DESPITE CLONTARF Golf Club’s proposed move to the Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links falling through last year, a new affiliated golf club to be called The Links Portmarnock will be established at the venue with an initial membership of 300.

The Bernhard Langer-designed links, minutes away from the established Portmarnock Golf Club, has been open as a green fee resort complex since opening in 1995.

In 2005 Capel Developments bought the 180-acre facility for an estimated €70 million and proposed a swap deal for Clontarf members to move to Portmarnock with a view to Capel developing the existing Clontarf footprint for residential homes. “Portmarnock has always been used by green fee visitors and corporate card holders but when the Clontarf move fell through it became a good time to push ahead for establish an affiliated club here,” explained Moira Cassidy, director of golf at Portmarnock Hotel and Golf Links.

“We’ve never had a club attached to the course since it opened 14 years ago. When Clontarf fell through people approached us and asked why there shouldn’t be a club attached here anyway.”

The Links Portmarnock will be restricted to a total of 300 men and women members, 200 full members plus a further 100 four-day members (Monday to Thursday) with over 100 already interested in joining. Proposed competition days are Wednesdays and Sundays.

“It is something we have always had designs on doing, to have an affiliated club attached here and there is a demand for it. There will be no joining fee, just an annual subscription of €2,900 for full membership – including a €400 food and beverage levy – and €1,500 for the four-day membership,” added Cassidy.

“We’ll hold a special general meeting with a group of people from the GUI and ILGU, then a constitution will be drawn up for the new club. No date has been finalised for that meeting yet but it looks like it could be on Friday week, February 20th.”

As part of the process the GUI will assess the course to obtain an official Standard Scratch Score (SSS) and make sure proper facilities are in place. There are already full facilities housed at the hotel, including bar and catering, locker-rooms and pro shop.

“There is planning permission in place for a new clubhouse at the far end of the course but the initial intention is to get the golf club established first and there is already everything we need here at the hotel,” added Cassidy, who is confident they will reach the membership target pretty quickly.

“In the current climate it’s appealing because there is no joining fee and you don’t have a big up front payment of say €20,000 to join.

“We already look after the course and all the administration so the transition shouldn’t be too difficult. To have an affiliated club will be the only major difference to what we already do now,” added Cassidy, who is hopeful of having the club up and running within the next two months.

Norway’s Suzann Pettersen will defend her Ladies Irish Open title there in June after she won at the same venue last year.