The coming weekend is a significant one for Enniscrone Golf Club as it marks 50 years since the club turned a new page and opened an 18-hole championship course for the first time.
Having come from a low of just 14 members in the late 1950s, the construction and opening of a new links in 1974 was a marvellous achievement which came about through spirited and determined effort from a whole host of people within the club.
Plans for expansion from the existing nine-hole layout were vocalised in the late 1960s, on the back of increasing footfall over that decade. In 1969, under the captaincy of John Foley, a committee was established, tasked with exploring the potential for expansion.
At the time, the club’s financial resources were limited, with savings of £2,000 in the bank. However, the lack of money was combatted by widespread support and spirit within the membership for a new golf course that would better utilise the natural topography provided by the unique duneland on the property at Bartragh, which extended to 400 acres.
The exploration process came to a satisfactory conclusion on May 17th, 1970 when a specially convened meeting in the Marine Ball Room endorsed the committee’s proposal for the course to expand to 18 holes.
This meeting followed a visit from renowned Irish golf architect Eddie Hackett on March 12th 1970. Hackett spent four days carrying out a preliminary examination of the wider property at Bartragh and was accompanied by Dr Joe Cullen, captain in 1970, Mark Hannon, Tommy Battle, Jack Kennedy, Michael Kilcawley and Robert Coleman.
“I am very enthusiastic about your great undertaking,” Hackett wrote afterwards. “My impression is that the quality of the terrain and surroundings make it well worthwhile and that ultimately, the links will not only be a boon to Enniscrone but to the west of Ireland.”
The expansion required a lease on the land, which was negotiated with Brigid Conway and her nephew, Jim Cawley. This enabled the club to extend the course further to the west, out towards the Moy Estuary and away from where the Caravan Park is now situated, it being the site of some of the existing nine-hole layout.
First off, the club had to fence off the new area where the golf course was set to extend into, to prevent livestock from traversing the area as had previously been the case. This undertaking required 12 miles of wire.
With a modest membership of around 120, the financial implications of such significant development were considerable. Costings came to just shy of £16,000 when estimates were made shortly after the meeting of May 1970.
From the old nine-hole layout, Hackett’s plan envisaged retaining five old greens. This meant that holes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 from the original course were kept in virtually the same guise. In today’s terms, the following holes on the Scurmore course are similar to the way they were all of 100 years ago – 1, 6, 8 and 9.
To help mitigate the cost, several fundraising schemes were initiated. However, the main contributing factor to much of the development was an enormously effective voluntary effort, which helped save thousands in costs. Members were often out for long days laying sod, cutting grass and carrying out other bits of work. This was even more important in the context of the club being left frustrated at the lack of funding from state bodies for the project.
Work on the course began in 1970 and by 1971, much of the large-scale work had been completed. By 1972, the course, in the main, was ready for play.
Attention then turned to building a new clubhouse. Plans were afoot for a modest building, costing in the region of £18,500. However, the site of the new clubhouse proved to be a contentious matter.
Two sites were proposed – Site A, being the present site of the clubhouse and Site B, a location close to where the seventh tee now stands on the Scurmore Course.
At a special meeting in the Town Hall, a razor thin majority voted in favour of Site A.
The club then embarked on the construction process, helped by an £18,000 loan from the Provincial Bank in Ballina.
And so, by the time August 4th 1974 came around, Enniscrone Golf Club had been transformed.
Writing in the Irish Independent ahead of the official opening, Tom Cryan noted that around £10,000 had been saved during the course of the previous four years down to voluntary labour.
A star-studded fourball, including Christy O’Connor Snr, John O’Leary, Rupert Staunton and Sean Flanagan, helped mark the opening, with dozens of dignitaries also in attendance. Course architect Eddie Hackett drove the first ball off the first tee.
A long night of celebration followed in the clubhouse as members reflected on a marvellous achievement and looked forward to the future with optimism.
There have been several milestones since, including the expansion to 27 holes at the turn of the millennium. At that time, the construction of six new holes amongst the tallest dunes on the property propelled the new Dunes Championship course up into the company of the best courses not just in Ireland, but in western Europe.
The progress of recent years was underlined recently when the club was included in Golf Digest’s top 100 Golf Courses in the world for the very first time, coming in at 87.
Several high-profile visitors have been stunned by Enniscrone’s natural beauty and strong design, with Nick Faldo, on a visit in 2019, describing the local topography as ‘some of the most dramatic, powerful and challenging dunes in links golf’.
Similarly, Shane Lowry – who is in Olympic action in Paris this week – felt that Enniscrone was ‘off the beaten track, probably the best course in Ireland’.
The club continues to seek areas to improve, and has developed a relationship with MacKenzie and Ebert, one of the foremost golf architects in the world, with a view to making the course even better in the years ahead.
In that regard, it is clear that the ambition and spirit shown by members all of 50 years ago remains prevalent amongst Enniscrone’s membership.
