European Golf Destination of the Year 2011

Press Release
Immediate Release

Thursday, 18th November 2010

North West Ireland tipped to win
“European Golf Destination of the Year 2011”

The International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO) is gearing up to host their annual Awards Ceremony tonight in Valencia, Spain and flying the flag for Ireland is North & West Coast Links Golf (N&WCL) tipped to accept the award for “European Golf Destination of the Year 2011”. Over 1,200 industry professionals from 60 countries will attend the gala dinner to recognise and reward the exceptional contributions to the world of golf travel, voted for by IAGTO operators and the IGTWA’s golf travel writers. 350 international golf tour operators from 52 countries across the world voted and initially selected 20 European golfing regions before whittling down the competition to just 6 finalists for tonight’s awards ceremony including Fife in Scotland (which includes the world famous Old Course at St. Andrews), the Czech Republic, Tenerife, Murcia in Spain and Lisbon in Portugal, along with North West Ireland.

Over the past few years the world’s most high profile destinations have won the coveted title including Provence & Cote D’Azur, the Algarve, Andalucia, and Turkey. John McLaughlin, General Manager, North & West Coast Links Golf commented in the lead of to the awards ceremony “Needless to say we are thrilled to be nominated for such a prestigious award, as it gives the links the recognition they deserve amongst its global counterparts. The region has injected significant investment over the last 10 years to bring their golf product up to the standards expected from today’s golfer and despite stiff competition we now have our sights firmly set on the title of European Golf Destination of the Year 2011”

Established as a small marketing cooperative over 20 years ago, N&WCL has grown from just 4 clubs, to now being considered the premier golf marketing organisation in Ireland, through representation of 12 of the finest courses in Ireland, which include Ardglass Golf Club, Royal Portrush Golf Club, Portstewart Golf Club, Ballyliffin Golf Club, Portsalon Golf Club, Rosapenna Golf Links, Narin & Portnoo Golf Club, Donegal Golf Club, Co. Sligo Golf Club, Enniscrone Golf Club, Carne Golf Links, & Connemara Championship Links. With over one third of the world’s links courses in Ireland and with 12 in North & West Coast Links, Golf holiday packages with IATGO are worth an estimated €1 billion annually and so far this year bookings at N&WCL have been up 40% for 2010 compared to 2009, ensuring a major golf tourism spend in the region.

Boasting a world class links product, it’s no surprise a selection of the world’s top golfers have visited the area, such as Rory Mcllroy in his early years winning back to back West of Ireland Championships at Co. Sligo Golf Club, Tom Watson dropping in for a leisurely game with friends at Connemara, or Major Champion Graeme McDowell coming home to Royal Portrush!

Visit www.northandwestcoastlinks.com or Call +353 (0)91 868642 for further details on the North & West Coast Links. To view imagery of the 12 links courses log onto http://www.northandwestcoastlinks.com/image-gallery.

Ends
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For further information, please contact:

Aoife Carney, D’Arcy Marketing & PR, Tel: 091-568390 or Email: Aoife@darcymarketingandpr.ie

Noreen D’Arcy, D’Arcy Marketing & PR, Tel: 091 – 568390 / 086 8227556 or Email: Noreen@darcymarketingandpr.ie

Cups & Shields

Best of luck to our Pierce Purcell and Senior Cup Team this week in Castlebar. Bring home the Green Pennant

Successful Weekend

Congrats. to our Senior Cup and Pierce Purcell teams on two great victories in Castlebar and Hard luck to our Barton Shield and Junior Cup teams. This weekend sees our Presidents Prize where a good turnout is expected. Best of luck to the Irish Team in Wales this week.

Club Fundraiser

Friday 30th July is our Club Fundraiser. Time is running out to get your Team of 4 entered for this event. Great Prizes on offer such as 4 Green Fees in The European Club, 4 Green Fees in Druids Glen, 4 Green Fees in Lough Erne plus many more. Only 100euro per Team to book contact 0719177186.

Support

After a very successful Captains weekend we have our Summer BBQ on Friday night. Tickets for this can be purchased from the office. Our Pierce Purcell Team and Cecil Ewing Teams are both in action on Saturday afternoon all support welcome. Congrats. to our Barton Shield team and our U15 Team who had great victories last weekend.

News

Captain’s Day takes place this Saturday and we wish Pat well on his day. The Barton Shield team are in action in Ballinrobe at the weekend and we wish Serryth and his team well. Friday the 9th July we have are Summer Barbaque which promises to be a great nights entertainment.

Forth Coming Events

Well done to the Junior Cup Team on their success over the weekend.

Dates for your diary this Saturday sees the Pierce Purcell team in action in the Zone Final.
Saturday July 3rd sees Captains Day.
Friday July 9th we have our Summer Barbaque this promises to be great night

Busy Weekend Ahead

Saturday sees the Lady Presidents Day best of luck to Mary on her day. Our Junior Cup Team are in action in Carrick on Shannon over the weekend best of luck to Paraic and his team.

On the course the dry spell is playing havoc with our course so from Monday we will have to reduce the amount of buggies we let on the course for the next few days they are causing a lot of damage. We will be reviewing this on a daily basis.

Club Success

After a great showing last weekend from Gary Mc Dermott the success for teams in the club continued during the week. On Wednesday our Mixed Team and a close fought victory over Carrick on Shannon and that was followed by the JB Carr teams victory over Strandhill. Our Pierce Purcell team go into battle this weekend against Enniscrone so we wish them well.

Well done Gary Mc Dermott

It was great to see our member Gary Mc Dermott finish a very creditable runner up in the East of Ireland Championship in Baltray over the June Bank Holiday weekend. Well done Gary. On a sad note i would like to pass on my condolences to the family of Ivan Dickson who passed a way over the weekend, he will be sadly missed by his many friends in Rosses Point.