International Pro-Am Series 2011

Overview of Holes 13, 14 and 15 in the Valley

Sunday Sep. 4th 

Arrive Dublin Airport 

Driver/Meet & Greet will be in arrivals area 

Travel to Portsalon, Co. Donegal 

Play Portsalon Golf Club (Practice Round) 

Portsalon offers golfers an opportunity to play golf on an original golf links design. Unspoiled, uncrowded, natural links land, surrounded by the spectacular Knockalla mountains and white sanded beaches on the shores of Lough Swilly, visitors are treated to a classic links golfing experience that will flood their sense and bring them back for more and more golfing holidays to this wonderful part of Ireland. 

Welcome Dinner at Rosapenna Hotel & Golf Resort 

Overnight Rosapenna Hotel & Golf Resort/Radisson Blu Resort, Letterkenny 

Monday Sep. 5th 

Enjoy a Traditional Irish Breakfast at your hotel. 

Travel to Narin & Portnoo 

International Pro-Am begins. 

Play Narin & Portnoo Golf Club 

Narin and Portnoo Golf Club is situated in a beautiful seaside resort in southwest Donegal. Opened in 1930, it is engagingly old fashioned with a meandering routing over and around the dunes. All manner of shots are required here: draws around sharp dog-legs; crisp irons to par threes over cavernous terrain; accurate tee shots down snake-like fairways, some wide and some not so generous; low trajectory shots into the Atlantic breezes. 

Overnight Rosapenna Hotel & Golf Resort/Radisson Blu Resort, Letterkenny 

Tuesday Sep. 6th 

Enjoy a Traditional Irish Breakfast at your hotel. 

Play Rosapenna Golf Links (Sandy Hills) 

Sandy Hills is in many ways the ideal of a modern links. Intended for the serious golfer, its narrow fairways appear constricting from the tee, but the landing areas sculpted from the dunes are deceptively wide. Measuring a hefty 7,255 yards from the tips, Sandy Hills was designed with championship play in mind. However don’t allow this to deter you, with a multiplicity of tees there is a length to suit all strengths. 

Travel to Ballyliffin 

Overnight Ballyliffin Lodge & Spa/Ballyliffin Hotel/Strand Hotel 

Wednesday Sep. 7th 

Enjoy a Traditional Irish Breakfast at your hotel. 

Travel to Portrush 

Play Royal Portrush Golf Club (Dunluce) 

Many golfers have portrayed Royal Portrush Golf Club Dunluce Links as one of the most challenging in the golf course world. The golf club was founded in 1888 and has hosted many championships, such as the first Open Championship ever held in Ireland in 1951. In more recent times, Royal Portrush has hosted the Senior British Open 1995-1999 and The Amateur Championship in 1993. 

Overnight Ballyliffin Lodge & Spa/Ballyliffin Hotel/Strand Hotel 

Thursday Sep. 8th 

Enjoy a Traditional Irish Breakfast at your hotel 

Travel to Portstewart 

Play Portstewart Golf Club (Strand) 

Founded in 1894 Portstewart Golf Club was always a haven for the golfing purist. However, the reputation of the Strand Course was further enhanced by the building of new holes in the dunes between the Atlantic Ocean and the River Bann in the late eighties. Now the Strand course is a must for those embarking on golf travel in Ireland. Portstewart hosted the Irish Amateur Close Championship in 1992 and it is often quoted that Portstewart has the best opening hole in all of Golf – we will let you decide for yourself! 

Overnight Ballyliffin Lodge & Spa/Ballyliffin Hotel/Strand Hotel 

Friday Sep. 9th 

Enjoy a Traditional Irish Breakfast at your hotel 

Play Ballyliffin Golf Club (Glashedy) 

Ireland’s most northerly golf complex is situated on the Inishowen Peninsula in North Donegal, just 25 miles from Derry City. The 36-hole complex at Ballyliffin is ranked amongst the very finest Links tracks in the world. The Old Links recently played host to the European Seniors Tour with the successful staging of The Irish Seniors Open in June 2008. The Glashedy Links at 7217 yards is unsurpassed as a challenge to every aspect of the golf game and has hosted the Ladies Irish Open in September 1998 and the European Tour Event –The North West of Ireland Open in August 2002. Both links are consistently ranked amongst the top courses in Ireland and Britain making Ballyliffin a premier venue for true championship golf in Ireland. 

