East Clare Golf Club

0:00But to talk, continue the golf talk. It is a big week for golfing County Clare courses. Mike has referenced the Amgen Irish Open. Happened in Le Hinge. Seven years ago, you had the walker hoping Le Hinge at the weekend and what an incredible turnaround victory for Great Britain and Ireland there. They're pretty rare, think certainly their 11th victory in 50 odd iterations of it. And of course, we still have the Amgen Irish Open at Dune Beg to come. And that's gonna be huge as well. An excitement has been felt right across the county, including on the other side of the county, East Clare Golf Club, membership and visitor numbers have been on the rise. The club has also seen a huge surge in junior membership. While its greens have been receiving glowing reviews from golfers, both at home and abroad and joining the studio now is Nick Ryan from East Clare Golf Club. Nick, good morning to you. Good morning, Alan. Good morning to all your listeners. Welcome. What a wonderful week to start off with the Irish Amgen Open after the success in Le Hinge. Yes, I heard that there was over 10,000 people there. So I think it'll have created a huge, interesting golf all over county Clare.

1:00Yeah, because I was gonna ask you, I mean, you know, I visited you guys out of the golf club and it's fantastic what you're doing there. And you're all passionate about the sport to see this county hosting two brilliant tournaments to hot on the heels of each other is fantastic. It is, yeah. I must refer back to Alan through my interview with you last year where you really give us a lot of air time in relation to how the club turned around. And you kind of come out and visit us and you interviewed a few of our interesting juniors and our junior officer, Brendan McGill. And would you believe as a result of that, we had a huge surge in junior membership and we now have it capped to 175, which is fantastic and very, very active juniors. Well, that's a good sign for the morning focus listenership. Anyway, that is for sure. Yeah, and since I was last there, what else has been happening at the club? I know, I mean, we've been talking about the Walker Cup last week and we'll continue to talk with the Amgen Irish Open this week. The amount of people we're going to visit the county, not just from elsewhere in Ireland,

2:00but from a further afield. But you've had quite a few foreign visitors to East Claire Golf Club as well. Yeah, we had an interesting, we had four professional golfers from the UK. They flew into knock airport and they played some course open contact at Fairly Repedent course. And they looked at the map and they decided for some reason rather than they come down and play East Claire and the four of them played and came back in and they just said that our course was superb. That was the comment they could get back on. And so that was fantastic to get from four independent professional golfers. They're involved with golf courses in the UK and I would imagine that they would be actually promoting a county Claire and East Claire in particular for to come and play golf here. And isn't that probably to hear? I know, you know what I mean? You guys, you clearly must be delighted that you're on the golfing map literally that they were aware of you. But what I like about the club is it feels like kind of, you know, Claire's best kept secret in the sense that it's, it's obviously it's a golf course on a club so it's big, but it's kind of tucked away in a nice quiet part of the county as well.

3:02It's a little bit off the beaten track if you know what I mean, but it's almost kind of, it's a positive, I think. And that actually comes out from people that are playing and there's no traffic. All you have is blackbirds and all sorts of animals out there. So there's, it's very, very relaxing and people really enjoy it when they come there. So, you know, getting back to the golf itself and the golf club, golf islands who are, you know, responsible for golf throughout the whole of Ireland, obviously heard about how good the quality of the course was and the asses know if we would host a Western Monster Final and that was held last Sunday, two weeks where we had clubs from Dunn Arale, Kilarney golfers and two local clubs Shannon and Ramordan to play their finals there. And again, the feedback from both the players and the visitors was that they got a very good welcome reception and the course itself was very, very good. That must be quite an acclade when the course and the club is, you begin to be asked to host events and then you've hosted a junior competition as well.

