All booked up hoping for luck of the Irish In Ireland.

Just finished finalizing all of the arrangements for my groups trip to Ireland. Adare Manor, Doonbeg, Tralee, Lahinch (2x), and Ballybunion (2x). Trip is scheduled for last week of September, now just have to hope it’s opened back up by then. I know a few of you guys have regular business in Ireland, and I have been checking but if any of you can provide some current insight I would appreciate it.

I will be hoping for that same luck, as I will be there September 15th-23rd.

Hoping golf/travel will be open by then with no mandatory quarantine upon arrival.

Hammergolf, I'm living in Ireland and the government are due to make an announcement on May 4th/5th about the ongoing restrictions. I know a lot of clubs over here are gearing up to open that week with a number of changes to the way golf is organised and played. One such rule would be leaving the flag in at all times and the bars not being opened in clubhouse may or may not detract from your stay. Even with that in place your list of courses is so good that you couldn't fail to have a good time on the course.

We’re re-evaluating our travel on May 15 once we have some more info around what will be lifted. Current thought is that travel before September will be unlikely because I can’t quarantine my team for 14 days on either side of the trip. Worst case projections for us have us shifting to a different phase of the program and assuming no travel globally until June 2021. That would suck but we plan for aggressive and conservative scenarios.

Thanks for the reply gpeie. I live in Illinois and our courses are still closed, but thankfully I’m right on the border with Missouri and courses there are open. The pins are left in at all time and it’s one person per cart. Hope the courses do open back up, even with certain restrictions. I’m used to flags being in so that won’t be an issue.

Hopefully the travel is lifted by September. Thank you for the reply.

I just saw this article from the other day. It appears to me that best case, things open according to schedule, which means no bars/pubs until August 10. Given that my trip (with college grad son) to Ireland is scheduled for July 27-August 9, it would be a golf trip without pubs...not the way I want my son to spend his first golf trip in Ireland. I will probably cancel. https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/golf/golfers-may-be-restricted-to-nine-holes-under-return-to-play-protocols-1.4248873

Yes I saw the phases of opening. It looks like if thing goes well the 14 day flight quarantine could be lifted in phase 4 on July 20th. I’ve been in contact with all the courses we are scheduled to play and they are sticking to their cancelation policies. Some will give 75% refund, others will not refund anything. I was not happy that special considerations aren’t being made, but not much I can do. We’re just hoping that by late September the flight quarantine is lifted. Otherwise we will have to reschedule for next year. I hope everything works out for you and your son.

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/acc4de-easing-the-covid-19-restrictions-on-20-july-phase-4/

There is some optimism amongst my leadership team that we’ll be able to visit in September as well. At this point we’re all worried about a potent second wave screwing everything up.

Really sucks that it is screwing everything up for everyone.

Yes, just hoping for the best. I’m optimistic that as more countries open up and see the risk is low it will speed up things across the world.

Just an update from the GUI about golf in Ireland going forward. You might just have a chance.
Protocol for Republic of Ireland.pdf

We are hoping foir the best. Thanks for the update!

Can you get travel medical insurance for your trip ? I called mine and they don’t cover for pandemics. So by small chance you needed to go to hospital for treatment because you caught covid in Ireland it will be a very expensive trip

We had a guy come down with an illness on one of our trips. Spent the night in the hospital. Total cost to him, 20€ because he wasn't Irish and didn't have insurance. They seemed stressed to tell me that it would cost anything when I paid the bill. There were no follow up costs. Don't know what would happen if you got it there now but in 2008 this was it for a one night stay, whatever meds they gave him and care.

We had the same thing happen on our St. Andrews trip 2 years ago. I took him to the emergency room, and his total cost was less than 50 euros.

Fingers crossed. Switched my trip from May (would have left on sunday) to early october. lets hope for the best.

We will be there hopefully from Sept 26th - Oct 3rd. Where are you playing?

Pretty much all the known SW ireland tracks starting with Lahinch and ending with Old Head.

trying to stay positive but everyday feels like something is “around the corner” (quarantine upon arrival... second wave of ‘rona etc)

We’re playing Dromoland Castle, Doonbeg, Tralee, Lahinch, and Ballybunion. I keep looking at the updates every couple days. Hoping everything goes along with the Irish govt’s plan.

Yeah, the irish seem to have things “under control” as far as guidelines and planning. Makes me feel a little bit more optimistic.

I hope you guys get out, if I was going all that way I'd surely have Waterville in the rotation!

We thought about it, just too much of a drive from the house we are renting in Kilmihil. Would of liked for it to have worked out, but my group likes to play courses twice and just could not fit it in. Maybe on the next trip. If Adare Manor gets the 2026 Ryder Cup we are going to plan another trip to Ireland.

I canceled our July 27- Aug 9 trip, and now dealing with the economics of our deposits. Based on what I have been told, the only way to recover 100% of the deposits is to book the identical trip in 2021. Hard for me to book something with certainty this far in advance (this was a graduation gift for one of my sons...he won't know his 2021 availability), so faced with possibly losing a big chunk of deposits.

Yeah the only place that offered any type of refund was Lahinch, and it was only 75%. We are just hoping for the best. And if it’s not back open we will just postpone until next year.

I decided to just rebook for 2021...in the meantime for 2020 I might try to put together something out here on West Coast for me and my sons.

Have you heard any updates from your leadership team about travel to Ireland in early September?

I'm one third of said leadership team so yes but I didn't post it because it isn't good news. We're planning for no travel until Q1 2021. There's some thought that it might be possible before then but that my client team won't be willing to travel due to health risk. I'm the consulting part of leadership team and my team has almost universally stated that they'd travel as soon as they were allowed but it is a fundamental part of our jobs. We do have one team member who has had two family deaths that are COVID related that is unwilling to travel for now. Understandable. The client doesn't see a scenario where they ask employees to return to the office until January either though so our travel would be pointless.

Has there been any update from the Irish govt about if the quarantine for inbound passengers will be lifted?

Not to my knowledge and I regularly check both there and Poland because that's the two places I need to be a lot.

Don't know about Ireland but here is the UK update, which I try to follow closely.https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/arrivals-uk-face-14-day-quarantine-government-plan-70828395