Welcome
Welcome to the fourth edition
of Destination Golf Ireland
There’s little doubt that the big news of 2018 was the
re-opening – perhaps ‘re-imagining’ is a better term – of Adare.
The Golf Course at Adare Manor, as it is to be known, has taken
conditioning and maintenance and sheer dedication to new
heights... not just in Ireland, but across Europe. The course is
being lauded for its splendour and its design by Tom Fazio.
It seems almost inevitable that the Ryder Cup will be hosted
here, with a 2026 date already mooted.
Our summer was one of the most remarkable on record and
fairways everywhere burned under a relentless sun that cast
its light non-stop for close to three months. The Irish Open fell
within this spell and the course looked glorious on the millions
of screens where it was broadcast around the world. Ballyliffin
and Co. Donegal will lure golfers for years on the back of the
event won by Russell Knox.
The question is, has the positivity injected by Adare’s
re-opening and Ballyliffin’s success trickled down to the rest of
Ireland’s 400 plus courses? There’s no doubt that investment
has continued around the island and the arrival of Tom Doak to
work on the old St Patrick’s Links (now part of Rosapenna), and
Gil Hanse to usher in a new era at Narin & Portnoo will make
Ireland even more attractive to a US golfing audience…
but what about lower down the pecking order, at the grass
roots end of things?
There may not be such a sense of well-being and several
clubs are struggling to survive but that overwhelming air of
negativity of recent years is being pushed behind us. No doubt
there is some way to go in a country where supply still exceeds
demand and, no doubt, there is a sense of optimism as the
Open Championship returns to this island’s shores for the first
time in 70 years in 2019.
Kevin Markham
Editor
Destination Golf Media Ltd.
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