The Kildare Club - Smurfit Course

The philosophy in developing the course was to ensure that a comparison with the existing Palmer Course would be difficult and that the golfers experience would be completely different. When this brief was given to Palmer Course Design Company, they came up with a concept, which was radical with regards to golf course developments throughout the World.

Even with regard to the landscaping there is a significant difference, whereby on the Palmer Course there are specifically planted areas using cultivated plants presented in a formal fashion are the norm. On the Smurfit Course wild species of plants have been used such as gorse, bracken etc. and have been planted in a highly random fashion, more or less as nature would have intended.

Also four islands have been created within the lakes to promote the establishment of waterfowl.

The most significant golf hole on the Smurfit Course is the Par 5 7th measuring some 550 m. This hole will probably be regarded as the most dramatic in Europe.

It has a series of water cascades and water features which are just some factors of this development. In its construction, the fairway was dropped some sixty feet below its original height.