Doonbeg course highly-praised by Golf Digest

THE Greg Norman-designed Doonbeg Golf Club has been named as the “Best New International Course of 2002”, by the prestigious Golf Digest magazine.

“Doonbeg looks and plays like it has been there for a hundred years,” wrote Ron Whitten, Golf Digest’s architecture editor, in this month’s issue.

“Fairways pitch and roll with every ridge and rumple of the earth.

The green contours are also lay-of-the-land and the bunkers are hand-dug, some edged by tall layers of stacked sod, others by shaggy tufts of native grass. The result is a genuine Irish links of unexpected breaks, unanticipated results and undeniable thrills,” he added.

The west Clare course was also lauded in the most recent issue of GolfWorld, whose editors named it No. 95 on its list of “the people, places and things that had the world of golf talking” in 2002.

“Nothing in Greg Norman’s Augusta National-inspired design portfolio prepared us for his stunning effort in Co Clare,” the magazine’s editors wrote of the only new course cited.

“Doonbeg matches the humps, hollows and howling wind of neighbouring Lahinch and Ballybunion. [Norman’s course layout] is natural architecture in its purest form. Even the green contours seem mowed from existing terrain.”

Doonbeg Golf Club was created and is owned by Kiawah Development Partners of Kiawah Island, S.C.

It is a private club with some public play. Interest has been high for the international memberships, with 220 paid members just six months after the grand opening.

Nonmember greens fees are 185. When complete, the site will contain luxury accommodations, a leisure centre along with a village of golf cottages with a pub, restaurant, practice facility, and golf shop. Initial on-site accommodations are expected by 2004.