Nicklaus to design a second Irish golf course

JACK NICKLAUS is set to be the architect of a second outstanding golf course in this country, 14 years after he designed the widely acclaimed Mount Juliet in Kilkenny.

The Golden Bear has been in Dublin for the past couple of days looking over a site at Killeen Castle near Dunshaughlin in Co Meath, and indications are another multi-million Irish golfing venture will get under way over the next couple of years.

There are in the region of 500 acres at Killeen Castle affording considerable scope not only for a modern, top-class golf course but also a hotel and other such facilities. Having Nicklaus associated with such a project lends considerable cachet. When he designed Mount Juliet, he agreed a five year moratorium on designing another Irish course, but that limit is now well up and the hope is he will deliver another gem.

Meanwhile, the Co Fermanagh based Castle Hume Leisure company yesterday officially launched its Faldo at Lough Erne project. Spectacularly sited on a wedge of land between the shores of lower Lough Erne and Castle Hume Lake, the development will feature an 18-hole Faldo-designed golf course, a luxurious 65 bedroom Ramada Plaza hotel and 30 lodges.

Jim Treacy, the man behind the venture, conceived the idea after a visit to Loch Lomond a couple of years ago. He explained: “I couldn’t help thinking that I knew of somewhere equally special a lot nearer to home. Apparently, Nick Faldo and his course design manager Nick Edmund had flown over the site a few years earlier and realised how it could be the location for a dramatic golf course. As our plans progressed, Nick and his senior golf architect Guy Hockley produced a routing plan. No fewer than fourteen of the proposed holes have lake views and several greens and tees are perched on the water’s edge.”

Faldo’s name is associated with some high-class courses in Europe and further afield, while his proposed links on Bartra Island, Co Sligo, has been well publicised. I am confident we can deliver one of the finest inland courses in Europe at Lough Erne,” he said.

Work on the development is expected to start early in the new year with the opening scheduled for 2006.