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Displaying items by tag: Golf

#LoughErne - It's been confirmed that the Lough Erne Resort will no longer host next year's Irish Open golf tournament.

As reported on Afloat.ie earlier this year, changes in the European golfing scene had cast doubt on the Fermanagh lakeland resort hosting of the 2017 event in after getting the nod two years ago before its purchase by American business tycoon Tony Saliba.

Those doubts were confirmed last week, as the News Letter reports, with a statement from the Lough Erne Resort that it is "extremely disappointed" that the European Tour has announced a change in venue.

It's understood that the sport's new European bosses favour a links course for the annual Irish Open, with Portstewart Golf Club on the North Coast a likely candidate.

The News Letter has more on the story HERE.

Published in Inland Waterways

#LoughErne - Changes in the European golfing scene have cast doubt on Lough Erne's hosting of the Irish Open in 2017.

The Faldo Championship Course on the lough's shores was given the nod in early 2014 to host Ireland's most prestigious golf event, which was held at Royal County Down last summer.

Since then the Lough Erne Resort was snapped up by American business tycoon Tony Saliba.

But now the News Letter reports that European Tour officials have backed away from a firm commitment after the emergence of new stakeholders in Rory McIlroy's Rory Foundation and sponsor Dubai Duty Free – and a changing of the guard at the executive level.

According to a European Tour spokesperson, new CEO Keith Pelly "has big, big ideas about what he wants to do and the Irish Open is a key part of that strategy because it is one of the biggest tournaments.”

The News Letter has more on the story HERE.

Published in Inland Waterways

#InlandWaters - Donald Trump isn't the only American billionaire eyeing up Ireland's premier waterside golf courses, as the Belfast Telegraph reports Tony Saliba has purchased the championship-calibre Lough Erne Resort.

Despite going into administration just four years after its opening in 2008, the five-star hotel and its accompanying Faldo Championship Golf Course will be the location of the Irish Open in 2017, after its successful hosting last year's G8 summit.

And the Co Fermanagh resort's £10m asking price was surely attractive for Chicago-based Saliba, dubbed one of America's 'market wizards' in the 1980s and reportedly an avid golf fan.

The Belfast Telegraph has more on the story HERE.

Published in Inland Waterways

#Diving - BreakingNews.ie reports on one entrepreneur's oddball request for a Scuba diver to fish lakes and streams at golf courses across the country for lost golf balls.

Richard Noonan of Encore Golf Balls says water hazards at Irish golf courses hold "thousands" of lost balls that are a lucrative bounty for anyone with the wherewithal to recycle them.

Noonan currently sells golf balls retrieved by a dive team in Spain, but as he says himself: "Why get someone to do it in Spain when you can do it here cheaper?"

BreakingNews.ie has more on the story HERE.

Published in Diving
Tagged under

#DIVING - Diver Gus O'Driscoll and four members of the Delta Specialist Diving Club are currently searching the bed of Lough Salt in Donegal for a number of golf balls driven into the water more than 100 years ago by the legendary Old Tom Morris.

The Belfast Telegraph reports that 20 of the golfer's own rubber balls were hit into the lake during an exhibition in 1891. Though worth a shilling a piece at the time, today they are worth a whopping €20,000 each.

The only obstacle in the path of the intrepid divers is the mountain of golf balls they have to sift through to find the exceedingly rare 'gutta perches'.

"There are literally thousands of balls at the bottom of Lough Salt because stopping off to hit golf balls there has been a tradition going back to Morris's time," said O'Driscoll.

If they do strike it lucky, the divers plan to donate their finds to the nearby Rosapenna Golf Club, whose course was designed by Old Tom himself.

Published in Diving

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race

The Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race is an annual offshore yacht racing event with an increasingly international exposure attracting super maxi yachts and entries from around tne world. It is hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, starting in Sydney, New South Wales on Boxing Day and finishing in Hobart, Tasmania. The race distance is approximately 630 nautical miles (1,170 km).

The 2022 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race starts in Sydney Harbour at 1pm (AEDT) on Monday 26 December.

