Northern Irish golf club ‘may relocate’

A property group that already owns one golf club in Northern Ireland has submitted a bid to acquire the land used by a second golf club, which could result in it relocating.

According to The Irish News, Merrion Property Group, which has owned Down Royal Park Golf Course for the last 15 years, wants to buy the 75-acre golf course owned by Balmoral Golf Club. The venue is located in one of the most affluent areas of Belfast.

The paper believes the bid may include an offer to merge the two golf clubs into one at Down Royal Park – which would involve an upgrade to its golf course.

Members of the club have voted down multi-million pound bids in the past to relocate it to make way for residential development, adds the paper.

Dunloe-Ewart unsuccessfully put a £37.5 million bid to the club in 2000 that could have seen each member pocket £50,000. An alternative offer of £22.5 million and a new 18-hole course and clubhouse near Hillsborough was also turned down.

The club also rejected a 1999 bid that involved an offer to build a luxury golf and country club with two 18-hole championship courses, £5 million cash and an annual retainer of £125,000 for three years until a new ground was found.

Members also rejected a £28 million offer to sell the course to a property developer in 2004.

While specific details of this new bid are not disclosed, it ‘could include an offer to relocate the club to Down Royal along with a significant upgrade to the Co Down course’ reports the paper.

Merrion Property Group is owned by Irish property millionaire Michael Roden and made its name selling a 24-scre site in Dublin’s Mount Merrion for more than £40 million.

Members of Balmoral Golf Club are set to discuss the new bid at a meeting this month.