diff --git a/docs/engine.html b/docs/engine.html
index 8dc07668c..77aaea7d7 100644
--- a/docs/engine.html
+++ b/docs/engine.html
@@ -324,6 +324,10 @@
     <td><span class="code">nospace</span></td>
     <td>Do not pad. For example, <span class="code">method(a, b);</span></td>
   </tr>
+  <tr>
+    <td><span class="code">space</span></td>
+    <td>Ensure padding. For example, <span class="code">method( a, b );</span></td>
+  </tr>
 </table>
 
 
diff --git a/docs/releasenotes.html b/docs/releasenotes.html
index 303340b80..a78fcbee1 100644
--- a/docs/releasenotes.html
+++ b/docs/releasenotes.html
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
           <li class="body">Detect the number of parameters in a declaration exceeding a specified amount (request 582144).</li>
           <li class="body">Inspired by patch 580410 from Shinya Ohnuma, now the error message are localised.</li>
           <li class="body">Support checking to determine if an unused <span class="code">@throws</span> exception is a subclass of <span class="code">java.lang.Error</span> (request 583719).</li>
+          <li class="body">Incorporate patch 566855 from Rob Worth to optionally check that parenthesis are padded with spaces.</li>
           <li class="body">Incorporate patch 590931 from Vijay Aravamudhan to improve documentation of the build.xml file.</li>
           <li class="body">Incorporate patch from Vijay Aravamudhan to enforce requiring @version tag (request 543964).</li>
         </ul>
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PadOption.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PadOption.java
index 2bebbe385..0e4703b97 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PadOption.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/PadOption.java
@@ -39,6 +39,8 @@ public final class PadOption
     public static final PadOption NOSPACE = new PadOption("nospace");
     /** represents ignoring the spacing **/
     public static final PadOption IGNORE = new PadOption("ignore");
+    /** represents mandatory spacing **/
+    public static final PadOption SPACE = new PadOption("space");
 
     /** the string representation of the option **/
     private final String mStrRep;
diff --git a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Verifier.java b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Verifier.java
index d528e2db0..bec87ef1a 100644
--- a/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Verifier.java
+++ b/src/checkstyle/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/Verifier.java
@@ -357,7 +357,7 @@ class Verifier
             {
                 mMessages.add(lineNo, "type.missingTag", "@author");
             }
-            if (mConfig.isRequireVersion() 
+            if (mConfig.isRequireVersion()
                 && (MATCH_JAVADOC_VERSION.grep(jd).length == 0))
             {
                 mMessages.add(lineNo, "type.missingTag", "@version");
@@ -711,9 +711,17 @@ class Verifier
         final String line = mLines[aLineNo - 1];
         final int after = aColNo - 1;
         if (after < line.length()) {
-            if (Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(after))) {
+            if ((PadOption.NOSPACE == mConfig.getParenPadOption())
+                && (Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(after))))
+            {
                 mMessages.add(aLineNo, after, "ws.followed", "(");
             }
+            else if ((PadOption.SPACE == mConfig.getParenPadOption())
+                     && !Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(after))
+                     && (line.charAt(after) != ')'))
+            {
+                mMessages.add(aLineNo, after, "ws.notFollowed", "(");
+            }
         }
     }
 
@@ -733,11 +741,18 @@ class Verifier
         final String line = mLines[aLineNo - 1];
         final int before = aColNo - 3;
         if (before >= 0) {
-            if (Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(before))
+            if ((PadOption.NOSPACE == mConfig.getParenPadOption())
+                && Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(before))
                 && !Utils.whitespaceBefore(before, line))
             {
                 mMessages.add(aLineNo, before, "ws.preceeded", ")");
             }
+            else if ((PadOption.SPACE == mConfig.getParenPadOption())
+                     && !Character.isWhitespace(line.charAt(before))
+                     && (line.charAt(before) != '('))
+            {
+                mMessages.add(aLineNo, before, "ws.notPreceeded", ")");
+            }
         }
     }
 
diff --git a/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckerTest.java b/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckerTest.java
index 5acd26619..f16ec5d4a 100644
--- a/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckerTest.java
+++ b/src/tests/com/puppycrawl/tools/checkstyle/CheckerTest.java
@@ -174,7 +174,7 @@ public class CheckerTest
     {
         mConfig.setBooleanProperty(Defn.IGNORE_CAST_WHITESPACE_PROP, true);
         mConfig.setBooleanProperty(Defn.ALLOW_NO_AUTHOR_PROP, false);
-        mConfig.setParenPadOption(PadOption.IGNORE);
+        mConfig.setParenPadOption(PadOption.SPACE);
         mConfig.setBlockOptionProperty(Defn.TRY_BLOCK_PROP, BlockOption.IGNORE);
         mConfig.setBlockOptionProperty(Defn.CATCH_BLOCK_PROP,
                                        BlockOption.IGNORE);
@@ -195,28 +195,48 @@ public class CheckerTest
             filepath + ":28:12: '+=' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":29:13: '-=' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":29:14: '-' is followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":29:20: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":29:21: '+' is followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":29:22: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":30:14: '++' is preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":30:21: '--' is preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":31:15: '++' is followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":31:22: '--' is followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":37:21: 'synchronized' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":37:22: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":37:25: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":39:12: 'try' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":39:12: '{' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":41:14: 'catch' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":41:15: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":41:32: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":41:34: '{' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":58:11: 'if' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":59:9: '{' should be on the previous line.",
             filepath + ":63:9: '{' should be on the previous line.",
             filepath + ":75:9: '{' should be on the previous line.",
             filepath + ":76:19: 'return' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":76:20: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":76:20: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":79:9: '{' should be on the previous line.",
+            filepath + ":87:21: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":87:26: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":88:14: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":88:19: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":89:14: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":89:19: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":90:14: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":90:19: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":97:22: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":97:27: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":97:29: '?' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":97:30: '?' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":97:34: ':' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":97:35: ':' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":98:14: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":98:15: '==' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":98:17: '==' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":98:17: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":104:20: '*' is not followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":104:21: '*' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":111:22: '!' is followed by whitespace.",
@@ -233,7 +253,11 @@ public class CheckerTest
             filepath + ":129:24: '.' is followed by whitespace.",
             filepath + ":136:10: '.' is preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":136:12: '.' is followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":150:28: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":150:31: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":153:15: 'assert' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":153:16: '(' is not followed by whitespace.",
+            filepath + ":153:19: ')' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":156:20: ':' is not preceeded with whitespace.",
             filepath + ":156:21: ':' is not followed by whitespace.",
         };