September 22 to 25 has been confirmed for the Irish ladies open golf championship which will be hosted this year by Dromoland Castle Golf Club.
As first reported by The Clare Echo on New Year’s Eve, the golf club located in Newmarket-on-Fergus will host the tournament. The news was confirmed on Wednesday (March 2nd). Part of the Ladies European Tour (LET), it will be the first women’s professional golf tournament to be held in the Republic of Ireland since 2012.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Dromoland Castle will play host to this year’s Women’s Irish Open. All of us at Dromoland Castle are delighted to be able to support women’s golf and look forward to extending our legendary hospitality and showcasing the estate’s world class facilities to Europe’s top golfers”, Dromoland Castle general manager, Mark Nolan stated.
Previous winners include Major winners, Laura Davies and Suzanne Patterson as well as the captain of the recent Solheim Cup winning team, Catriona Matthew
“The Women’s Irish Open has not been played for 10 years and in many ways will be seen as a new tournament, but has its own incredible history.”, said Dromoland Castle’s director of golf, Eamonn O’Donnell.
He explained that there will be a Pro-Am on the Wednesday before the event and that the hosting of the event will result in the golf course been closed from Wednesday September 14 to facilitate course set up. “This is an extremely exciting and proud time for everyone involved at Dromoland Castle and with our members support I have no doubt we will put on the very best tournament possible”, added the club’s director of golf”.
Club captain, Jimmy McManus said, “This will be a great opportunity for us to showcase the golf course and resort to an international audience. I look forward to welcoming the European Ladies Tour to Dromoland Golf club. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new chapter in Irish Women’s golf. It will be fantastic to see the elite of lady golfers take on the challenge of Dromoland”.
“What fantastic news that the Women’s Irish Open will be hosted by Dromoland Castle in September this year. This is a great vote of confidence for ladies’ golf in Ireland following on from Leona Maguire’s success in the Solheim Cup and winning her first LPGA championship in February this year. She is an inspiration to all lady golfers in the country. The return of the Women’s Irish Open will be a huge boost to the next generation of lady golfers who will get the opportunity to watch the professional golfers on the Ladies European Tour play live on our great golf course. This is indeed a great honour for our club and for us all as members”, commented lady captain. Katrina O’Neill.
The Clare Echo will be running a golf feature in this week’s paper available countywide from Thursday morning.
