Cill Dara Golf Club has been rocked after a number of greens on the golf course were destroyed by quad bikes overnight causing damage that will takes weeks to repair.
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred at the golf club which is situated on the Curragh Plain. The club will have to take certain holes out of commission. It’s a double disaster considering the club is a nine-hole course, meaning while the vandals damaged singular greens, two holes will be rendered unplayable.
“It’s very disappointing and shocking really. Last night a significant amount of damage was done,” said Chairperson of Cill Dara Golf Club, Herbie Wilkins.
“This has happened several times. I could give you photographs from the year before, the year before and the year before where people come on to the course in cars and spin their wheels around and churn up the fairways and greens.
“Cill Dara Golf Club is very much a community and family club. We have a very nice get into golf programme going for ladies with a lot of potential members, juniors and it’s a family club with a lot of volunteerism.
“We are an employer as well so it is very disappointing to see what’s happened to people’s work.”
There are several sports facilities and clubs on the Curragh plains, including the racecourse. Cill Dara Golf Club remains the only facility on the plains that does not have a perimeter fence to protect the property, meaning that vandals wreaking havoc on the course is a regular occurrence.
It’s not for the lack of trying, the club have regularly been in discussions with the Department of Defence to try and get a fence erected, but they have been constantly refused permission.
“We don’t know why,” Wilkins lamented. “They allow all the other sports facilities on the Curragh around them except us.
“They have given us hope and given us a process to go through to get our fencing but it’s quite a difficult process and we are not sure if they asked the other sporting facilities to do the same. We feel hard done by that we can’t protect our property and other sports facilities can.
“We fully support other facilities having a fence, they should have one, but why we can’t have one we don’t know. This is the result of applying for years to get a fence but it’s been really difficult.
“Incidents like this will keep happening and we need support for our case.
As the peak of the golfing season approaches Cill Dara were starting to dream of silverware and pennants coming to the club with their Jimmy Bruen, Pierce Purcell and Ladies Interclub teams all performing well.
Now they face the prospect of not being able to host matches and having to restructure open competitions which could impact the number of visitors coming.
“Today we had a semi-open which meant we were inviting people to other clubs. We had to change the structure of the competition. Our greenkeeper tells us it will take a number of weeks to repair the damage,” Wilkins explained.
“It’s a great family club, we have a lovely clubhouse, members, caterers, it’s a unique place to play golf really but this is such a shame.”
As always, Cill Dara will repair the damage, recover and go again but until they get a fence the club will live in fear of having their home ripped apart.
“We are trying to manage the situation, we will put the greens back together again. We don’t know when this is going to happen again, tonight or we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. It’s a very difficult situation,” added Wilkins.