GUI opt to stage finals at Carton House

The Golfing Union of Ireland confirmed it is to break with tradition and stage its annual All-Ireland Cups & Shields national finals at one venue, Carton House, for the next four years.

The 2013 AIG-sponsored national finals concluded on Saturday at Royal Tara Golf Club in Meath with a Senior Cup victory for Co. Sligo.

The honour of hosting the Cups & Shields has been rotated around the provinces, but GUI general secretary Pat Finn believes the advantages of staging them at Carton House, where the national governing body is based, from 2014 to 2017, not least a financial saving, outweigh the negatives.

“Originally it was a discussion around the cost of hosting,” Finn said.

“Typically speaking, at a normal venue there’s a requirement to put in a marquee, mobile kitchen, dishwashers and other temporary structures. They could cost anything from €20,000 to €30,000. It was felt to bring it to a venue that’s tailor made (to host), or at which there’s no requirement for these additional things, is going to reduce costs.

“I haven’t had anyone say this is wrong. There’s probably a couple of different views. One is it’s a good thing, it could create this ‘road to Carton’ tie-in, that attitude around the events people are building to getting to Carton House in the finals. Given a permanent fixture for the finals, that might help that.

“On the other hand a lot of people who have been involved (in clubs) in the administration or running the events say you get a great feeling when a club embraces the championships, and that the club itself benefits.

“Everyone’s on a high for the week of a festival of golf, so we’ll lose that. There’s a difference in that Carton are committing to this for four years, versus ‘we’re going to do this once and we’re going to do it really well’.”

Finn, who praised Royal Tara’s hosting of this year’s national finals, stressed moving the Cups & Shields to Carton House would serve as a trial and was not, for the time being, a permanent switch.

“Clearly after two years we’re going to have to review the decision and see is this something we want on a permanent basis or will we go back to rotation among clubs in the four provinces. Our feeling on it is that rather than the GUI making that decision, after a couple of years we will poll the clubs that participated, and we’ll poll the clubs that didn’t get to the finals and ask the questions.

“We’ll listen to our clubs in relation to the decision whether to keep it that way or to revert to the rotation.”