Mahon Golf Club set for another busy year

MAHON Golf Club celebrated their annual drive in last week with the new officers taking part in the ceremonial occasion in front of a large crowd. The 2023 Officers are Captain Danny Drennan, Lady Captain Anita Power and President Jim Stack. 

The club celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022, and 2023 will be another busy year with club events and a large number of inter-club competitions.

While Mahon Golf Club are synonymous with the golf course, the property is owned and managed by Cork City Council and it remains the only publicly owned golf course in Cork. 

Accessibility is still a major part of the ethos of Mahon golf course and green fees for weekday or weekend golf are just €15 currently. 

Mahon’s annual green fee ticket also remains popular, giving a golfer access to the course while still being independent from the club. The annual fee for men is €664 while ladies pay €534, and there are a number of concessionary rates available.

Mahon Golf Club was the first municipal golf course in Ireland when it was constructed in 1980, and it was built for £35,000, close to €200,000 when valued today. It was the brainchild of the City Manager Joe McHugh and took two years to build. 

The course was built on partly reclaimed land where the Tramore River reaches the Loughmahon estuary. International golfers Tom Egan, George Crosbie, Michael Power and Bill Kelleher played the first round on the 5th of September in 1980 and that started a wonderful era for golf in Mahon. With green fees set at £2, equivalent to around €12 today, it made golf affordable and accessible for anyone who was interested in the city. 

The original nine hole course was just over 3,100m in length and was big hit from the start.

Two years later Mahon Golf Club was founded and affiliations to the GUI and ILGU helped the club to build and grow. 

The last major development in Mahon was in 2004 when Cork City Council built the club pavilion, changing rooms and golf shop. 

The Blackrock Inn which was formerly Clover Hill House continues to play an important role in the social side of the club and the golf course.

And over 40 years later after two-course extensions, golf is still thriving on the course and in the club.

The club celebrated its 40th anniversary last year and the occasion was marked in style when they won their first men's provincial pennant. They won the Mens All-Ireland fourball. Late last year there was another important development for the club as it opened its indoor Trackman simulator studio.

DEVELOPMENT

The new development comes after a few years of planning from the city club. Given that the course has no means for expansion, a range or outdoor practice wasn’t an option, so the club instead looked at the option of building an indoor simulator. The project wasn’t cheap with an overall budget of over €60,000, but grant funding from Government and from Cork City Council meant the project could proceed. 

As well as members and club teams using the studio, Mahon’s junior golfers are set to benefit from the new studio. PGA Professionals Stephen Hayes and Alan Gleeson have been selected by the club to teach in the new studio and the club will have a number of juvenile programmes for the next generation of golfers. Mahon are now one of just a few clubs to have a simulator available to members.

Golf Ireland are promoting the Zero Emission Vehicles Ireland scheme, providing for the free installation of 50KW DC electric vehicle charging points at sports club facilities across the island of Ireland. This scheme is open to all clubs who meet the minimum requirements are to have a 3 Phase electricity connection, be the owner or have a suitable leasehold agreement and have suitable car-parking spaces, a minimum of two car-parking spaces per EV charging point. Clubs selected through the scheme will receive the charger at no cost, providing all terms and conditions are met.

Golf clubs can be an ideal location for charging points, given that many golfers are at the club for a number of hours at a time. Golf Ireland are collating all of the applications for golf clubs and have set a deadline of February 23. The government scheme has the objective of supporting clubs across Ireland with €15m allocated to the programme.