and former Walker Cup captain Peter McEvoy