United States Ambassador to Ireland James C. Kenny

Irish Hotels and golf courses are going to burnish the Rip-off Ireland image big time, during the Ryder Cup, which according to next month's host, the K Club, west of Dublin, "is golf's greatest matchplay contest; it might even be the world's foremost international team event."

It is a common practice in Ireland for hotel, pub and restaurant prices to be increased to take advantage of sporting and music events. Hotel prices during the annual Galway Race Week for example, are usually doubled or trebled. Two years ago, officers from the Office of the Director of Consumer Affairs found that the majority of pubs on the routes to an international rugby match at Lansdowne Road, in South Dublin, had jacked up their prices for the particular weekend.

When Ireland was at the bottom of the European prices league, visitors may not have noticed but as standard prices are among the highest in Europe, it's a different matter.

Bloomberg News says that Dublin's Portmarnock Golf Club, in North Dublin, has a Ryder Cup package -- a round of golf, dinner and commemorative mementoes --  for €750 ($965) a head, compared with the usual €165 for a weekday game at the course. Owners of houses near the K Club, which is hosting the tournament, are seeking rents as high as $100,000.

``Some of the courses are doubling their fees for the Ryder Cup or for the summer, just because it's Ryder Cup year,'' U.S. Ambassador to Ireland James C. Kenny said. ``That isn't real welcoming for Americans who might want to come back.''

US tourists to Ireland have been declining in recent years because Ireland  is an expensive global destination. Visits by North Americans dropped to 953,000 last year, down 8.6 percent from 2000.

The Irish Government is spending  €15.7 million to stage and market the Ryder Cup, including television commercials on CBS Corp. networks and Comcast Corp.'s Golf Channel.

Bloomberg News says that if visitors go home complaining about prices, those efforts will have been wasted, tourism executives said.

``Let's not kill the golden goose,'' said Shaun Quinn, chief executive officer of the tourism authority, Failte Ireland.

Bloomberg News says that residents near the K Club in Straffan, County Kildare, are cashing-in as well. Two-bedroom apartments 8 miles from the course go for €8,000 a week, the rental web site www.daft.ie shows. Visitors are prepared to pay $10,000 to $20,000 a week for five-bedroom houses with concierge services, said Gerry Hughes, a representative for Tourrentals, which lists homes available during the tournament.

A spokesman for the US embassy in Dublin told the Irish Independent yesterday: "The Ambassador is a real fan of Ireland's golf courses and hopes that any visitors will return to Ireland many more times after the Ryder Cup.