Between the mountains and the sea
Old Conna’s rapid rise to becoming one of Ireland’s finest courses all down to its loyal membership
MOST Irish clubs had humble beginnings but few have experienced such a rapid and impressive coming of age as Old Conna in Co Wicklow.
Situated on the slopes of Carrickgollen, the course offers spectacular views of Killiney, Bray and the Wicklow Mountains and on a fine day, you may even spy the peak of Snowdonia, some 90 miles away.
It’s a special piece of golfing terrain, created by the great Eddie Hackett just 31 years ago.
But it’s also the story of the power of people to get together socially and achieve something special.
The story began just a few miles from the current club in Kilternan, where many of Old Conna’s founder members were playing at Dublin Sport Golf Club, leasing the land from Paddy Cosgrave on an annual basis, meaning they had no security of tenure.
“During the first five or six years, the Dublin Sport Golf Club managed to break even but the social end of it started to put together some funds and money was set aside and a little pot was developed,” explains Brendan Connolly, one of Old Conna’s surviving founder members.
“In the early 1980s, this piece of land here came up for sale but we couldn’t afford it. Edmondstown had plans to buy the site but their plans fell through and Old Conna, which had been actively searching for a new home, swooped.
With the help of a bank loan and many other initiatives, the club was eventually able to acquire the site for around IR£500,000.
“A major marketing campaign was done and 200,000 leaflets were distributed to households from Bray to Rathfarnham,” Mr Connolly adds. “It was such a success that 1,000 people joined straight away, so when we opened in 1987, we had full membership.”
Having celebrated its 30th anniversary last year, Old Conna continues to enjoy a membership of over 1,000 with a former Junior member, Donal Gleeson, now the club’s popular PGA professional.
He’s ably assisted by Neil O’Briain, who won the Rookie of the Year award on the Sunshine Tour this season and in a remarkable quirk of fate, one of the club’s juniors often plays a game with his father, the three-time major winner Pádraig Harrington, who lives nearby.
It’s little wonder that Head Greenkeeper Dave Curran and his staff hardly bat an eye these days when Harrington pops out for a few quiet holes.
After all, the 6,500-yard, par-72 course is tree lined and immaculately conditioned, featuring sand-based greens, built to USGA specifications, that were installed in 1991 thanks to a levy of the members and a cash injection through the sale of 25 life memberships.
“The way the club has developed has been amazing,” General Manager Ronan Smyth explains.
“There is no debt and there are funds in the bank, so the club has been able to spend €1.7m over the last five years, improving the course, buying the latest machinery and improving the clubhouse.
“Perhaps most importantly, we
have also remodelled all 66 bunkers using Sportsbond, which means we have no problems with flooding during periods of heavy rain.
“Our five-year machinery plans means our greens staff always has the latest equipment and we have also been able to revamp the machinery and storage sheds, rebuild the third green and redesign the 14th hole.”
The removal of trees right of the 18th has opened up the vista from the magnificent clubhouse, offering members and guests panoramic views of Bray and Killiney Bay.
It’s a spectacular 128-acre site which was formerly part of the Old Conna Hill House Estate and something the founder members never imagined calling home when they passed by on the way to play in Kilternan in the late 1970s.
The land has a long and fascinating history, and club historian Mr Connolly has discovered that it was owned by the Knights Templar in the 13th century.
By the 1400s, the lands of Old Connaught were owned by Thomas Lawless, and later by Hugh Lawless though the lands of Ballyman passed from the Knights Templar to the Priory of Saint John of Jerusalem at Kilmainham.
The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII played a role in the history of the lands, but by 1765 a Mr Lewis Roberts was awarded a Gold Medal by The Royal Dublin Society for reclaiming lands and planting 38,000 trees.
It appears that the first Cordyline trees to be planted in Ireland in the 1870’s were imported by Roberts, along with many other rare plants.
As a result, Old Conna boasted many specimen Redwoods, Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Tree Peonies and Magnolias and the club is proud to have four Champion Trees as established by the Tree Council of Ireland – a Pyrenean Oak, a California Nutmeg, a Spanish Oak and a Picconia.
There’s also a strawberry tree, native to Killarney, near the fifth tee box.
The current clubhouse sits on part of what was the original walled garden of Mount Eden.
By 1983, part of those lands were conveyed to Aravon School along with the Mansion House (Old Conna Hill House) where Aravon School operated until very recently.
Just three years later, club trustees John Mooney, Dermot P Hitchcock and John Byrne signed for the purchase of the lands on behalf of the Dublin Sport Golf Club.
The rest, as the saying goes, is history.