Britain & Ireland

Ireland

Limerick

Adare Manor is set in more than 800 acres of beautiful parkland and formal gardens. The 18th century manor house, located alongside the River Maigue, is an architectural masterpiece of towers and turrets. It was once the ancestral home of the Earls of Dunraven. Now it’s an opulent, luxury hotel.

Adare’s original course opened for play in 1995 and was designed by Robert Trent Jones Snr. It was a typical Trent Jones design, stretching out a massive 7,453 yards from back tees to a more modest 5,082 yards from the forward tees. The course displayed all Trent Jones’s hallmarks - cloverleaf bunkers, American-styled mounding, and lots of water. The result was extremely challenging, pleasant but rather predictable despite plenty of natural features and hazards, including the stately trees and the River Maigue, which meanders nonchalantly through the course.

The course has hosted a number of important national tournaments, including the Irish Seniors Open, held here for three consecutive years starting in 2002. The 2003 Irish PGA Championship was also staged at Adare in 2003, when Paul McGinley emerged victorious. Two editions of the Irish Open were also contested in 2007 and 2008, with Pádraig Harrington and Richard Finch winning these events.

The Irish Open put the dashing and stylish Adare Manor firmly on the map and as a consequence the event cemented Adare's position as one of the best inland tracks in Ireland. But the course began to drop down the golf course rankings becoming just another pleasant, but tough, resort course.

In 2015, Irish businessman and racehorse owner J. P. McManus bought Adare Manor for an estimated €30 million and immediately embarked on a redevelopment programme. It was reported that the businessman purchased the property with a view to returning the Irish Open to Adare and with a long-term view of bringing the Ryder Cup back to Ireland in 2026.

Golf course reconstruction started in March 2016 under Tom Fazio’s guidance, the architect commented as follows: "Most golfers will never have seen anything like this course. It looks and plays like no other course in Ireland. This will be a stand out course in Europe and, with the Adare Manor house and estate as its setting, will be one of the finest stay and play venues ever created – everyone is going to want to see this place.”

The brand new golf facility reopened in Spring 2018 with SubAir systems installed for the first time in Ireland. The golfing bar, condition-wise, has been stratospherically elevated and the course significantly altered by Fazio Design.

The site was capped with more than 200,000 tonnes of sand, 50 miles of drainage pipes were installed and fibre optic conduit buried around every hole for future television requirements. All told, there’s now 135 acres of maintained grass on the property. The course routing remains intact but the fairways have been regraded to improve playing surfaces and promote firm and fast playing conditions.

Overgrown areas have been cleared, with non-native species removed, allowing light and air to enhance the quality of the greens and fairways, as well as opening out views across the estate. Green sites have also been raised and there are now only 42 bunkers in play throughout the course. Great credit is due to Atlantic Golf Construction for transforming the old course into the pristine layout now in operation.

It’s too early to tell whether or not the makeover will propel Adare Manor back up the golf course rankings. Some golfers will love the opulence, service and immaculate grooming. Other golfers will choose to head to the coast to savour Ireland’s classic and modern links courses. We’ll just have to wait and see whether or not the extraordinary investment in Ireland’s heartland pays off.

Adare Manor to host 2026 Ryder Cup was the July 2019 announcement, but the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the 2020 event at Whistling Straits to be delayed by a year. Consequently Adare Manor will now host the event in 2027.

Adare Manor

Following J. P. McManus’s acquisition of Adare Manor in 2015, the old RTJ-designed parkland course has gone, replaced by a new Tom Fazio layout which opened in May 2018.

When Castletroy Golf Club was established in 1937, green fields surrounded their course to the west of Limerick, near the village of Monaleen. Unfortunately, the course is now hemmed in by modern housing development – the price to be paid for increased prosperity in the city over the last seventy years.

Castletroy is a pleasant, though testing, parkland course that was radically updated in 2005 by architect Eddie Connaughton. His company installed USGA-specification greens and tees as well as adding new water features and fairway bunkers.

There are a number of fine holes on the back nine, in particular. The 391-yard par four 10th, a tight driving hole that sweeps right, followed by a par three where the tee shot has to carry a wide stream in front of the green. Another fine pair of holes is the short par four 13th (which doglegs severely right to a heavily contoured green) and the 187-yard 14th, which features marvellous panoramic views of the course from an elevated tee position.

Castletroy

Castletroy is a pleasant, though testing, parkland course that was radically updated in 2005 by architect Eddie Connaughton.

Limerick County was constructed in 1993 on part of the Croker Estate, just outside Limerick. It is a 6,463-yard, champion-standard, parkland course, designed by Des Smyth, with sand-based greens built to USGA specification. Albert Reynolds, the then Irish Taoiseach, opened the course in 1994.

Apart from a large, modern, circular-shaped clubhouse, there are some wonderful practice facilities including a twenty bay driving range, six grass tees and a large putting green.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the club, Declan Brannigan was invited to improve the course layout with the redesign of five holes and the construction of six new tees.

The course is routed over undulating terrain in two loops of nine holes. There are three par fives, three par threes – all over 170 yards – and half the remaining holes are long par fours in excess of four hundred yards in length. Water features at six of the holes on the back nine, making for a very interesting, stiff challenge on the inward half.

Unfortunately, the once proud Limerick County Golf and Country Club members saw their facility go into liquidation in 2011. The club, part owned by the chairman of the Shannon Airport Authority, had run up debts of over €2.5m. In 2010, the golf club lost its affiliation with the Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI) because of unpaid subscriptions.

In September 2013 Limerick County Golf and Country Club, after being neglected for more than two years, rose like a phoenix from the ashes as Ballyneety Golf Club. It will take some time for the course to fully return to its former glory, but early signs are encouraging. Congratulations and good luck to Ballyneety Golf Club. In the words of the club captains, “may the wind be always at your back”.

Ballyneety

In September 2013 Limerick County Golf and Country Club, after being neglected for more than two years, rose like a phoenix from the ashes as Ballyneety Golf Club.

Limerick is one of half a dozen counties that make up the province of Munster in south west Ireland and its main city of Limerick is situated on the River Shannon. To the east of the county lies the “Golden Vale,” an area of fertile land that provides a substantial amount of Ireland’s dairy produce.

The book “Golfing Union of Ireland 1891-1991” lists Limerick as one of the 28 “greens” or golf courses, that were in play during the year that the Union was formed. Most likely, the establishment of Limerick Golf Club was as a result of the Blackwatch Regiment arriving in the city around that time.

The county is not exactly bursting at the seams with golf courses, however. In fact, they’re in pretty short supply as there are only seven County Limerick clubs affiliated to the Munster Branch of the GUI. The number one course is undoubtedly 

, which only opened in 1995, and this Robert Trent Jones-designed course quickly forced its way into the national Top 100 ranking list.