4:04We did, yeah, our president this year is Alan O'Neal and I suppose the fact that, you know, our juniors are so important, he decided to have a special day for the juniors and several of them participated in a fabulous competition. And Alan was kindly generously sponsored some lovely prizes and it was fantastic to see, you know, the respect that they got by having the juniors involved in the president's day and that went off very, very well as well. Also, on Saturday week, our junior officer, Brendan McGill, we're hosting a junior county park and competition which is open to all golfers, junior golfers and as of today, we have over 50 registered for that. So a lot of emphasis again and I suppose the juniors are a very important part of any golf club. But in particular, in East Laire, we seem to have a real interest in making them part of the club. Which is fantastic because when I've been out with you and speaking to members and you know, you've told the story of how I suppose bringing the club back from the day at all, you know, in a sense and to see it grows fantastic,

5:06but of course, an important part of something growing is bringing in new blood and ensuring that the next generation continues to come there. So that's clearly happening. Talk to us a little bit about how important the volunteering aspect as well. Because that came that that's come across to me clearly anytime I've been there, that beat, you know, the shop, the bar, people out in the course work and to keep it looking at the best the management of all the facilities. It's from people who are passionate about golf and having somewhere like East Laire Golf Club to do that. Yeah, we're very, very fortunate. Like we have a lot of volunteers out in the course and they meet on a regular basis and they carry out work, you know, which obviously improves the golf course. And also our shop and office is manned by volunteers and I think, you know, the fact that the commitment that they have helped him maintain the high standards that visitors and members enjoy is recognized. And I think when visitors come in particular,

6:09they get a really warm welcome, you can get a cup of tea, coffee, scone, whatever. And it feels very, very welcome. And in fact, last week, there was two people who came from America. I only heard this the other day and they had played the K-Club in Kildir and they said that ours was the greens and the course was as good as the K-Club. So that's, you know, we have to start, you know, that Mr. Joe, that it is there. When you hear that, that's got to be hugely pleasing. Everyone knows the quality of the K-Club and of course, holds to the rider cup in 2006 to be favorably compared to us. And they were genuine in that comment. It wasn't just being nice to us. They said the course was just incredible when they played it. So clearly this progression all the time and I'm sure you would be hopeful that, you know, you talked about the 175 juniors at the K-Club membership is looking good as well. Your host and competitions like the West Monster Area finals and the junior competition and so on. You've had foreign visitors, lovely comments about

7:11the course, but you're always looking to keep it going. What are some of the future plans for East Clare Golf Club and that, you know, be it facilities or growing membership, Nick? One of the things that we've just done, the Kille-Lue Hotel has kindly sponsors our ads which are running on the radio all this week. And they have a sister company in R&M or Lodge and they have a good deal done there where they're able to bring visitors. Mainly from the Dublin area to stay and play in golf courses around Arnmore. And we have now linked in with them and we're looking forward to working with the Kille-Lue which is now under new management and I met there a manager there and owner, Paar Ignolan and we're going to have, I would say huge potential in Irish people coming, mainly from the Dublin area. And I suppose, you know, just off the M7 now with the Kille-Lue bypass, it'll make it very, very accessible for golfers to come and play and stay in the hotel in Kille-Lue. So for people who are interested in finding out more

8:13about East Lair Golf Club or joining, how can they get in touch? They can't. Just we have done a special offer in conjunction, I suppose, with the Irish Open, where we are offering now for this year, 18 months golf for the price of 12. So obviously people can ring the golf club or they can contact us on EastLairgolfclub.com or they can contact the office at East Lairgolf Club to find out for the details. And that offer is available now until the end of September. A very, very good offer paying this year's corn sub for 18 months golf. And naturally, no fun, there's any big sporting tournament, particularly if it's held in this country or in our county, for example, like the Walker Cup and the MGM Irish Open, it can inspire people to pick up that sport or return to it and you will be hopeful or get young people into it. So you'll be hopeful in the weeks and months ahead off the back of last weekend, the weekend to come. There'll be an increased interest in golf and you'll be seeing that membership rise.

9:14I think that will happen definitely. And I think it's fantastic that County Claire has been recognized and the Dune Big Trump course is going to be getting huge publicity. But I think all the other courses around County Claire will also be recognized as well as a good place to come and play golf. Well, keep up the good work and great to see things going from strength to strength there. Nick, thanks very much for popping in to have a chat. And thank you very much, Alan, for giving me the opportunity. That's Nick Ryan there from East Claire Golf Club with us on Monday's morning focus.