A NEW EVENT, the Irish Seniors Open, is included in the schedule for next season, announced yesterday by the European Seniors Tour. Sponsorship has yet to be finalised, but it will be held at St Margaret's, Dublin, on May 16th to 18th, a week after the expected staging of the Smurfit Irish Professional Championship.

It will be one of 15 tournaments - two more than last year on an ever-expanding schedule which includes a total of five new events. Among those is the Wentworth Senior Masters, to be played over that club's Edinburgh course on August 1st to 3rd.

Prize-money will be announced later but once again, the richest tournament will be the £350,000 Senior British Open at Royal Portrush in July. Though 1997 marks the end of the original three-year commitment to the Ulster venue, I understand that the arrangement will be extended, at least for another year.

Despite the problems which the regular European Tour had with the greens at Collingtree Park in the British Masters last August, the Seniors Tour will be returning to the Northampton stretch next June.

Meanwhile, work is well under way on revisions that will add nearly 200 yards to the overall length of the Old Course at St Andrews. Eighteen months after the British Open triumph by big-hitting. John Daly, it represents an attempt by the Royal and Ancient to restore the original challenge of the course.

"There are holes where players are now hitting wedge second shots instead of six or seven-irons which would be more appropriate to the lay-out," said Royal and Ancient secretary Michael Bonallack yesterday. "It is also intended to bring some of the more notable bunkers back into play."

The changes affect seven holes. There are only marginal differences, however, at the sixth and 13th where tee positions have been altered in the interest of safety and improved crowd control. But the third receives an extra 35 yards; the 10th, 40 yards; the 15th, 40 yards and the 16th, 45 yards.

Jack Nicklaus, who was one of the game's longest hitters at the peak of his powers, always held the view that four of the par fours at St Andrews the ninth, 10th, 12th and 18th were driveable, depending on the wind. "But it's not possible to reach them all on the same day," he said.

It is expected that when the British Open returns to the Old Course in the year 2000, none but the longest of hitters will drive the 10th, whatever the conditions. Bushes have been cut down behind the present tee with the result that the hole will measure 382 yards off a new, back tee.

Indicative of R and A thinking is the new tee position at the 16th. With the lengthened hole measuring 427 yards, it would take a carry of 275 yards to fly the dangerous Principal's Nose bunker, which was effectively out of play from the present tee.

"Whether we like it or not, the top professionals hit the ball so far now that the course is not being played the way it was intended," added Bonallack. "Apart from improvements in the golf ball and club shafts, players have become physically stronger, almost like trained athletes."

He went on: "Rather than talk about altering the course, it would be more correct to say that we are bringing the fairway bunkers back into play. I don't see this as a concession to new equipment, though we are continually looking at the problem. Obviously, we don't want courses to become obsolete."

In 1754, when the society of St Andrews golfers (later to become the R and A) was constituted, the Old Course consisted of 22 holes - 11 out and 11 in. Ten years later, the four holes to the east of the present R and A clubhouse were abandoned and the 18 holes, playing to only nine small greens with nine pins, remained largely unchanged until 1830.

Congestion and confusion, however, led to the placement of two pins in bigger greens, so forming the huge double greens which exist today. Separate teeing grounds were introduced in 1846. Incidentally, late into the 19th century, the left-hand course (first tee to 17th green etc) was the accepted way of playing the 18 holes and until 1890, there were records for both the right-hand and left-hand courses, the latter being held by Willie Auchterlonie with 71.

Since those days, various revisions have added 500 yards to the overall length of the celebrated links. Now it will measure 7, 113 yards off the back tees. But the R and A are at pains to emphasise that there is no attempt at diluting the merit of the course record 62 shot by Curtis Strange during the 1987 Dunhill Cup, or Daly's winning effort in the 1995 Open.

"John was a worthy champion but when he plays St Andrews again, he will have to make sure he keeps the ball straight," said Bonallack. "And anyone returning a 62 in the future will be playing exceptional golf." He concluded: "Depending on the wind conditions, we think 66 or 67 will be a good score."