Back in 1974, when the committee of Enniscrone GC thought about making maximum use of wonderful duneland, an extremely modest bank balance of £2,000 seriously stifled their aspirations. Now, 27 years on, their successors have realised the original ambition, but at the formidable cost of £1 million.

In his inimitable way, architect Eddie Hackett adapted the original project to suit his client's pocket by largely skirting the foothills. With no such restrictions, however, Donald Steel has given the club a course worthy of the 400-acre site, through the construction of six new holes and adjustments to another two.

The official opening of the new, championship course will be on May 19th when the club hope to have Christy O'Connor snr, who was there in 1974, back to do the honours. And it will mark the emergence of a reshaped links, destined to become one of the finest on the western seaboard.

For those familiar with Enniscrone, which staged the Irish Men's Close Championship in 1993, the Irish Women's Close in 1997 and the West of Ireland in 1997, 1998 and 1999, the changes to the layout are quite dramatic. Indeed the old, dog-leg 16th with the out-of-bounds clubhouse environs to the right, becomes the opening hole, to be followed by the first of Steel's creations.

These involve a new, 505-yard second, a 190-yard third and a 550-yard fourth. From there, the old 11th is played to a new green right of the original, followed by the old third, fourth, fifth and sixth, which complete the outward nine. Incidentally, the 395-yard sixth with the sea on the left was always O'Connor's favourite at Enniscrone.

The homeward journey starts on the old seventh, followed by the old eighth, ninth and 10th. Then the player heads into the dunes once more to savour the second sequence of Steel holes. These are the new, 542-yard 14th, a 440-yard 15th and a 525yard 16th. From there, it is a natural progression to the original, short 17th and on to the 18th, which complete the routing.

All of these changes mean the old first, second, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th holes have become redundant to the championship layout. Added to new ground to the left of the old second where three new holes are to be built, however, they will become part of a third nine, totally separate from the premier 18.

In this context, the club's officers have made it clear there will be no question of nines being mixed for the convenience of members, as happens, for instance, at Portmarnock. Anyone wishing to play 18 holes while the championship course is in use, may play twice around the third nine.

When assessing the quality of the new championship holes, which I had the opportunity of seeing on a recent visit, the mind drifted inevitably to the marvellous work which Steel has done on similar terrain. Indeed with the staging last July of the Senior British Open at Royal Co Down, there was the opportunity of watching some of the game's leading players, albeit from an earlier generation, challenge his dramatic transformation of the 18th, from a weak par five into one of the game's great finishing holes.

Bernard Darwin once described his great contemporary, Harry Colt, as an eminently sane architect and one suspects if the father of modern golf writing were around today, he would think similarly of Steel. Widely acknowledged as the current, leading authority on links courses, the Englishman's stated philosophy is: "You're here to try to solve a problem that's decades, in some cases centuries, old - namely how to get round by properly reading the landscape."

This empathy with nature is immediately evident in his six new holes at Enniscrone, which comprise four par fives, one par four and one par three. The first of them is encountered when turning left after the old 16th green. There, the drive is played between dunes not unlike what one would find at The European Club and on approaching the green, we get the first sight of the sea.

The next is the par three which is defined by a lone, revetted bunker to the centre-front of the green, while a steep fall off the back emphasises the importance of club selection. Then comes the second par five, which offers the stunning backdrop of the Moy Estuary.

On the next of the new holes (the parfive 14th), the old 10th green sits directly behind the tee, while the towering Cnoc na gCorp (the hill of the bodies) on the left, dominates the approach to the green. This wonderful, stepped dune is reputed to contain the bodies of Viking invaders.

From there, the par-four 15th is played parallel with Killala Bay, only 30 yards to the left, while the tee offers a charming view of the town of Enniscrone in the distance. Finally, the long 16th sweeps downhill towards the green, nestling conveniently below the back of the old 17th tee.

The overall quality of the holes leaves little to be desired. Blindness off the tee is acceptable in terrain where dunes offer a clear line and with no nasty shocks on the far side. But a determination to move as little earth as possible may result in divot problems at the par fives, where gathering areas from the second shots were already.

Agronomist Eddie Connaughton has achieved a marvellous texture to the fairways by using the hydromulch process (paste impregnated with seed) while the greens, with sensibly gentle movement, are also of a high quality. "In the entire process, we were very sensitive to environmental issues and worked very closely with the Department of the Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht, An Taisce and the planning department of Sligo Co Council," said club captain Billy Varley.

Enniscrone took £224,000 in green-fee revenue last year and with the new holes in play, they are expecting to increase that income to £300,000 this season, with the weekend green fee remaining at £40.

Meanwhile, the progressive nature of the club is further emphasised by this latest development coming on top of a £150,000 clubhouse extension which was completed two years ago. In fact a total of more than £500,000 has been spent on the clubhouse over the last seven years.

Established in 1918 with a modest, nine-hole layout, Enniscrone remained that way until 1974, when they achieved 18-hole championship standard. Fresh from critical acclaim for his design of Waterville, Hackett's typically small fee allied to the work of local volunteers, meant the layout was extended for what was even then, a ridiculously small investment of less than £5,000 .

Work on the new layout began directly after the 1999 staging of the West of Ireland when, appropriately, Finland's Miko Ilonen became an historic champion. Now the club has a creation which reflects Steel's empathy with majestic duneland, where architects are very often afraid to tread, because of the design challenges involved.

In the West Coast Links brochure of a few years ago, the late, lamented Peter Dobereiner was quoted describing Enniscrone as "an undiscovered gem of a links in the far North-West; a course with some amazing holes". Were he with us now, it is safe to assume that "Dobers" would be only too pleased to significantly embellish that view.