Adare Manor Golf Club 1900-2000 A Centurial Record

In the late 1890’s the 4th Earl of Dunraven an avid golfer and frequent visitor to Lahinch and North Berwick employed Scottish professional, Ben Sayers to design a 9 hole golf course on the Earl’s estate in Adare.  This course was opened in 1900 but believed to have been is use for two years previous to this. Bernard Darwin wrote about the course in the Evening Standard and St. James’s Gazette on 12 October 1907.

It wasn’t until 1932 the club affiliated to the Golfing Union of Ireland and so the foundations of the current club were formed. Even as a 9 hole course Adare Manor Golf Club had many successes, principally the winning of the All-Ireland Final of the Pierce Purcell Shield in 1985.  It also produced one the most accomplished Irish amateur golfers in Jackie Harrington.  Jackie was capped many times for Ireland but his finest hour came when he won the Irish Close Championship at Ballybunion in 1979.

In 1992 the current 18 hole course, designed by Eddie Hackett, was opened and in the year 2000 the club celebrated it’s centenary.  It was indeed fitting that the present Earl of Dunraven was President of the club for the centenary year.  A 5,000 year old bog oak sculpture was erected at the back of the 18th green to commemorate this special occasion and a time capsule was buried at its base.  This capsule is to be resurrected in the year 2050.