GOLF: Paul Gallaghertalks to two stalwarts of Seapoint as they prepare for the arrival of next month's 100th Irish PGA Championship

THE PURPOSE of the exercise upon pitching up at Seapoint Golf Club was to tee up next month’s 100th Ladbrokes.com Irish PGA Championship by chatting with Des Smyth and Declan Branigan, two men who know practically every blade of grass on the pristine Louth links. The lifelong friends not only live a stone’s throw away from the course but they also designed the championship layout before it opened in 1993.

As the oldest professional event in Ireland (dating back to 1907) moves from the European Club in Wicklow, the two Seapoint designers will have very different weeks when the championship kicks-off from September 23rd-26th. Smyth will be aiming to win the title for a seventh time, while Branigan and his green-keeping staff will have all hands to the pump in the build up to, and during tournament week.

For the three years the Irish PGA Championship was held at Pat Ruddy’s European Club where Pádraig Harrington successfully used the tournament as preparation the week before the British Open. It worked a treat for the Dubliner as he captured the Irish PGA title in 2007 and the following week went on to win his first major at Carnoustie. The same formula worked in 2008 as his links game was fine-tuned at the European before back-to-back British Opens were secured at Royal Birkdale.

This year the Irish PGA has a new September date which means some of the game’s leading lights will be on duty elsewhere as Harrington and Rory McIlroy will hope to be competing in the latter stages of the lucrative FedEx Cup series in the United States the week before the Ryder Cup.

That said there will still be strong representation from the main European Tour as Damien McGrane, Shane Lowry and Peter Lawrie have all stated their intention to play, while it would be foolish to rule out Smyth who has some serious local knowledge in his locker.

The golfing bug first took seed for Smyth and Branigan in their early playing days at Laytown and Bettystown Golf Club in Meath. If the pair weren’t chasing the opposite sex by playing tennis at Bettystown they were honing their golfing skills at the traditional links venue just down the road from Seapoint. While Smyth (57) still enjoys a lasting career in the paid ranks, Branigan, five years Smyth’s senior, was a formidable opponent at the top of the amateur game, representing Ireland over 50 times and was twice winner of the East and West of Ireland Championships plus an unprecedented three-time winner of the GUI’s Willie Gill Order of Merit award.

“We’ve known each other all our lives having grown up near Bettystown, then we married two local girls and ended up moving over here,” adds Smyth, who has Branigan and his brother Val, also a former Irish international, as neighbours in the Termonfeckin area.

Branigan is one of the most qualified agronomists and course designers in the country and the pair take pride in what they created at Seapoint – a labour of love as it wasn’t for the financial reward.

“We got involved at Seapoint from a very early stage,” explains Smyth. “Declan and I had started up a design company called Des Smyth and Associates. We started off small, did a nine-hole course in Kilkenny then Royal Tara and Waterford Castle. When the Seapoint owners were mulling things over we threw our hat in the ring. At the time there wasn’t a big budget so we weren’t in it to make big money. To cut a long story short we got the job and are very happy with the way it turned out.”

It’s almost a case of good cop, bad cop with them and “that’s why Des and I were such a good team”, says Branigan, who holds an honours degree in general agriculture from UCD plus a Masters in Soil Science. “Des is a facilitator whereas I’m more up front. Our business worked because he was also a big name. People knew my record and educational background and Des was the star.”

In later years Branigan set up his own company Declan Branigan Design, with his son Ronan following him into the business. They are contracted for the full course maintenance at Seapoint and have a similar arrangement at Ashbourne Golf Club.

“It takes a lot of planning and preparation to get a course set up to championship standard,” explains Branigan after it was agreed to bring the Irish PGA to Seapoint back in April. “Thankfully we maintain the course to a high standard so it will be a case of fine-tuning from here on in.

“You need the course to look well but also to be tighter than for an amateur event. The trick is to have it looking well but hungry. It will be a busy time during tournament week. I had holidays booked and was supposed to be at a wedding in Portugal and believe me it’s not going down too well with the wife that we have to come home four days early,” quips Branigan, who has five full-time staff, including his son and course supervisor Noel Mooney.

“Come tournament week it will be like a military operation. With a two-tee start we’ll need a crew cutting the front nine at the same time as the back nine. The team will arrive at 6.15am. For us the fairways take seven hours to cut, four hours for the tees and three for the greens. Then we have to rake all 80 bunkers, divot the course after play and change the holes every day.