Prize Giving Ceremony & Farewell Dinner at Ballyliffin Golf Club 

Overnight Ballyliffin Lodge & Spa/Ballyliffin Hotel/Strand Hotel 

Saturday Sep. 10th 

Enjoy a Traditional Irish Breakfast at your hotel 

Depart for Dublin Airport 

€1795 per person sharing 

Single Supplement - €300 

Deposit of €300 per person secures Team Entry 

Balance Due by 30th June 2011 

Itinerary includes 

6 Rounds of Championship Links Golf 

$10,000 Prize fund for Pros & $5,000 Prize fund for Amateurs 

6 Nights 4 Star Hotel Accommodation 

Full Irish Breakfast each morning 

Welcome Pack at each golf club (Drink, Bar of Chocolate, Strokesaver, Ball Marker) 

Welcome Dinner & Farewell Dinner 

All Ground Transfers by Luxury Coach 

PGA Ireland Administration Staff on hand for duration of Pro Am 

North & West Coast Links representatives on hand for duration of Pro Am 

North & West Coast Links, 9 An Fuaran, Moycullen, Co. Galway, Ireland 

Further information: www.northandwestcoastlinks.com 

 (T) +353 (0) 91 868642 

(e) wclgolf@iol.ie

HSBC Awards - Waterville GC

Hole 3: Sanctuary – Par 4, 417 Yards

Waterville is part of a special Links fraternity in a region where the game has its roots and the course rating process is rigorous and often debated. The rating season has just begun as Golf World (U.K.) announced their 2010 – 2011 “Top 100 in Britain and Ireland”. They have published their findings for the past 28 years, and along with Golf Monthly (U.K.), produce the definitive list of who’s hot and who’s not.


Ireland has twenty courses on the list. and Waterville is ranked third on an All-Ireland Basis behind Royal County Down and Royal Portrush.

Waterville is number one in the Republic, two ahead of Ballybunion.

Our overall Britain and Ireland ranking has improved one notch to twelve replacing Kingsbarns position.

Waterville is now one of the “12 Apostles “and if you delete the three parkland apostles, we move closer to the center of the table.

Among the remaining top nine Links, who’s got the momentum? Two are down, four are unchanged and only three are up (Waterville, Royal Birkdale and Muirfield),

Are we destined to stall out with six prestigious Open courses smothering our advance? For sure it’s been a great run from 49th in ‘88, 21 in ’96 and now 12 in 2010. But is there another “Fazio” hare to be pulled out of the hat?

Our next surge of momentum may well be found in the R & A’s recent initiative to encourage Links to improve the quality of all playing surfaces.

Last month Nick Park, Chairman, Golf Course Committee, posted a news article on the Course Management page of the Royal and Ancient web site in which the article tells the remarkable story of Waterville’s success in transforming our old Poa Greens to fescue dominated surfaces and singles out our course Superintendant, Mike Murphy for his initiative and professionalism.

NEW....The Irish Golf Club Gazette

Ted Higgins [Photo INPHO]

A new information service for Irish golf clubs has been launched that provides a single outlet for clubs, societies and governing bodies to share their news and event information. 

The objective of The Irish Golf Club Gazette is to provide a single channel for all golf club information – including the men’s, women’s and junior clubs – so that all activities are communicated inside and outside the club, an invaluable resource for those that do not have access to a Blog, Facebook page or Twitter account. 

“Given the increased importance of social media and internet based communication at all levels in our life we believe this initiative is supportive of the needs of golf clubs at this time,” explained Ted Higgins, former Head Professional and Assistant Director of Golf at Mount Juliet. 

“The service has grown out of our experience with FORE Ireland and the response by golf clubs to share their news updates,” continued Higgins “We see The Irish Golf Club Gazette as a more focused product for golf clubs – who, it has to be said - are facing challenges in maintaining memberships at this time.” 

The most recent nationwide research conducted by Farrell Grant Sparks indicated that course maintenance (40 per cent) was the largest cost factor for clubs with a significant amount of debt, especially with the newer clubs who would have made large capital investments in the last 10-15 years. 

