Revamped Galway Bay Golf Resort to soar like an eagle!

Work is set to being on a €1 million refurbishment of the clubhouse at Galway Bay Golf Resort in Rinville, Oranmore, next month following the completion of the tender process.

Speaking at announcement that the club is set to return to the Irish PGA circuit with the Galway Bay Pro-Am on September 18, Club Director Ronan Killeen said the tender process had closed and he was in the process of evaluating the tenders, with the view to having workers on the ground in September.

Speaking at the club last week, the general manager of the resort, Martin Daly, said that plans for the refurbishment project had been drawn up by Cyril Kelly Architects, and the proposal is to not just re-open the clubhouse, which has been closed for a number of years, but to develop it as a top-class event facility.

“The plans drawn up by Cyril Kelly Architects are fantastic, and when it is finished it will be a fantastic facility. It will be a wonderful clubhouse, but it is to be a venue, not just a clubhouse – the aim is to get back as the number 1 wedding destination in Galway.

“We’ll have a top-class 110-seater restaurant – the restaurant was hugely popular for events such as weddings birthdays and graduations some years back, and we intend to get back to that high standard,” Mr Daly said.

If work starts as expected in September, Mr Daly said the schedule is to have the project completed by April, and already the team at Galway bay Golf Resort is planning ahead for the completion of works.

“We have a five-star golf course, we’ll have a five-star facility up there with redeveloped clubhouse, and we are already working with tour operators.

“We are already are working in partnership with a number of hotels in Galway, there are packages and will be packages be available for both golfing and non-golfing members of touring parties – there is so much to see and do in Galway, it is a great destination.

“There are exciting times ahead and we want to showcase what we have here. Tour operators are always eager to come to Galway, and we have had a lot of feedback from America in relation to a feature video that has been shown in America recently,” Mr Daly said.

Back in May the golf club hosted a filming crew from the NBC stable in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland to shoot an eight-minute advert which highlights the facilities available to all overseas golfers to the resort.

That was screened to an estimated television audience of 70 million people in America, and Mr Daly says there has been a rise in interest from the American market since the advert was screened, including from the Irish diaspora.

“We have had a lot of feedback, receiving quite a lot of calls from North America including from the Irish, and Galway, diaspora. The television piece was broadcast in New York, Boston, Chicago and Florida, and the interest has been superb,” Mr Daly said.

The golf course, which has been hailed as one of the best in the West of Ireland, was originally designed by former Ryder Cup star, Christy O’Connor Jnr, and he travelled to the club last week for the launch of the Pro-Am and the clubhouse renovation plans.

He said that while the current facilities are excellent – the clubhouse currently operates on a portion of the ground floor of the closed Galway Bay Hotel – it was hugely important to the club’s members to return to the original clubhouse, which he said was a huge hit with one particular famous US personality who regularly visited the course.

“It is great to be back here and see something new happening. The move into the hotel has been great and it is a fine facility, but there is nothing to compare with where we were and it is great news that the old clubhouse is reopening.

“I remember one evening sitting upstairs with Bob Hope after a game, looking out as the sun set over the Bay and he said it was as close as you can get to heaven, he loved this place,” Mr O’Connor Jnr recalled.