Narin & Portnoo GC closed!

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

I was home at the weekend and saw in the local Donegal News that Narin & Portnoo is now closed

DONEGAL NEWS, FRIDAY 9TH FEBRUARY

FAMOUS GOLF CLUB NOW CLOSED

BY CONOR SHARKEY

The shutters have been pulled on one of Donegal's top golf clubs following what has been described as "a row over money".

Narin & Portnoo GC ceased operations this week after negotiations with the new owner, Ballyshannon-born business man Liam McDevitt, broke down.

Mr McDevitt who now lives in Conneticut, rescued the golf club from the brink of closure by purchasing its debt book from vulture fund Cerberus. It is understood he agreed to "forgive" a €1.7 million debt and provide a licence agreement to guarantee the future of the club.

But issues later arose over three holes of the world renowned course that the club leases from a local landowner.

Efforts to resolve the issue have proved fruitless and as a result the club has now been shut down.

Seamus McDonagh is a member of Narin and Portnoo Golf Club. He told the Donegal News yesterday it was unfortunate that things had escalated as far as they have.

"As an ordinary member, I don't understand how it has come to this," Mr McDonagh said.

"The club has a lot of bookings for 2018 and people from all over America and Europe will have been planning to come and play here. With the situation the way it is, they have to be saying, let's not take the chance."

Mr McDonagh said that in light of the discord, "not a penny" in membership fees had been drawn in for the year ahead. As a result, the club has run out of cash.

Mr McDonagh added that the situation involving the new owner was "about money."

He said that as far as he was aware there were no negotiations taking place at the moment to try and resolve the impasse.

"The landowner is getting part of the blame but there is a deal in place. It is what the new owner wants to add to the deal that is the problem. I do think there is a bit of blame on both sides."

"It is sad that it has come to this because most members just want to play golf," Mr McDonagh said.

The Donegal News did contact Liam McDevitt but at the time of going to press yesterday no response had been received.





Here's a link from 8 February:

https://www.irishnews.com/news/2018/02/07/news/one-of-donegal-s-best-known-golf-courses-to-close-amid-problems-with-proposed-takeover-1250760/

[jeffwarne]

awful news.
May cooler heads prevail....




It all started with a bigger clubhouse and a quest for more card yardage......

[Pete Lavallee]

How does a simple Irish GC run up a 1.7 M Euro debt?

[Brian Hilko]

Such a bummer. We are making our first trip to north of Ireland this fall. Was wondering why I received no response from the club. Hopefully they get this sorted out. Court battles seem to drag on for to long. I was really looking forward to cruit and nairn day.

[Sean_A]

How does a simple Irish GC run up a 1.7 M Euro debt?

They borrowed to build a new fangled house and alter the course.  Seems incredible when you are there and realize the area is fairly desolate.  I spose they were banking on mega tourist money.   

Ciao

[Frank M]

I have no idea the situation.

[Garland Bayley]

 

[Thomas Dai]

Very sad to hear this.
atb

[Jeff Schley]

Well this is too bad as a group of us were going to go to the UK and Narin was on our list.

[Charles Lund]

Narin and Portnoo is in County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.  Northern Ireland is part of the UK.  The Republic of Ireland is not.


Nairn GC is not far from Inverness in Scotland, not far from Castle Stuart.


Charles Lund

[Jay Mickle]

Play once in 40 mile an hour winds with light horizontal driving rain. A memorable round some wonderful holes hope to get back and play it in better weather conditions. Sad that it is closed, hope that something can be worked out.

[Jeff Schley]

Narin and Portnoo is in County Donegal in the Republic of Ireland.  Northern Ireland is part of the UK.  The Republic of Ireland is not.


Nairn GC is not far from Inverness in Scotland, not far from Castle Stuart.


Charles Lund

I meant Nairn in SCOTLAND, which is in the UK. 

switch around 2 letters.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

How does a simple Irish GC run up a 1.7 M Euro debt?

Pete, I know of simple clubs with three times that debt.


How? It was Ireland's first experience of a boom. We thought it would go on forever. Everyone dismissed the the Economist's (and many others) predictions that the Celtic Tiger would end in tears. To be fair, the Economist (and others) was predicting bust pretty much every year of the Celtic Tiger years; they were bound to be right eventually. The Brits had their boom and busts, but we Irish were too smart to repeat their mistakes.


