Fota Island Golf Club and Resort
Fota Island Golf Club lies in the heart of a 780-acre estate (originally the Fota House grounds) integrated with woodlands and landscape. Its Golf Course consists of three challenging par 71 championship courses in the traditional mode comprising the Deerpark, Belvelly and Barryscourt courses and is one of Ireland's many scenic and challenging golf settings. The Golf Club boasts three championship standard golf course configurations. The original Deerpark (Par 71) along with Belvelly (Par 72) and Barryscourt (Par 73).
Golf was first played in Fota Island in 1886. Since then it was continually developed and became one of the premier locations in golfing. In 1993, Fota Island Golf Club was further developed by Christy O'Connor Junior (Irish Ryder Cup), and Peter McEvoy (two-time British Amateur Champion).
Fota Island is considered as essentially a resort course and hosts a number of tournaments which includes the Irish Club Professional Championship and the Murphy's Irish Open golf tournament in 2001 and 2002. Fota Island was then purchased by the Killeen Group (owners of Mount Juliet Golf & Spa Hotel in Kilkenny). Since then, developments have started to take place and the course has been upgraded to European Tour standards.
In November 2004, Fota Island Golf Club was purchased by the Fleming Group. The Fleming Group also improved the course by renovating some of the holes and also maintained the greens and reseeded the trees surrounding the golf course. In 2006, the Fleming Group completed construction of the 5-star Fota Island Hotel & Spa as well a large self-catering lodge development in Fota Island to complement the golf course. In 2011, Fota Island Golf Club hosted the PGA Europro Audi Cork Irish Masters which was won by Paul Reed of Bristol and Clifton Golf Club.
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