The report also found a clear need for strategic planning, and suggested that many clubs require help in addressing strategic issues but fewer than two in every three clubs had a strategic plan in place for 2010. Of those that did, 64 per cent saw their membership numbers increase despite the general trend. 

“An additional challenge highlighted in the survey was that only a limited number of golf clubs have a dedicated sales and marketing professional managing their needs and with the current focus on reducing costs, this is likely to decrease.” said Higgins. 

The Irish industry has the capacity to support over 23 million rounds of golf in a given year; however, the analysis shows that, at most, 14.7 million rounds were played in 2009, which indicates a level of under-utilisation over 30 per cent. 

“The initial focus of The Irish Golf Club Gazette is to improve communications within the golf sector and offer outlets for all the information currently available by using our three dedicated websites, with PR support where needed, along with visibility on Facebook and on Twitter.” concluded Higgins. 

The Irish Golf Club Gazette will be a subscription service with differing levels of service available to tailor to the specific needs. 

For further information: 

Contact: Ted Higgins 

Email: info@foreireland.com or irishgolfclubgazette@gmail.com

Web: www.irishgolfclubgazette.blogspot.com

Facebook: FOREIreland 

Twitter @irishgolfclubs 

Club Secretaries - Remember .....

The ILGU website displays a lot of information about your club, but it is you who controls this information!

Details of all affiliated clubs can be viewed on www.ilgu.ie through the ‘CLUB SEARCH' section 

of the website. It is important that you keep this information up-to-date.

You can update your club information in relation to: Club Officers, Team Captains and Open Fixtures through GolfNet.

UPDATING CLUB OFFICERS 

Clubs are responsible for updating their Club Officers details on GolfNet as follows: 

1) Click http://www.golfnet.ie/ and sign-in using ladies login number and password (available from ILGU Office if unknown) 

2) Click “Admin” 

3) Click “Club Details” 

4) Update details on screen scrolling through pages by Clicking “Next”

Note: No personal details (Telephone/mobile numbers, home/email addresses etc.) will be shown on the ILGU website (http://www.ilgu.ie/ see ‘Club Search' ). These details are for ILGU Office use only. 

UPDATING CLUB OPEN FIXTURES

Clubs may add their Open fixtures on the ILGU Website as follows: 

1) Click http://www.golfnet.ie/ and sign-in using ladies login number and password (available from ILGU Office if unknown)

2) Click on OPEN FIXTURES at bottom of page

Note: Club opens will only appear on the ILGU website, through the search facility, when updated by clubs as above.

DOWNLOADABLE SPREADSHEET 

To include your club opens on the downloadable spreadsheet (sub menu under Open Fixtures on ILGU website) please send a full list of your opens, the date Timesheet opens and contact number to bernie@ilgu.ie. This spreadsheet will be maintained throughout the year.

The Great Irish Links Challenge

Ballybunion, Doonbeg and Lahinch were all recently voted to be in the World's Top 100 Golf Courses as chosen by Golf World earlier this year. The three courses have now joined forces in a promotion designed to offer golfers the opportunity to play three of the world's top 100 courses over the course of three remarkable days. 

The event "The Great Irish Links Challenge" will take place from Sunday 22 May, 2011 to Wednesday, 25 May, 2011 with golfers alternating between the three courses on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The event opens on the Sunday at Doonbeg with a welcome reception and closes at the same venue with an awards dinner on the Wednesday. 

The event is being sponsored by Taylormade in conjunction with Shannon Development. Promotion of the event which is looking to attract some 600 golfers will begin shortly. Full details can be found on the special website www.greatirishlinkschallenge.com or by phoning +353 65 9055602 . 

Speaking about the event Doonbeg general manager, Joe Russell, said that the idea had been triggered off by the Golf World survey. "We were all delighted to see nine Irish links courses feature. Obviously with the three of us being so close together there is an excellent opportunity to create a promotion such as this." 

Vari McGreevey, General Manager of Ballybunion, said that she believed the promotion could be a major success. "While overseas golfers may not be here in the abundance in which they once were there is still a real desire to play Irish links courses. This initiative affords them the opportunity to play three of the best in a memorable way." 

