Kinsale Golf Club Centenary 1912-2012

The King’s Own Borderers had, as referenced in the 1883 Irish Field,  created an 8-hole golf course at Prehane just four miles outside Kinsale until they were temporarily stationed in Dublin in 1884 before being moved to Aldershot within a couple of years. Kinsale Golf Club was first established in 1912 at Tissasson on land owned by the Hurley family and likely waned around WWI, Irish War of Independence and Civil War until it was resurrected again at a 9-hole course at Charles Fort in 1922, known as Sallyport (military term referencing a controlled entry-way to a restricted area) in recognition that one existed nearby. The land a Sallyport was owned by the O’Driscoll’s who were responsible for maintaining the land but also retained grazing rights. The clubhouse, a one room timber and corrugated iron structure, opened in 1926 at Charles Fort but would be moved, with the club, to Ringenane in 1930 to form part of the clubhouse there. The club were not satisfied with the maintenance and Mr William Woulfe offered 40 acres of rough untamed terrain at Ringenane.

Reference is made to the visits of John Burke during the early years where he would advise on the layout of the course especially bunker and tee placements. Grazing (sheep) on the course continued until the late sixties. The forties were lean years as WWII saw petrol rationing and members leaving and a bank loan needed personal guarantees for the club to continue but in the end the problems were endured. In the fifties membership was coming more from Cork City rather than locally but a boom in the sixties and seventies saw the club thrive. The Kinsale Scratch Cup was first played for in 1961. Lease negotiations always proved a troublesome affair with the renewal in the sixties almost bringing an end to the club but the 99 year lease (2073) with the Matson family was in place by 1974 (albeit the existing one expired in 1967). In June 1978 An Taoiseach Jack Lynch opened the club’s new pavilion.

During lease negotiations the club had looked at lands at Oysterhaven owned by Stanley Roche (Roche’s Stores) but decided not to pursue it. In the late eighties they looked at extending the existing course with the landlords and even had Eddie Hackett do a feasibility study but negotiations led nowhere even the offer to purchase the freehold was rejected. Another option at Summercove was rejected because of the restricted acreage even though Jack Kenneally had done a preliminary layout. In 1993, the club acquired a number of parcels of agricultural land totalling 122 acres at Farrangalway/Mellifontstown with the purchase and transformation costs into an 18-hole course estimated at IR678k. The course was inspected by the Sport Turf Institute and, after a number of drafts, was designed by Jack Kenneally and is not far from the site of the Battle of Kinsale. A new two-storey clubhouse followed in 1995 which was partially funded by a IR400 loan from members with the official opening performed by the G.U.I. President. Additional land (20 acres) was purchased and Hawtree Ltd, course architects, brought into redesign holes 2-5.

The Ringenane course was maintained as a pay as you play facility and later as an annual green fee facility but in 2007 the Green Fee Group were offered an annual license to form the Ringenane Golf Club but as its financial viability became questionable, the land was eventually sold back to the Matson family in 2013.

It has produced notable golfers such as George Crosbie, Liam Higgins, Mick Power who, although a member of Muskerry at the time, won the ‘South’ (2), ‘East’ and Irish Close championships), Paddy O’Sullivan who won the ‘South’ in 1960, and John Murphy, who has represented Ireland in international competitions and won prestigious tournaments like the St Andrews Link Trophy before gaining his card on the DP World Tour.

The club hosted the Irish Senior Men’s Close Championship and Irish Seniors Women’s Amateur Open Championship in 2025.