Ireland is emerging as one of the world's primary locations for golf and last year almost a quarter of a million golfing visitors spent over £100 million - an average of £448 each - the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation, Dr McDaid, said yesterday.
He was announcing £2.4 million in EU Regional Development Fund grants, agreed by the Fund's Independent Management Board, towards a new £12 million "world class leisure and golf links resort" at Doonbeg on the Clare coast.
The Minister said the development would include an 18-hole links golf course and club house, a four star hotel, on-site leisure and conference facilities as well as a golf school, holiday cottages and housing.
Dr McDaid said the Doonbeg resort was a Shannon Development concept, in response to market research that identified "links golf courses as a unique and major growth attraction for overseas visitors". The agreement to hold the Ryder Cup in Ireland in 2005 would include continued worldwide publicity up to then and Ireland's annual expenditure would be less than £1 million, to be funded jointly on a public and private sector basis.
The development is to be carried out by Landmark National of Columbus, Ohio, the company responsible for the Kiawah Ireland Links in South Carolina (which hosted the 1991 Ryder Cup) and the La Quinta Hotel and Golf Development.
It has established an Irish company, Irish National Golf Resort, to develop the 377-acre sand dunes site at Doonbeg, after extensive consultation with the Parks and Wildlife Section of the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and other bodies.