Although the economy may have recovered and unemployment down, the damage is still very visible. Tens of thousands of mortgages in arrears, once successful hotels, night clubs, shops, small businesses and restaurants still shut down, golf courses taken over, house construction at a standstill, house prices depressed, especially in the small towns and countryside.

[Steve Wilson]

I enjoyed playing there.  I enjoyed it so much I played one hole from the wrong fairway.  I thought I might revisit if ever in that neck of the woods again. 

[Rich Goodale]

I'd be happy if "The" Nairn were closed, but not Portnoo......

[Mark Pearce]

I'd be happy if "The" Nairn were closed, but not Portnoo......

Indeed.  I loved Narin & Portnoo.  The holes around the turn were as beautiful as any in golf.  I do hope this can be sorted.

[Lou_Duran]

I enjoyed playing there.  I enjoyed it so much I played one hole from the wrong fairway.  I thought I might revisit if ever in that neck of the woods again.

On this basis, you must have really, really enjoyed Lahinch.

I am generally careful about questioning the business acumen of those operating golf courses, but I didn't see reasonable value for €80/round at N & P.  A scratcher for an opening hole, long stretches in the same direction. and some repetitive holes, I would not be anxious to travel there again at the 2016 price.   I enjoyed Strandhill, County Sligo, and even Portsalon more, though all are quite scenic.

I've been accused of being cheap- I'd like to think I am value oriented- but I find visitor greenfees at a multiple of a member's monthly dues objectionable.  Of course, no one is putting a gun to my head to play golf, so this model apparently works for some clubs, but perhaps not so well for N & P.  (I was also blown away with the pricing at Ballyliffin, which, according to an employee of the club, was meeting some resistance).         

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Thanks Garland for pointing out my mispelling (or maybe not  ) of N&P. This link might explain my confusion; I have always assumed it was Nairn as we pronounced it that way.
http://www.gurnnurn.com/2011/09/place-bit-like-nairnnarinnarann.html


Strictly speaking, there are no English forms of Irish place names that can be correct.

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

From 13 February:
http://www.donegaldaily.com/2018/02/13/debt-owner-makes-one-last-pitch-to-re-open-narin-portnoo-golf-club/

[Marty Bonnar]

I’m just going to leave this here:https://youtu.be/Ij_5UGpjUsU


STRABANE!
F.

[David_Tepper]

Stumbling upon N&P more or less by accident in 1994 remains one of my happiest memories in golf.

Does anyone know why the course cannot remain open playing 15 holes while the matter regarding the dispute over the 3 holes on leased land gets sorted out?

[Robin_Hiseman]

I've a feeling this will sort itself out favourably. Sounds like brinksmanship more than anything else.

[Thomas Dai]

Here is a link to Marks photo-tour of N&P from a while back plus, in reply 46 details/photos by Donal and Garland of how the course used to be.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,54377.0.html
atb

[John Mayhugh]

I really enjoyed the course. Shame that they wasted so much money "improving" it, only to end up with a charmless clubhouse and some weaker holes.  Still, the high points more than offset the negatives.

No problem for me with the fees. $100 might seem high to some, but when you think that people pay around twice that to play the "Irish" course at Kohler...

[Steve Wilson]

As a reply to the value oriented Mr. Duran  I did really, really see a lot more of Lahinch than you did, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it more.  I wasn't exactly sure where some of the fairways were until much later in the hole.  In fact, I'm uncertain I ever experienced some of the fairways.  Sort of like that Spencer Tracy movie "Bad Day at Blackrock" only mine was at Lahinch. 


I think the tariff for Narin and Portnoo was a bit steep, but I enjoyed the course a great deal, but I like quirk.  I may be the only person on the site who thinks that Tain's otherwise weird opening hole, a bland drive followed by a virtually blind second over a road to a roller coaster green would be world famous if the two barbed wire fences on each side of the road were stone walls instead.  If I were the braintrust at Tain I'd see about doing that--how much could a hundred feet of stone wall cost--especially in Scotland where the only thing found in greater proliferation than rocks would be sheep dung.  Well, maybe tourists are to be found in greater proliferation, but I'm not sure it would be cost effective to build walls out of tourists.  Might discourage the next wave. 


And to think this started as a response to a casual insult hurled my way by Mr. Duran, the value oriented golfer. 


Oh well, I wish the best to Narin and Portnoo.  I hope Robin is right that this is a case of brinkmanship that will end when one or the other blinks.