Like so many other golf clubs, the years following the recession were tough on Kilcock Golf Club. Situated on the Meath side of the Kildare border with powerhouses such as Carton House and the K Club nearby, finances were tight and membership numbers dropped significantly, but those troubles look increasingly like a thing of the past as the fortunes have been reversed and the club is once again thriving, ever improving and carving out its own niche market within the heavily populated golfing landscape of Dublin’s commuter belt.
The course itself started life as a nine-hole layout back in 1984, and in 1990, adjacent land was purchased and renowned designer Eddie Hackett enlisted to turn it into the 18-hole, par-72 layout it is today. An aesthetically pleasing parkland course, both mature and developing trees are in abundance and frame each hole and water hazards, both big and small, come into play on eight of the 18 holes. At a shade under 6,400 yards, it’s not particularly long but calls for accuracy instead, and is a very easy course to walk with mild undulations rather than heavy hills a constant throughout.
Back in 2020, the club teamed up with Synergy Golf with a view to improving the offerings both on and off the course over a seven-year period. And the transformation has been staggering, so much so that last year they had to close off membership having reached the 800 mark – a dramatic turnaround for a club that had been bleeding members for the best part of a decade.
“The club has been running at a profit for the last four years now,” says club manager Greg Massey. “Year on year, the course has improved and we’ve been trying to invest in the facilities both on the course and in the clubhouse. Last summer we started developing a new practice area – a state of the art short game area – and that’s ready now to open in the spring. We plan to do all the greenside bunkers next Autumn as well, so investment in the course and the clubhouse has been key.”
Being willing to invest money with a view to improvement is all well and good, but you need the expertise to ensure that the money is being well spent and the a new head greenkeeper, Tomás Rowley, formerly of Moyvalley, arrived in May of last year.
“He’s made a big difference,” Massey explained, “and we’ve expanded the team in the pro shop as well. There was only a very small team before, and we built on that when we started here first and now, we’ve got four guys working there.”
Older visitors may remember the pro shop as a wooden cabin, sitting separate to the clubhouse, but that’s also changed and is now part of the generous clubhouse.
“We refurbished the bar and moved the pro shop inside the clubhouse in late 2019,” Massey recalls, “and then during COVID we redid the restaurant as well and we’ve recently finished refurbishing the toilets and locker rooms, so investment in the clubhouse has been a big part of it.
There was never really much integration with the members in the old pro shop. They’d come to check in and then they were gone, and you wouldn’t see them again until the next day. Bringing the pro shop over just added to the atmosphere in the clubhouse, you’re always in contact with the members and it’s much improved.”
The months following COVID lockdown saw a gradual increase in membership, again, like most other clubs experienced, but the club that players were joining was now vastly different to the one that many had left in the years prior, with the course in better condition, the facilities fine-tuned and the sense that, once again, this was a club on the rise.
“Once people got in and saw the improvements in the place – there were some people who’d played here before and left, then came back – but year on year, we’ve been getting much bigger numbers of new members and we’ve increased the numbers by 100 to 150 each of the years following and it’s now stabilised at the 800 mark.”
The restaurant itself is outside catered and managed by Staggerbush Bistro, run by Fran Hurley, brother of the legendary Brian ‘Red’ Hurley of Eurovision fame. But golfers alone are a limited market and golf club restaurants tend to be very seasonal by nature, so attracting in outside business is a key factor for Kilcock.
“It’s open to the public all the time,” Massey said. “We have a lot of events and parties here so it’s not solely reliant on golfers and members.”
With golf once again booming in Ireland, there is ever increasing need for practice facilities at a club, which are multi-purposed for those looking to get in some short-time game tuning as well as for pre-round warm-up purposes and the new short-game area at Kilcock has been designed to the highest specifications.
“It’s a USGA spec pitching green and practice area,” Massey explains. “DAR Golf came in and built the green off Ronan Branigan’s design and that should be open in the spring. It’s still in the growing period but it’s almost there, and we’ve added new practice nets as well as extending the car park to allow for the higher volume of traffic we’re seeing.”
This year marks the 40th anniversary of the club’s foundation and it’s come a long way from the club which was originally formed by Gerry and Marie Canning and privately operated for the first 15 years and the club are planning a series of events to both celebrate the anniversary and showcase the improvements to the wider public.
“We’re hoping to do a 40th anniversary Pro-Am in July as the primary celebration and we’ll be running an open week as well as a celebration for the club,” Massey said, “so all will be welcome.”
So whether you’re somebody who’s familiar with the past iteration of Kilcock Golf Club but haven’t seen it in a long time, or you’re a first-timer who hasn’t yet enjoyed the experience, now is the time to familiarize yourself.
You won’t be disappointed.
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