Members of Ballykisteen Golf Club are outraged over the proposed sale of the golf course and its return to agricultural use, destroying what has become a vital hub for local people as well as an important tourist attraction.

The course, which his beautifully situated in the heart of the Golden Vale at Monard, just 400 yards from Limerick Junction station, added a golf hotel in 2002, with the entire resort employing as many as 70 local people.

The hotel was acquired from receivership by the Great National Hotel Group on 2017, and while it will remain open, the new owners decided to put the 155-acre golf course on the market (as a golf facility or farming land) for an estimated €1.4 million back in September this year.

The course has become a firm favourite with locals since the great Tipperary amateur Arthur Pierse suggested to the original landowner, Josephine Ryan, that the former Ballkisteen Stud would be ideal golfing terrain and persuaded Des Smyth and Declan Branigan to build a spectacular course that opened for play in 1991.

The venue, which measures 6,703 yards from the championship tees with water in play on 11 holes, staged the PGA Europro Tour’s Great National Hotels Irish Masters in 2017.

As a result, locals were dismayed to be informed earlier this year that the land would be sold as farmland and concerned members are asking why potential buyers, who want to retain golf course, were not prioritised.

“The amount of people who lose out with this sale is massive,” said former Walker Cup star and Irish international Pierse, who lives nearby and still coaches up and coming stars at the club.

The venue, which measures 6,703 yards from the championship tees with water in play on 11 holes, staged the PGA Europro Tour’s Great National Hotels Irish Masters in 2017.

As a result, locals were dismayed to be informed earlier this year that the land would be sold as farmland and concerned members are asking why potential buyers, who want to retain golf course, were not prioritised.

“We aren’t asking for them to not sell but to sell to the right buyer to save businesses, a vital community amenity and the future for the hotel itself.”

— Alan Quinlan, member and former Irish rugby international

“The amount of people who lose out with this sale is massive,” said former Walker Cup star and Irish international Pierse, who lives nearby and still coaches up and coming stars at the club.

“Families who golf together, young people who are training to play at an international level, older members who use it as their pastime and the community that it has built. Even for the hotel, the loss of business because of golfers from around the world no longer staying.”

The course has brought a lot of business to the locality with pro-amateur charity fundraisers and Special Olympic events regularly taking place at a venue that is just a stone’s throw from Tipperary Racecourse.

Members are distraught by the news and what they consider the “lack of consideration for people who rely on the course to make a living.”

Enterprise Ireland (E.I.), a national organisation focused on supporting “sustainable economic growth, regional development and secure employment”, provided funding to the Great National Hotel Group in 2017.

This funding, as with all E.I. investments, was provided on the condition that local jobs would be created and sustained within the locality.

The original development of course in 1991 was aided by a European grant to the value of IR£750,000.

Concerned members of the club have reached out to the Local Enterprise Office in Tipperary for comment but have yet to receive a response.

If the land is sold to a local buyer who wishes to maintain it as a golf course, more than 30 jobs will be saved.

Ballykisteen has over 400 members in all categories and after an initial bid by the members to lease the course was turned down, it has emerged that several members are willing to back a purchase bid for the course which has become a vital local hub, facilitating weekly senior meetups and training for young people at a competitive level.

It remains the only facility in the community that brings young and old people together, and locals have reached out to their T.D.s and launched a petition to save the course.

In a joint statement, club captains Ann Quane and Mike Lynch said: “Members have been in contact every day and the Great National Hotel Group despite numerous requests for both information and cooperation, have had little to no communication with us.”

The membership includes former Irish international rugby star Alan Quinlan, and he is also fully behind the bid to save the golf course.

“In the wake of COVID, the loss of so many jobs and business to the locality could cripple the local Tipperary community for many years,” Quinlan said. “We aren’t asking for them to not sell but to sell to the right buyer to save businesses, a vital community amenity and the future for the hotel itself.”

The club’s PGA professional Marian Riordan is one of the most respected in the country.

"It really is a great golf course," she said. "Once people discover where we are, they come back again and again because you can park the car and stay here for a few days golf with everything on site. It's just ideal for a short golf break.”