Developers pitching to a wide market

The island mentality has served Ireland well when it has come to golf course construction. And if people do continue to wonder where it will all end, at least developers here have managed to avoid the financial ruin that has befallen many of their contemporaries in Continental European and, indeed, in Britain.

In the 1990s alone, in excess of 110 new courses were constructed in Ireland. Most of them have been at what is considered the high-end of the market - The K Club, Mount Juliet, Druids Glen, Portmarnock Links, European Club, Glasson, etc - and have contributed significantly to a golf tourism market that has seen the numbers visiting the country to play golf rise from 52,000 in 1988 to almost 250,000 last year.

Such an increase in visitors, along with the huge growth in the numbers of Irish people playing golf in that same period, probably helps to explain why Irish developers have managed to avoid the financial perils inflicted on some Continental developers.

The figures for Germany make especially startling reading. From 1990 to 2000, the number of golf courses there jumped 100 per cent, from 300 to 600. Dr Falk Billion, a golf consultant based in Munich, believes that this increase was due to excitement taking control of common sense with developers "making a false estimate of the potential market" and having "exaggerated expectations".

In the 1990s alone, in excess of 110 new courses were constructed in Ireland. Most of them have been at what is considered the high end of the market

Of these 300 new developments, Billion estimates that 200 are "in the red" with about 50 of them on the brink of collapse. He was also able to pinpoint at least 17 courses that have suffered insolvency or bankruptcy in recent years.

In Britain, where it is estimated that some 400 golf courses are in trouble financially, there was also a boom in golf course development in the 1990s but this has now slowed down completely. "In the early '90s there were 60 to 70 golf course openings in the UK per year, and now there are six or seven," said David Williams, president of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects. "I can't see a huge change in that over the next five years."

The situation in Ireland, meanwhile, apparently remains buoyant, if hardly matching the early 1990s when the bulk of the new course development was carried out: 16 in 1992, 20 in 1993, 16 in 1994 and 15 in 1995. However, the fact that such icons of the Irish golf industry like The K Club, Druids Glen and Powerscourt should be constructing second courses suggests that there is still some room for further growth.

In his paper to the Fairway 2000 congress in Munich, Billion argued "the serious business of running a golf course cannot be treated as a hobby or a passion". And the success of the Irish developments of the 1990s could be attributed to the fact that they were established as businesses and not just play things for those who conceived the ideas.

One of the problems associated with the failure of so many German and British developments was due to lack of initial research and subsequent poor management. Yet, Billion was able to point to the resurrection of a number of courses - particularly Gut Kaden and Attighof - which were turned around and put on a sound footing as soon as these underlying problems were addressed.

Developers of courses have discovered that it takes time and money to make the project work and, in the United States, where they have also had their share of bankruptcies, the Golf Course Builders Association of America have a certification programme in place which asks a building company to take an exam on course construction.

Over here, you discover the names of the top golf course builders recurring again and again, such as Niall Fanning who is involved in the construction of the two courses at Carton House and Tom Bryan who is involved with South County. Fanning is currently working on Carton, Druids Glen's second course and the one at Bray Head.

An interesting feature, however, of the Irish golf development is the growing trend towards building top-level hotels alongside the courses. The K Club, Mount Juliet, Tulfarris, Templepatrick and Portmarnock Links developed such facilities from the outset, and Carton House, Doonbeg and the proposed development at Swords are following their example. Not only that, however, but Druids Glen and Powerscourt are not only constructing second courses, each is also developing five-star hotels which means more and more golf clubs are making the transformation from being courses into actual resorts.

As things stand, Ireland has avoided the malaise that afflicted much of Britain and Continental Europe, and nobody really knows when it will all end. One person in the financial sector here remarked, "maybe it is a case that we were so far behind starting that we are just playing catch-up and haven't yet reached saturation point".

Or maybe it's just that Irish developers are more aware of the importance of putting business plans in place before actually building the courses.