‘Maine Valley could be the model for other golf clubs in the modern world’

The low-key gathering at the scenic Kerry parkland course saw Maine Valley not just mark a rebirth but an expansion from what went before

Kerry stars Shane Enright, Peter Crowley, David Clifford, and Paudie Clifford with Betty Griffin, Jimmy Foley, Mary Ann Browne, Niall Gilroy, Dermot Kelly, Rick Sheehy, Eamon Feely, Pat Goulding, Francis Foley, Brendan Quirke, Ann Daly, and Pat Lynch at the opening of the new Maine Valley Golf Club in Killorglin on Saturday. Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin

The grand opening of Maine Valley Members Golf Club at the weekend saw celebrations long-awaited and well deserved.

Five months after golfers learned Killorglin Golf Club was to be closed, last Saturday’s low-key gathering at the scenic Kerry parkland course saw Maine Valley not just mark a rebirth but an expansion from what went before, the product of reaching out to Killorglin’s then-current members, long-lost ones and similarly bereft golfers from Castleisland, whose club also shut down for good on April 6.