K Club boss Dr Michael Smurfit is preparing to combat an army of fancy dress imposters at the 2006 Ryder Cup.

The multi-millionaire industry mogul reckons that Irish golf fans will try anything to get inside the grounds of the Strafffan estate.

He said: "When the Ryder Cup arrives people are going to be hang-gliding to get in here. They are going to be swimming up the Liffey to get in here.

"They will come dressed as nurses, doctors, Garda Siochana and there will be all sorts of tricks. The Irish are great for all sorts of devilment and we love them for it but there is going to be very strict security - there is going to have to be."

Keeping the interlopers away is going to be twice as difficult now that the K Club boasts two major courses covering over 540 acres - the North and the South.

And while the K Club is contracted to hosting the 2006 extravaganza on the North Course - the traditional home of the European Open - a switch to the new ¤12 million South Course has not being ruled out.

A wild and windswept Arnold Palmer design with huge bunkers, 18 acres of water and vicious links-style rough, Dr Smurfit is not ruling out a move to the South Course for the 2006 showpiece.

The course officially opened for the first time yesterday with a charity pro-am in aid of the Special Olympics.

And it gave the likes of Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell a chance to sample the 600 yard feature hole - Swallow Quarry - which features a man-made rock face that covers the entire right side of the hole.

That hole alone cost ¤2.2 million alone - more than your average new course - and it's not surprising.

Towering 60 feet over a water-filled artificial quarry,the rock face was built buy the American company that built the castle at EuroDisney and specialises in creating incredible sets for Hollywood movies and luxuryt water feratures for the homes of oil millionaires in the Gulf.

Their Irish creation is the brainchild of Smurfit himself and is the obvious attraction of a course that appears ready-made for matchplay combat.

Smurfit explained: "The creation of a number of golf courses in America ­ Shadow Creek in Las Vegas, Sherwood Country Club, Bighorn in California - they all have these tremendous natural and artificial features, or a combination of both.

"When you are designing a course like this, you are always looking for something special. It struck me that that area to the right of the seventh would be great for a quarry.

"So we called these rock specialists from California who created some homes for me over the years with waterfalls and stuff like that and the result is excellent."

Smurfit has treated the South Course as a pet project and he's not to keen to allow 50,000 Ryder Cup fans to trample his new course to pieces.

He said: "When you play a serious golf competition on a links you get some damage to the gras and if you have 50,000 or 60,000 people on a new course like this it could destroy it.

"I don't know if this course is designed to handle that quantity of people. We'll know a lot more next year when we have the European Open on it and we see how many it can handle.

"We know that the other course could handle up to 80,000 spectators. It's built on 320 acres and this is built on 220, so there is a big difference on space and the ability to move things around."

Having spent so many years getting the North Course up to scratch, Smurfit European Open is naturally reluctant to opt for a move to his new course.

He explained: "Our contract for the Ryder Cup is with the North Course and it's playing extremely well. The greens, which were a concern are now of world championship standard."

But although he has his doubts about a swap, Smurft hasn't it ruled out just yet.

"All options are still open. But for nearly a million a hole, we are not going to allow ti to get wrecked."

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© Brian Keogh 2003

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