Frankfield open for business
Brothers Michael and Colman Ryan, whose parents Ina and Mick turned the family’s 72-acre small-holding into a nine-hole golf course in the early 1980s, will close down the course part of the business on January 1 as they are no longer able to sustain the costs of running and maintaining the layout overlooking the city.
However, the Ryans will continue to operate the popular driving range along with Michael’s fellow PGA professional David Whyte and the Frankfield House bar and restaurant will remain open for business with the hope that at least 17 full and part-time jobs will be saved.
Falling membership from a peak of around 460 in 2007 to just 76 in 2014 has been a major factor in the decision, as has the lowering of green fees and memberships at other clubs in and around the city.
“It is with heavy hearts that we deliver this message to you today,” the Ryan family wrote in a letter to Frankfield’s members that was intended to be read in their absence at the club’s AGM last Sunday.
“Since the beginning of the recession in 2009 we have had to subsidise the running of the golf club to the tune of tens of thousands of euro each year.
“Our business cannot sustain these costs any longer and we were left with no option but to close the course part of the business.”
Colman Ryan, who has been responsible for the maintenance of the course since its affiliation to the GUI in 1984 said yesterday: “We just can’t compete any more and it’s been steadily declining since 2008.
“But the only thing that’s closing is the nine-hole course. The driving range is the second biggest by volume in Ireland and that is going to continue with plans for a short game practice academy to go along with that now we have extra space to do that.
“And we’re one of the busiest spots in Cork for lunch, we’ve always been a public bar and this has never been a golf clubhouse so Frankfield House will remain.”
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