Ardee

Ardee Golf Club was founded in 1911 on a site to the southeast of Ardee but by 1919 the club had moved across town to its present location at Townparks. A 9-hole course was in operation until 1985, when additional land was acquired, allowing Eddie Hackett to expand the layout to eighteen holes.

More land became available in the early 1990s, enabling Declan Branigan to install five new holes, then Ken Kearney was engaged at the start of the new millennium to draw up a long- term Course Improvement Plan for the club, with work to be carried out on a phased basis.

“It is a course that does everything well without quite taking your breath away,” writes Kevin Markham in the book Hooked: an amateur’s guide to the golf courses of Ireland. The author continues: “Ardee looks like a flat, open, parkland course from the 1st tee. This is not the case.

There are great rolls to some fairways which make for entertaining driving, even hiding greens on the 14th to 16th. Elsewhere, the mature tree-lined fairways lead you beautifully into the greens, and provide several glorious tee box settings. A wide water-filled ditch also slides across four holes,”

The Ardee layout extends to just under 6,000 metres from the back markers, playing to a par of 71, with holes laid out as two returning nines. There are only two par fives on the card (at the 440-metre 4th and 490-metre 14th) and three par threes (at holes 2, 9 and 13).