Beaufort back on course as Nama sale secures future

The golfing business in Ireland has taken a hit like few other industries over the past decade, with the amount of members leaving golf clubs reaching near epidemic proportions.

Every golf club in the land has suffered but some more than most, with Beaufort Golf Club near Killarney, Co Kerry, being one such club.

The original golf course, opened in 1995, was designed by Dr Arthur Spring and subsequently adapted by famous course designer Tom McKenzie.

In 2010, like plenty of high profile clubs, Beaufort, which was owned at the time by a local development company, Galvins, was put into receivership which meant plans for a hotel and golf lodges on site came to a shuddering halt.

During that time, the club’s future was up in the air, with various different outcomes being suggested locally.

However, thanks to the hard work of members as well as Tadhg Clifford on the course, Beaufort Golf Club kept the doors open.

The Cliffords, Tadhg and Helen, kept the club alive on a year-by-year basis over the next few seasons until the news emerged recently the land had been bought back from Nama by William McGill (who was the original owner of the location) with a view to keeping the golf course open.

The news has gone done very well with locals, members, the golfing fraternity as a whole and, importantly, the Clifford’s themselves who have almost single handily saved this club.

Further great news follows as Mr McGill has agreed to let the Clifford’s lease the club from him for as long as they wish, which means, after years of uncertainty, it appears that Beaufort Golf Club can now look to the future with a positivity and purpose that was denied it for so long.

“We are ecstatic,” manager Helen Clifford told the Irish Examiner.

“This is the best possible news that could have come out of this whole process. There was plenty publicity surrounding the sale with local papers stating that the club was going to be sold for development land,” explained Ms Clifford.

“However, we now know what the future holds and Beaufort Golf Club can move onwards and upwards from this. Beaufort Golf Club is open for business.”