Club Captain Eugene Gilligan, said that he believed that "The Great Irish Links Challenge" had the potential to become an annual event. "There is no doubt the Golf World survey has already been beneficial to all three courses. Our initiative will provide a real focus on the opportunity available. I think it will appeal to golfers in many countries. Where else could you get the opportunity to play three of the world's greatest courses without putting in a great deal more travelling".

Eventful year for Mitchelstown GC

Eventful year for Mitchelstown | Irish Examiner

Glen of the Downs Membership

Glen of The Downs is now accepting applications for Full Membership and both 5 Day and 7 Day Associate Membership.

The annual subscriptions for 2011 were announced at the company’s annual general meeting in August and will remain exactly the same as 2010.

At the AGM, a proposal was presented to the Board of Directors that we should encourage our existing members to assist in promoting Glen of the Downs Golf Club as a wonderful club to join.

At our Joint Club Committee meeting held in September it was unanimously agreed we would introduce an incentive scheme for existing members that introduce NEW members to the club.

This incentive scheme offers any existing member who introduces a new member to the club a gratuity payment. This payment is based on 10% of the Nett amount before VAT of the applicable annual subscription and will be credited to your club smart card for spending within the clubhouse.

Incentive Scheme Payments:

5 Day Membership = €100

7 Day & Full Membership = €150

Terms & Conditions:

1. Every new applicant to join Glen of the Downs Golf Club plc must complete the requisite ‘Membership Proposal Application Form’ to commence the process of acceptance to the club. This will be for Full Share Membership, 5 Day or 7 Day Associate Membership.

2. There is a section at the bottom of this application form to be completed and signed by the existing member.

3. Only fully completed application forms from both the applicant and the existing member will qualify for the incentive scheme.

4. If the application form is received by the company and the member’s section is left blank the company will accept the application as having come directly from the applicant alone and no incentive scheme payment will be made.

5. Only one incentive payment will be made by the company for each successful applicant joining Glen of the Downs Golf Club. If there are two or more existing members claiming the introduction of an applicant, only the member’s name on the application form will receive the payment.

6. The incentive payment to members equates to 10% of the Nett amount of the relevant annual subscription before VAT. This payment is based on the annual subscription applicable to the category of membership being sought, i.e. The annual subscription for a 5 day member is €1,000, so the incentive payment will be €100. For 7 Day & Full Membership where the Nett amount before VAT annual subscription is €1,500, the incentive payment will be €150.

7. There is no limit to the number of incentive payments a member can earn, i.e. should an existing member successfully introduce four 5 day members, the incentive payment would be €400.

8. All incentive payments will be credited to the existing Member’s Smart Card. This credit can be used for Food & Drink in the Bar & Restaurant or Green Fees & Golf Merchandise in the Golf Shop.

9. The incentive payment will only become payable as and when the applicant has been accepted and both the applicant and the existing member have paid their annual subscriptions for 2011.

10. Any member listed as a member of Glen of the Downs Golf Club in 2010 cannot qualify as an applicant for 2011. This includes all current Associate Members.

11. Incentive payments will only be credited to the Member’s Smart Card. No part of the incentive payment can be used towards annual subscriptions.

Application forms are available from the golf shop or by emailing

Contact: derekmurphy@glenofthedowns.com.

2011 - 2 Night Ultimate Golf Experience

Enjoy a Two Night Break, to include Two nights accommodation in a Superior Room, Full Irish Breakfast, a round of Golf on The Palmer Ryder Cup Course, a round of Golf on The Smurfit European Open Course . Full access to our extensive K Health & Fitness Facilities, including the swimming pool, gymnasium, sauna, steam room and outdoor hot tub.

One Night Ultimate Golf Experience 2011

January to March 2011 - One Night Stay, to include one night accommodation in a Superior Room, full Irish breakfast, a round of Golf on The Palmer Ryder Cup Course, a round of Golf on The Smurfit European Open Course . Full access to our extensive K Health & Fitness Facilities, including the swimming pool, gymnasium, sauna, steam room and outdoor hot tub

Contact: resortsales@kclub.ie