{"id":220627,"date":"2025-10-17T16:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220627\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T16:31:08","slug":"one-of-irelands-most-iconic-golf-courses-closes-until-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/220627\/","title":{"rendered":"One of Ireland’s most iconic golf courses closes until 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tIt\u2019s one of Ireland\u2019s most famed links which is loved by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, but you won\u2019t be able to play it next year\u2026<\/p>\n

Tiger Woods holds the course record there, and Rory McIlroy describes it as \u201cprobably the best links course I have ever played\u201d, but The European Club<\/a> will close its doors for the entirety of 2026 for redevelopment.<\/p>\n

The club, which is situated around 50 miles south of Dublin in County Wicklow on Ireland\u2019s east coast, was founded by renowned course designer Pat Ruddy in 1987 before he sold it<\/a> to Raymond and Nicky Conlan for a deal worth around $40 million earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Now the father and son duo, who made their fortunes in motor dealership, will oversee \u201csignificant investment to create a new and different golfing offering\u201d that will include \u201ca major redevelopment of the grounds and facilities\u201d in a bid to \u201cstand alongside the very best destinations internationally\u201d.<\/p>\n

A letter from the new owners to the club\u2019s membership, which was published by the Irish Mirror<\/a>, said that current operations will cease from December 8.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would expect to open the new golf club in late spring 2027,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a future stage, current members will be given the opportunity to join the new offering.<\/p>\n

The European Club \u2013 which ranked in TG\u2019s Top 100 Golf Courses in the World<\/a> \u2013 has previously hosted the Irish Amateur Championship in 2006, won by McIlroy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is probably the best links course I have ever played,\u201d the now five-time major champion said at the time. \u201cAnd I include Royal St. George\u2019s, Royal Portush, and Royal County Down in that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just the definition to it with the sleepers in the bunkers. It is totally unbelievable. I love courses where you really have to think your way around. It gets me focussed much more.\u201d<\/p>\n

After shooting a course-record, Woods described Ruddy\u2019s layout as \u201ca great links\u201d, adding: \u201cWhat wonderful optical illusions. I thought some of those par-4s were par-5s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Padraig Harrington also has fond memories of The European, which hosted the Irish PGA Championship three years in a row from 2007, all of which were won by the two-time Open champion. Both his Claret Jug titles came in the week after his homeland win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no question that there were shots at The Open that I was better at because I had played links golf at The European Club the week before,\u201d Harrington said.<\/p>\n

Upon completing the purchase of the club in May, Conlan Jr said the aim was \u201cto build a world-class golfing facility that the people of Wicklow and Ireland can be proud of\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWith that, we would want to attract golfers from all over the world to earmark The European Club as a bucket list golf destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of work to do to get there. The ancillary stuff \u2013 the clubhouse and the golfer experience \u2013 that\u2019s something we see huge growth potential in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we are at the moment is we\u2019re analysing every part of the golfing experience \u2013 from the moment people drive through the gate until the moment they leave. If there is any way we can improve any aspect of that, that is our intention.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s one of Ireland\u2019s most famed links which is loved by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, but you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-220627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}