The Road from Effernock 1898-1998

County Meath Golf Club, originally known as Trim Golf Club, was founded in 1898. The club has a rich history, starting in Effernock and through the ‘Grand Gate’ on J.C. Hanbury’s Estate just outside Trim and they named it the County Meath Golf Club. By 1905 Hanbury wanted this land for farming as the club needed to find an alternative property. The next stop was to the Oakstown Estate and a 40 acre site on P.J. Kennedy’s land. At this stage the gutty ball had been left behind and the rubber-core (“Bounding Billy”) was in vogue. The poor maintenance and upkeep of the course meant golfers were beginning to drift to Bellinter Park and by November 1925 the club had hit its own iceberg and an extraordinary general meeting was called to wind up the club with Messrs W. J. Feely & Co. asked to sell the property. In 1935 a meeting chaired by Barney Reilly was called in the Railway Hotel like a clarion call for the members of Oakstown and Effernock who want to resurrect the course and land at Oakstown had again been secured and membership fees fixed only this time the club would be named The Trim Golf Club’ and play resumed in August. The advancements in equipment (including steel shafts and ball designs), and although not highlighted at the meeting, meant Oakstown was no longer a reasonable proposition for the distance the ball was now travelling and within a short space it reared its ugly head.

The honorary secretary, George Plunkett, had a sixty-three acre farm at Dogstown and some political manoeuvring and help from the green-eyed monster when their course was compared to Bellinter Park justified the move to Dogstown and they were in-situ by 1938 after Mick McGuirk from the County Louth G.C. was engaged to design the course. The sods for the greens had been secured from Killua Castle on the demise of this golf club. Membership was picking up and the rationing of golf balls during the war proved an effective way of collecting subscriptions from the ‘tight wads’ in a timely manner. Towards the end of the forties the relationship between the landlord, George Plunkett, and the club and the maintenance of the course suffered once again. By 1951 the situation was intolerable and members started to vote with their feet moving to either Headfort or Bellinter Park (Royal Tara) and on the 27 April 1951 a letter asked the club to vacate the property. Although without a course it wasn’t the end for the Trim Golf Club who embraced their unsettled existence. At one stage they tried to link up with Drinidaly pitch and putt but nothing came of it until 1968 when the course was resurrected and members (including Paul Rayfus and Frank Dignam) of the pitch and putt club were at the forefront of making this a more successful endeavour. Believing the tenancy issue was at the root of all their problems and the “Septembrists’ (meeting held in September of that year) agreed this time to acquire the land and their current site came up for auction that year and they purchased it for £12k. It was the members who tamed the terrain and Mick McGuirk was again engaged to design this course and he provided the plans for the nine-hole layout which was just over 3k yards and the official opening was on 25 July 1971.

In 1987 the club agreed to buy two further parcels of land of 67 acres for £162k and handed the course design over to Eddie Hackett and by all accounts the join between the new and old course was seamless with five of the existing holes remaining. The official opening was on the 26 May 1990 and by 1992 they had started construction of their new clubhouse and it was officially opened on 3 October 1993. Before the new clubhouse was erected it had already been agreed to revert back to the original name of The County Meath Golf Club.
In 1996 it was decided the greens needed an overhaul and it was Tom Craddock’s simple hand drawn designs that were accepted and put in to action and this together with his wife Nola’s blessing that marked each green as it was finished. It would not be long afterwards that Tom would be fighting for his life or ‘four down with three to play’ if we were to use his own parlance and he passed away towards the end of 1998.

The club’s most notable player is Paul Rayfus who won the West (1986) and East (1987) of Ireland Championships together with the Dundalk Scratch Cup (1984). The club has hosted the Leinster Boys Open Championship and the Irish Assistants Championship