This is the 77th edition of the Rolex Sydney Hobart. The inaugural race was conducted in 1945 and has run every year since, apart from 2020, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

88 boats started the 2021 Rolex Sydney Hobart, with 50 finishing.

The Sydney Hobart Yacht Race - FAQs

The number of Sydney Hobart Yacht Races held by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia since 1945 is 75

6,257 completed the Sydney Hobart Yacht race, 1036 retired or were disqualified)

About 60,061 sailors have competed in the Sydney Hobart Race between 1945 and 2019

Largest fleets: 371 starters in the 50th race in 1994 (309 finished); 154 starters in 1987 (146 finished); 179 starters in 1985 (145 finished); 151 starters in 1984 (46 finished); 173 started in 1983 (128 finished); 159 started in 1981 (143 finished); 147 started in 1979 (142 finished); 157 started in 2019 (154 finished)

116 in 2004 (59 finished); 117 in 2014 (103 finished); 157 in 2019 (154 finished)

Nine starters in the inaugural Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in 1945

In 2015 and 2017 there were 27, including the 12 Clipper yachts (11 in 2017). In the record entry of 371 yachts in the 50th in 1994, there were 24 internationals

Rani, Captain John Illingworth RN (UK). Design: Barber 35’ cutter. Line and handicap winner

157 starters, 154 finishers (3 retirements)

IRC Overall: Ichi Ban, a TP52 owned by Matt Allen, NSW. Last year’s line honours winner: Comanche, Verdier Yacht Design and VPLP (FRA) owned by Jim Cooney and Samantha Grant, in 1 day 18 hours, 30 minutes, 24 seconds. Just 1hour 58min 32secs separated the five super maxis at the finish 

1 day 9 hours 15 minutes and 24 seconds, set in 2017 by LDV Comanche after Wild Oats XI was penalised one hour in port/starboard incident for a finish time of 1d 9h 48m 50s

The oldest ever sailor was Syd Fischer (88 years, 2015).

As a baby, Raud O'Brien did his first of some six Sydney Hobarts on his parent's Wraith of Odin (sic). As a veteran at three, Raud broke his arm when he fell off the companionway steps whilst feeding biscuits to the crew on watch Sophie Tasker sailed the 1978 race as a four-year-old on her father’s yacht Siska, which was not an official starter due to not meeting requirements of the CYCA. Sophie raced to Hobart in 1979, 1982 and 1983.

Quite a number of teenage boys and girls have sailed with their fathers and mothers, including Tasmanian Ken Gourlay’s 14-year-old son who sailed on Kismet in 1957. A 12-year-old boy, Travis Foley, sailed in the fatal 1998 race aboard Aspect Computing, which won PHS overall.

In 1978, the Brooker family sailed aboard their yacht Touchwood – parents Doug and Val and their children, Peter (13), Jacqueline (10), Kathryne (8) and Donald (6). Since 1999, the CYCA has set an age limit of 18 for competitors

Jane (‘Jenny’) Tate, from Hobart, sailed with her husband Horrie aboard Active in the 1946 Race, as did Dagmar O’Brien with her husband, Dr Brian (‘Mick’) O’Brien aboard Connella. Unfortunately, Connella was forced to retire in Bass Strait, but Active made it to the finish. The Jane Tate Memorial Trophy is presented each year to the first female skipper to finish the race

In 2019, Bill Barry-Cotter brought Katwinchar, built in 1904, back to the start line. She had competed with a previous owner in 1951. It is believed she is the oldest yacht to compete. According to CYCA life member and historian Alan Campbell, more than 31 yachts built before 1938 have competed in the race, including line honours winners Morna/Kurrewa IV (the same boat, renamed) and Astor, which were built in the 1920s.

Bruce Farr/Farr Yacht Design (NZL/USA) – can claim 20 overall wins from 1976 (with Piccolo) up to and including 2015 (with Balance)

Screw Loose (1979) – LOA 9.2m (30ft); Zeus II (1981) LOA 9.2m

TKlinger, NSW (1978) – LOA 8.23m (27ft)

Wild Oats XI (2012) – LOA 30.48m (100ft). Wild Oats XI had previously held the record in 2005 when she was 30m (98ft)

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