The American design team of Dana Fry and Jason Straka is headed to Ireland with plans to lay out a new course adjacent to Curracloe Beach in the southeast of the island.
If the beach looks familiar, you might have seen it on a big screen, as it was used in filming the opening landing scenes for Allied troops in the 1998 blockbuster “Saving Private Ryan.”
Named Curracloe Links, the new layout will be part of Ravenport Resort, which is scheduled to open this spring about a two-hour drive south of Dublin Airport, just north of Wexford. Groundbreaking for the golf course takes place in February with an expected full opening in 2026. The resort will include 50 rooms, a spa and a leisure club near what has been called the best beach in the island nation by the Irish Independent.
“The ancient linksland of Curracloe Links, with its rolling hills, long sea views and rugged natural bunkers, will offer a quintessential Irish golf experience and lure people from all over the world to its fairways,” Straka, past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, said in a media release announcing the news.
The planned routing for Curracloe Links in Ireland (Courtesy of Neville Hotel Group)
Straka, who plans to spend considerable time at the site, should be getting used to working near the sea: His recent renovation of Belleair Country Club near Tampa has proved especially popular since it opened in 2023.
Ireland-based Neville Hotel Group is developing the project. It will be Neville’s fifth property, joining Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire, Druids Glen Hotel and Golf Resort in County Wicklow, the River Court Hotel in Kilkenny and the Tower Hotel in Waterford.
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