Killeen: As good a test of inland golf as you will find
Members of the green-keeping staff at Killarney Golf and Fishing Club Credit: PICTURE: MICHELLE COOPER GALVIN
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MUCH has been written over the years about the venue for this week's Irish Open championship and although I am a firm believer that the Irish Open should be played on a links course, I am nonetheless delighted to see the championship visit Killarney for the third time and I have no doubts that the magnificent Killeen course will offer the world's greatest players the best possible challenge of any inland course in this country.
The championship layout at Killarney is right up there with the likes of the K-Club, Adare Manor, Mount Juliet and Druid's Glen, all of which have successfully hosted major professional golf events in the past decade and whoever holds the winner's trophy aloft on next Sunday evening ,will have to have played four magnificent rounds of golf to earn the title on a course where good shot-making is rewarded but erratic play can be severely punished.
The members of the Killarney club can be justifiably proud of the course where construction began in March of 1969 but due to various problems including weather conditions, was not completed and opened for play until early in 1972.
The original Killarney course was divided up into two parts and several new holes were added to each to make the 36-hole layout that we know today as Killeen and Mahony's Point.
The whole project cost something in the region of £80,000 which was quite reasonable compared to similar projects in Ireland at that time which cost in the region of £250,000.
Killarney in those days was attracting in the region of 13,000 green fee rounds per annum and the suggestion to build the second course came from Bord Failte who owned a controlling interest in the club at the time having purchased the shareholding from Mrs Beatrice Grosvenor.
In what was considered to be their biggest ever land purchase, the Tourist Board purchased 125 acres of the Kenmare estate and the result was two magnificent courses instead of one and the capacity to cater for far larger numbers of golfers.
Having hosted a number of major events including the European Amateur team Championships in 1975, the Irish Open in 1991 and 1992, the 1996 Curtis Cup and a European Challenge Tour event in 2005, the folks at Killarney decided that maybe the course need a few changes here and there. It closed for almost twelve months and reemerged in 2006 with several new water features, a number of new tees and with the addition of a few hundred yards in length, to give us the gem that we know today.
Nick Faldo was one of only four players to finish under par when he won the Irish open on the course in 1991 with rounds of 68,75,70 & 70 three ahead of Colin Montgomerie in second place and four ahead of Carl Mason and Frank Nobilo who shared third spot.
It was a different story however twelve months later, when Faldo was once again victorious, following a play-off against South African Wayne Westner after both men had finished fourteen under par.
Fourteen under would appear to be the magical number on tour this season and anyone finishing on that number next Sunday evening may well have the trophy in his grasp but there is a lot of golf to be played in the meantime and no doubt the course will have a major say in proceedings.
- Ger Walsh
