Cape Region golfers support U.S. team in Ireland

Cape Gazette readers were well represented at the 2011 Solheim Cup golf tournament in Ireland this September. The Solheim Cup, which takes place every two years and alternates between locations in the United States and Europe, took place in Ireland this year and will take place in Colorado in 2013.

This group of travelers from the Cape Region not only cheered for the U.S. team, but also played some of Ireland’s most challenging golf holes, including those at Portmarnock Links, Headfort, and the O'Meara and Montgomerie courses. The women of the Headfort Golf Club greeted area players with tea and scones and provided a special memento to mark their arrival. After a round of golf, the Irish women also provided the local golfers traditional Irish lunch fare and music.

The Carton House, home to these travelers while they were in Ireland, is rich in history and antiquities, yet modern in its hotel facilities. The first record of a house on the 1,100-acre estate is from the early 1700s. In 1747, James, the 20th Earl of Kildare and from 1766 first Duke of Leinster, married Lady Emily Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond and great–granddaughter of the English King Charles II.

Lady Emily played an important role in the development of the house and estate as it is today. She created the Chinese room (bedroom to Queen Victoria) and decorated the famous Shell Cottage on the estate with shells from around the world. One of Lady Emily’s 23 children was the famous Irish patriot Lord Edward FitzGerald, leader of the 1798 rebellion.

Carton House Golf Club has two courses, one designed by Mark O'Meara and opened in 2002, the other designed by Colin Montgomerie and opened in 2003. The former is a parkland course, utilizing the rolling land of the estate as well as the waters of the River Rye, while the latter features head-high pot bunkers, fast-running greens and narrow fairways.

Carton House was the venue for the European Tour's Nissan Irish Open in 2005 and 2006, having previously hosted the 2004 and 2005 AIB Amateur Open Championship. In 2006, Carton House was the first Irish golf club to be awarded the Committed to Green Environmental Award by the International Committed to Green Foundation, and it received the International Association of Golf Tour Operators’ European Golf Resort of the Year Award in 2008.