Clarke backs £100m Causeway golf course
6/1/12 PACEMAKER BELFAST. Darren Clarke at this afternoon's press conference at Royal Portrush Golf Club as the European PGA officially announced that this years Irish Open would take place at the the prestigious north coast golfing venue. Picture CHARLES MCQUILLAN/PACEMAKER
BRITISH Open champion Darren Clarke has applauded plans for a £100m golf resort near his Portrush home.
The new Bushmills Dunes Golf Resort and Spa will include a championship links, a five-star 120-bedroom hotel and 75 villas. Although he has no direct link to the project, the golfing star last night gave it a warm welcome.
“It will be fantastic,” he told the News Letter.
“The plans have been there for a very long time and the course will be sensational. It will be wonderful for the area to have a five-star resort there.
“It will be absolutely brilliant. It will generate employment and generally it will be fantastic for the area. And the piece of land is stunning. It is just down the road from where I live. I’m not involved at all but it will be stunning. It’s brilliant news.”
More than 10 years after the first planning application was lodged, the developers have overcome National Trust resistance to begin work on the site close to the famous Giant’s Causeway in Co Antrim.
Construction could start later this year in a bid to have the course and accommodation ready by the summer of 2014.
Northern Ireland Environment Minister Alex Attwood is expected to make an announcement today.
The investment is headed by a New York-based Northern Ireland management expert and scientist Dr Alistair Hanna, 67, originally from Holywood, Co Down - the home town of US Open golf champion Rory McIlroy.
Darren Clarke lives a few miles from the proposed course, close to neighbouring Royal Portrush Golf Club where the Irish Open will take place this summer.
Graeme McDowell, a friend of both players and winner of the US Open in 2010, also comes from Portrush.
The first planning application was submitted in 2001 and then renewed six years later.
There was considerable opposition by the National Trust, owners of nearby Giant’s Causeway, a Unesco world heritage site where a new visitors’ centre is due to open this summer after another lengthy planning process.
Opponents claimed the development, which is one and a half miles away, would have a detrimental impact on the environment and could put at risk the Causeway’s heritage status.
It is understood the minister consulted closely with all the agencies involved, especially the trust.
The all-clear will be a triumph for Dr Hanna, who has been bringing American golfing friends to the North Coast since 1989 when violence and political unrest was at its height.
Developing a world class resort has been an ambition since then.
After graduating in nuclear physics from Queen’s University, Belfast in 1972, he completed an MBA at Harvard Business School before joining the consultancy company, McKinsey & Co. He retired in 1999.
With the world-rated Royal Portrush nearby as well as championship links courses in neighbouring Portstewart and Castlerock, Dr Hanna believes the area is crying out for luxury hotel accommodation and can be transformed into an even greater global golf destination.
It already attracts golfers from Europe and the US.
Tourism chiefs gearing up for the opening of the £90 million Titanic Belfast complex ahead of the 100th anniversary of the sinking, will be relieved the minister is set to sign off the development.
Scotsman David McLay Kidd designed the 18-hole course. He has previously worked on courses at St Andrews, Oregon and San Francisco.
Former Northern Ireland Policing Board chairman Sir Desmond Rea has been working on the project as an advisor since the initial application was lodged.
It has taken over 10 years for a final decision and the delay is likely to raise questions about the planning process.
It is known that Mr Attwood, who visited the site, is unhappy with the slow pace.
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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