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Irish Golf Makes the Cut
By Amanda Diamond
Ireland’s golf clubs are among the most popular in Europe with British golfers
according to a new survey.Lahinch and Ballybunion appeared in the top
20 golf courses favoured by the British in research carried out by the ifyougolf.com
website. Lahinch was in 9th place with Ballybunion 20th in the survey. The
existence of the two courses in Co. Clare and Co. Kerry in the top 20 shows
how popular Irish golf has become in Britain.
Bord Failte’s Manager of Industry Marketing Services Tony Donegan said
the popularity of Irish courses with British golfers had grown dramatically
in the last decade. And Secretary of the Ballybunion club Jim McKenna said:
“We are delighted to be voted in the Top 20 but I have to say that it doesn’t
surprise me.
“Our course is ranked number 12 in the whole world. We are a very sought-after
club.” But British golfers have not been in large supply until recently.
Mr McKenna said: “We have between 24 and 26 thousand visitors per year,
with over 50 per cent of them Americans.
“Up until this year only a small percentage were British but this year
there seems to be a lot more British visitors.” Mr McKenna would like to
see the number of British golfers visiting the club increase. He said: “It’s
very important that we get visitors from around the world. We don’t want
to put all our eggs into one basket.
“It’s great for us that there are more golfers coming from the UK. Let’s
hope it continues.” There are 394 golfing clubs affiliated to the Golfing
Union of Ireland and Club Membership has grown by almost 120,000 in the
past decade.
Golf has become Ireland’s single biggest sporting holiday attraction,
contributing over £130 million to the Irish economy.
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