Design team aims to emphasise links nature of site as club targets Irish Open bid
By Toby Ingleton |
Three-time major champion Padraig Harrington, golf course architect Giulia Ferroni of Leeds Golf Design, and Walker Cup winner and tour pro-turned-developer Roddy Carr are collaborating on the redesign of Seapoint Golf Links in County Louth, Ireland.
The project, which is expected to enter construction in January 2027 and be complete by spring 2028, will see four new holes created and seven greens rebuilt. Bunkering will be reworked and sandy waste areas introduced, with an overall goal of emphasising the links nature of the site.
“There’s no doubt we are looking for the wow factor,” said Harrington, in a video on the club’s website. “They ain’t making any more links land. It’s hard to come by and Seapoint has some of the best. Everyone remembers the last couple of holes at Seapoint – spectacular holes sixteen, seventeen and eighteen. It’s our job to make sure that they remember the other fifteen as well.”
Harrington (third from right) says the design team is ‘looking for the wow factor’ (Photo: Seapoint Golf Links)
The club, located about an hour north of Dublin, immediately alongside County Louth Golf Club on the Irish Sea coast, hopes that the redesign work will allow it to host an Irish Open, and the designers are considering how crowds would move around the site.
The redesign will consider the requirements of all players. “We’re going to take out some of the bunkers that don’t necessarily come into play for elite players. If it’s difficult for everyone it’s going to stay, if it’s difficult only for amateurs it’s probably going to come out,” said Harrington.
A visualisation showing natural sandy areas that will become a defining feature of the course at Seapoint Golf Links (Image: Seapoint Golf Links)
The existing tenth hole will be redeveloped and rerouted to become the new opening hole of the course. There will be a new par-three third, and the existing fifth and sixth holes will be converted to a new par five, which will become the thirteenth. Some tees and greens will be raised, and holes reoriented, to take advantage of sea views.
On working with Ferroni, Harrington said: “She’s listened to my ideas; she’s put me straight on a few of them for sure. The engineering that goes in behind this is significant and I need someone to keep me on the straight and narrow. I probably need that on my golf game too! She’s doing a tremendous job of explaining what’s possible and what’s not possible and actually making some of the impossible work.”
The course will close for the work, which will also see the introduction of a new irrigation system and halfway house.
The design team will reconfiguring the closing holes, as seen in this visualisation for the stretch from fifteen to seventeen (Image: Seapoint Golf Links)
Harrington added: “When this is finished, we are expecting, and certainly hopeful, that the members will have a beautiful links golf course…everybody should be able to look out there and be very proud of what they see in front of them; they should be able to enjoy it. But definitely one of the biggest goals of this project is to aesthetically improve the links feel of the golf course.”