“When the Irish Open was held next door at Baltray (County Louth Golf Club) they had about 30 greenstaff, with that manpower they were able to cut the whole course in about an hour-and-a-half.”

With such an illustrious neighbour in Baltray the pair were adamant Seapoint more than holds its own as a venue, it just doesn’t possess the same back story.

“Baltray has been around for 150 years, we only opened in 1993, but the two courses complement each other,” insists Smyth, who uses both venues to practice. “The only thing Seapoint doesn’t have is the infamy and history but this is a top-class facility and growing in stature all the time.”

“We are fortunate to have Declan in charge of the course and the golf course development is matched only by his enthusiasm for our links,” adds Noel Kierens, Seapoint club captain.

Smyth and Branigan are proud of the place with the latter very much treating it as his baby. “We built it and did the grow-in, no one else put their hand near here, it’d be over my dead body,” adds Branigan as a wry smile cuts across the weathered complexion of a man who has spent a lifetime working outdoors.

For Smyth the fifth hole played around a small lake and the signature par three 17th are standout holes, while Branigan would throw the 14th into the mix – it and the 16th back onto Baltray at the farthest point of the course from the clubhouse.

“I was only involved in the design of the place, since then Declan and his team do all the donkey work maintaining the course as I’m obviously still playing golf,” notes Smyth, who has returned to the European Senior Tour after a lucrative Indian summer competing on the Champions Tour in the States since turning 50. In almost six years he amassed over €2 million in prize money and won twice in 2005.

“I had six good years on the Champions Tour but am now back competing in Europe and the travelling is less arduous which suits me very well,” adds the evergreen Smyth, who is still the oldest winner on the main European Tour after winning the 2001 Madeira Island Open, aged 48 years and 34 days.

Smyth is a winner of over 20 professional events (eight on the European Tour), has played in two Ryder Cups (1979 and 1981) and was one of Ian Woosnam’s vice-captains at the K Club in 2006. With the prospect of five Irishmen being involved at Celtic Manor – Paul McGinley and Darren Clarke are two of Colin Montgomerie’s vices – he offers insight on what they can expect in Wales.

“I honestly think Pádraig (Harrington) will be a pick and join Rory (McIlroy) and Graeme (McDowell) on the team.

“Monty has virtually given him the all-clear to stay in America. As for Darren and Paul I think it will be interesting for them to see it from the other side of the fence.

“It’s a stressful week no doubt but very enjoyable. There’s so much attention and if there’s any friction you need to be able to smooth it out. Remember you are dealing with 12 big egos in one room so you need plenty of diplomacy skills. You can’t treat grown men like school kids. It’s put-the-arm-around-shoulder stuff, never talk down to them. Oh boy, that’d be the wrong move, it doesn’t work,” says Smyth with a glint in his eye.

With regards the Irish PGA Championship, it may not enjoy the same bountiful prize purse it did during the heady Smurfit days, but Smyth believes it is still a very prestigious title to win. He and Harrington have won it six times while legends Christy O’Connor and Harry Bradshaw both won it 10 times.

“This year’s prize fund is €30,000, last year it was less. In 2008 it was €70,000 and in 2007 it was €140,000 and as good as the Smurfit years,” explains Michael McCumiskey, secretary of the PGA Irish Region. “It has come down the last couple of years after money from the 2006 Ryder Cup legacy dropped off. It’s a sign of the times and getting support for professional events these days is challenging to say the least. Only for Ladbrokes.com we’d be running a pro-am and playing for goodness knows what.”

The top cheque next month is €3,500 but McCumiskey notes the region’s blue riband event is “loaded with 75,000 order of merit points going towards the inaugural Lexus Race to Mount Juliet in Association with Ping. The domestic order of merit winner will pick up a €10,000 win bonus after the season-ending finale at Mount Juliet in October.”

The last time a high-profile professional event was staged at Seapoint, Smyth defeated Paul McGinley to land the Glen Dimplex International Tournament in 1995. And though he plays down his chances of a seventh Irish PGA title you can bet he is quietly confident.

“Of course I’m planning to win but my expectations wouldn’t be too high against all the kids on the block,” says Smyth. “I’d love to slip in under the radar. Ah, you never know, I’m looking forward to it, it will be good fun and I obviously know the course very well.”

“I think Des could surprise a few of them,” concludes Branigan, who one way or the other will have Seapoint at its best for the 100th Irish PGA Championship.