€45 million offer for Craddockstown

Craddockstown Golf Club in Naas has been offered a massive €45 million by developers to sell up and move to Dunmurry Springs.

The deal would see Craddockstown become one of the wealthiest clubs in Ireland as the entire proceeds would be retained by the members, who own the course.

The news is a massive temptation to Craddockstown, which opened for play in 1994 after 100 former members of Bodenstown decided to act on their dream of owning their own course.

The offer involves the unnamed developer paying €45 million to Craddockstown in exchange for the course on over 100 acres of land outside Naas.

The land is currently zoned Amenity and Recreational under the 2005 – 2011 Naas Development Plan and falls equally under the planning area of Naas Town Council and Kildare County Council.

However, the developer is hoping to get some or all the land rezoned as residential and is negotiating for the members to move to Dunmurry Springs Golf Club, a new 18-hole course outside Kildare Town.

If the offer is accepted by Craddockstown at an Emergency General Meeing next month, the proceeds received will be free from Capital Gains Tax, provided that they are used for the sole purpose of promoting athletic or amateur games or sports.

The Craddockstown story began in March 1991 with the purchase of a 142 acre stud farm on the Blessington Road, just outside the Naas.

Course architect Arthur Spring was commissioned to design an 18-hole golf course, which was affiliated to the Golfing Union of Ireland in 1994.

The club opened its clubhouse in 1999 and redesigned its par 72 track in 2004 with the help of designer Roger Jones.

The club's 750 members received the news of the offer in a letter from the club committee last Friday.

No-one from Craddockstown was available for comment yesterday.