It’s 2024 and here at Destination Golf we can look back on a busy 2023 and look forward to more of the same in the year ahead.
Read Destination Golf Ireland 2024 here: https://joom.ag/LVnd
Golf courses were busy with visitors, membership remained strong after the Covid restrictions were lifted and golf clubs and resorts showed their ambition and appreciation of members with considerable upgrade work. This stretched across the four provinces. Last year I said that there were few times in the past 15 years that the outlook has been so promising… well, that applies to 2024, too.
The reimagining of Druids Glen saw the most colourful and vibrant of Ireland’s parklands re-open in June. Six new holes at Portmarnock Links – renamed Jameson Golf Links in honour of the Jameson family – opened shortly afterwards, and the entire re-bunkering programmes at The Royal Dublin, Castlemartyr and Blainroe also came to fruition. All are highly impressive and The Royal Dublin has been lifted to higher heights as a result of Frank Pont’s work.
Then there are the courses and resorts that invest on a constant dripfeed. Monkstown Golf Club, in Co Cork, is now working on a re-bunkering programme over the next two years, while Howth Golf Club, Concra Wood and Luttrellstown Castle – among others – are taking the longer but steady approach to re-bunkering. And then there’s Galgorm Castle which just gets better and better every year thanks to a remarkable – you might say relentless – vision.
The year 2024 will see the Horizon Irish Open at the mighty Royal County Down, the Women’s Irish Open at Carton House, the Women’s Amateur Championship at Portmarnock and the Amateur Championship at Ballyliffin. That is some line-up and it will show off the quality of Ireland’s golf courses to an even wider audience.
Kevin Markham, Ireland Editor
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