Kerry courses concentrate on Irish golfers as UK and US markets remain closed off

HOPES of saving what is left of the tourist season have now taken a nosedive as the ‘air-bridges’ expected to be announced next early next month by the new Irish government, are unlikely to include visitors from the USA and Great Britain.

Three months of the usual seven-month golfing tourism season from April to October have already been lost, and July is certainly gone as well, but clubs had hoped that possibly August, September and October might be salvaged were restrictions to be lifted.

The so-called big clubs in Kerry that attract much of the golf tourism business to the county like Ballybunion, Dooks, Killarney, Tralee and Waterville, had hoped at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, to maybe have overseas visitors from August onwards, but it is becoming extremely unlikely.

American golfers, of course, make up the vast majority of golf tourists to our shores with Great Britain next, but these two countries are still nowhere near seeing the end of the virus which has crippled the world in 2020.

Airlines are putting immense pressure on governments to open up “airbridges” between countries that are in advance stages of recovery and relax the fourteen-day quarantine rule which would allow Irish people to travel abroad for holidays and people from other countries to visit here.

Ireland’s Chief Medical Officer Tony

Holohan, however, is totally against the idea on safety grounds and although much has been said and written about this, no decision has been made as yet, but if Ireland were to relax the quarantine, it is highly unlikely that people from the UK and the USA would be allowed into the country on holidays, meaning that most of our golf tourism would be wiped out for the remainder of the year.

General Manager of Waterville Mike Murphy told The Kerryman during the week: “Like the other clubs, we had hoped to welcome overseas golfers at the back end of the year, but that is totally dependent on the Irish government and whether or not they will relax the quarantine. Even if they do, our two biggest markets the

UK and the USA are in the worst situation right now and probably won’t be included in any of these air bridges, so I wouldn’t be too hopeful that we’ll see any golfers from either of those two places this year, unless something changes dramatically and very soon.”

Murphy says that he has already moved more than 7,000 bookings on to timesheets for 2021 rather than having to give refunds and Waterville are also offering an attractive rate for Irish golfers to come and play.

“Waterville is in the best possible shape right nowafter several months of rest and good weather and our GUI rate to play the course is €140.

However, our fourball rate is €480, which works out at €120 per person, which is very reasonable and hopefully we’ll see a few more Irish golfers in the coming months who also might stay in Waterville,” he added.

Several other courses around the county are offering attractive green fee rates, many of them in conjunction with local hotels and accommodation providers in a bid to attract the Irish market and with many Irish people intending to holiday at home this year, it may well prove to be successful.

Irish golfers don’t usually tend to spend big money on green fees, but there was never a better time than now to play some of Ireland’s greatest golf courses at an affordable rate, so maybe its time to do that.