The Heritage, Killenard, Ireland

[David_Tepper]

Any feedback on the Heritage, site of the Seve Trophy matches? It looks to be one of a number of resort-type courses built in Ireland over the past 5-10 years.

[Aidan Bradley]

The Heritage, which is situated about 45 minutes south of Dublin, is one of the best conditioned courses you will ever play. Sam Torrance said that the T Boxes were in better condition than most greens he played on. It is a Jeff Howes/Seve co-design. The resort is first class and the service impecable.

[Mark Chaplin]

Nice photos and the course sure does look nice, but it's 50 years short on Heritage!

[David_Tepper]

Aidan -

Thanks for the pics. As always, your work is awesome.

DT

[Mark Pearce]

Where exactly in the States is that?

[Padraig Dooley]

As Aidan mentioned the course is very well conditioned. If ever in the area, it is well worth playing, the hole that stood out the most to me was the short par 4 11th with a little quarry to the right of the green.

The bunkering was very noticable as well.

[Adrian_Stiff]

Padraig- nice to see you been making the cuts again. The bunkering is getting quite a bit of stick off the Sky Sports Commentators, they keep mentioning it may be changed. Some of the very squared edges dont quite look right IMO but I guess in time they will soften and round and then look good. I have not heard much about this course before, on the whole it looks good.

[Padraig Dooley]

Adrian, can't remember going into many bunkers when I played it, but they are quite large and didn't feel that a ball would end up near the square edges too often. The long grass around the bunkers didn't seem to come into play much as well.

[Tom Roewer]

looks like they planted a lot of trees??

[Padraig Dooley]

Tom, practically every new course built in the last 10 years would have planted a similar amount of trees. A lot of established clubs as well. The penny hasn't dropped yet.

[Daryl David]

I assume this is a resort type complex.  Curious as to where their business would come from.  Irish tourists, Europeans?  I doubt I could find an American golfer that has ever heard of the place.  

[David_Tepper]

Daryl -

I think one of the reasons the Heritage resort is hosting the event is to promote the place. Having the Seve Cup on the Golf Channel creates visibility for the resort. After all, here we are talking about it!

Ireland has really had a remarkable economic transformation over the past 15-20 years. It has probably had the fastest economic growth of any country in Western Europe over that period and the GDP per capita in Ireland is well above that of Great Britain.

The K Club and Mt. Juliet were the first high-end golf resorts to be built in Ireland. The Heritage is part of the 2nd wave.

I imagine the visiting American golfers looking for luxury, comfort & convenience will start showing up a some point.

DT  

[Daryl David]

That makes sense that there might be a luxury market close to Dublin.  I understand they are building a Ritz Carlton at Powerscourt near the golf course.  Still not sure how much expansion that type of market can handle.

One trip to the K Club with my wife cured me of the need to pamper myself on a golf trip to Ireland.  It has to be the most overrated resort and worse value on the planet.

[David_Tepper]

www.theheritage.com

[Jack_Marr]

That makes sense that there might be a luxury market close to Dublin.  I understand they are building a Ritz Carlton at Powerscourt near the golf course.  Still not sure how much expansion that type of market can handle.

One trip to the K Club with my wife cured me of the need to pamper myself on a golf trip to Ireland.  It has to be the most overrated resort and worse value on the planet.

Yes, and they're not fond of people who aren't rich in the K Club either. They had an open week a few years ago, but the members complained because their course was being played by taxi drivers and the like.

I played Powerscourt the other day. The "old" course there is very good, in my opinion. It's a rediculous fee to join as a member, though.

Another course, Palmerstown House, has no members. The joining fee is astronomical. I have heard from an insider that the fee is so high to guarantee those buying the properties around the course that only the right type of people will be joining...

[Bill_McBride]

My first thought was, this looks like Grand Cypress with the 9th and 18th holes around both sides of the lake!

Sorry, I can't see American tourists - who favor the links I think - spending the euros to stay and play there.  But I have been wrong a whole lot!

[David_Tepper]

Bill -

The same Americans who enjoy going to Grand Cypress will probably be the ones who go to the Heritage!

DT

[Marty Bonnar]

Did you ever have a moment where everything you ever believed was, in a brief moment, destroyed?

My latest epiphany just happened.



I find myself strangely attracted to this cartoonish, manga-esque, surely PS3-inspired surreal landscape.

Jaggy-edged bunkers CAN be acceptable. Un-natural shapes and lines ARE actually believable in a designed landscape context. Oh, bugger it, Nature can go and get stuffed. As long as it's sustainable, ANYTHING goes...

Years of education and experience just went way down the toilet.

Then again, Aidan's photography could make our local garbage heap - or EVEN my backyard - appear positively Hanging Gardens of Babylonesque...

FBD.