Golf's Stay & Play 2021

2021 is not yet two months old, Covid19 remains rampant and vaccines provide no guarantees. 

On the other hand, things are looking a lot better than they were a few months ago when certain morons were suggesting the cure was to inject bleach. The cautious optimism heading into spring and summer has golfers waiting patiently (or impatiently, depending on your point of view) for courses to re-open. International travel will be severely limited for the global cohort of golfers so the stay-at-home stay and play offers will be keenly anticipated by all. Hotels and local golf courses, golf resorts and the likes of Fairways & Fundays are all gearing up for the holiday-at-home audience.

Druids Glen par-3 8th

This was made abundantly clear by three things in the past week:

1. The Irish Times Weekend magazine (Feb 20) had a six-page spread on Staycations, covering 38 different accommodation providers (from 5 star to camping). Nine of these were were hotels with golf courses attached and the Irish Times was kind enough to mention the availability of golf. Included were Adare, Ashford Castle, Castlemartyr, Druids Glen, Faithlegg, Farnham Estate, Fota Island, Kilkea Castle, and The Heritage. 

Places like Carton House, Mount Juliet, The K Club, Slieve Russell, Waterford Castle, Dromoland Castle, Glasson, Moyvalley, Powerscourt, Portmarnock Links, Ballykisteen, Dundrum House, Mount Wolseley, Ballymascanlon, Doonbeg, Rosapenna, Macreddin, Knightsbrook, and Castle Dargan failed to be mentioned. We have a wealth of them so it's no surprise that not would make the cut.

2. Fairways & Fundays have started their 'at home' offers. There will be many more companies and hotel/golf course combos doing the same thing in the weeks and months ahead but Fairways and Fundays tend to have a march on their competitors and come up with some cracking deals. See below for just one example!

3. Destination Golf Top 150 Courses in Ireland

This annual publication - of which I am the editor - has a five page spread on the Stay-and-Play opportunities in 2021... and it includes many of the resorts and locations missed by The Irish Times. The article starts on page 14.