Kildare, (Dublin), Ireland … October 2012 …  The K Club, located near Dublin City Centre and Dublin International Airport, has received top honors for Ireland in the 2012 World Travel Awards.  The K Club has been named “Ireland’s Leading Golf Resort.”  This is the eighth consecutive year the property has been so honored.  The five star resort is set in an historic, 19th century manor house surrounded by meticulously manicured lawns, exquisite walled and formal gardens, acres of parklands, and two Arnold Palmer-designed golf courses. 
 
“We are so pleased to receive this award for the eighth year,” said Michael Davern, CEO and general manager of The K Club.  “This award honors our exceptional hospitality team, which provides each day the type of anticipatory service that ensures our guests feel completely attended to throughout their entire stay.  It’s a wonderful feeling when our guests, in turn, recognize our team in this way.”
 
The award comes on the heels of The K Club being named to the “World’s 10 Best Golf Resorts” List by Tony Smart of CNN.  Also, the K Club’s culinary program picked up an accolade when it was recently awarded a” Gold Medal for Wine Experience” in the annual Hotel & Catering Review Gold Medal Awards.
 
The K Club is famous for its Palmer Ryder Cup Course, recognized as one of Europe’s most dynamic golf courses.  The course is also distinguished as Europe’s first Ryder Cup Course.  Snaking through the 18 holes is the River Liffey, which flows through the 550-acre lush Kildare estate en route to Dublin. Mature indigenous Irish trees carve their way around the fairways, towering overhead, and numerous water hazards and ‘beach-like’ bunkers are at the waters edge of this challenging mature parkland course. 
 
The K Club’s Palmer Smurfit Course is a surprisingly link-style course.  Honey-colored grasses frame the fairways, rustling in the wind as it sweeps across steep bunkers, and meticulously contoured putting surfaces.  A combination of doglegs skirt the water’s edge on the 5th and 6th hole leading up to the breathtaking signature hole, the 7th - a long and genuine three shooter. The magnetic feature is a ‘Swallow Quarry,’ a vast man-made rock face that rises 60 feet out of a lake.  A series of waterfalls cascade the water hazard.
 
Both of The K Club courses are tantalizing, challenging and have a degree of difficulty to suit all levels.  With two championship courses, offering 36 of the most exciting and dramatic holes in Europe, golf at The K Club is an exceptional experience, as is evidenced by the high honors the resort receives year after year.
 
The World Travel Awards, described by The Wall Street Journal as the “Oscars of travel and tourism,” were established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all sectors of the travel and tourism industry. Today, the WTA brand is recognized globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality, with winners setting the benchmark to which all others aspire.
 
The voting for winners of the World Travel Awards is online and a year-long communications campaign encourages global participation.  The votes come from qualified executives working within travel and tourism, as well as consumer travellers.  Last year, nearly 800,000 individual votes were cast by travel professionals and consumers in 171 countries.  Awards are presented across three tiers: country, regional and ultimately world awards. 
 
Each year WTA covers the globe with a series of regional gala events to recognize and celebrate individual and collective successes within each key geographical region.  All regional winners then compete head to head in a final round of voting to decide who will triumph in WTA’s world awards announced in December.  In 2013, WTA will celebrate its historic 20th anniversary year.

For high resolution photography of The K Club, visit:  http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/29118362/1/K%20Club?h=73460e

About The K Club
The K Club is a multifaceted resort set on 550 acres and on the banks of the River Liffey in Straffan, Co. Kildare, Ireland.  Just 30 minutes from Dublin International Airport and Dublin City Centre, the resort includes a 69-bedroom hotel which is this year’s AA Hotel of the Year; two Arnold Palmer-designed championship golf courses – The Palmer Ryder Cup Course and The Smurfit Palmer Course, The K Spa and several restaurants and bars.  The resort has staged 13 European Opens and The Ryder Cup 2006.
 
Winner of several accolades for both its hotel and golf offerings, The K Club is renowned as one of the world’s premier golfing destinations.  Other facilities and activities offered on site include conferencing, fishing, horse riding, archery, wine cellar and art & history tours. There is a dedicated Health and Fitness Club, the extraordinary K Spa, and a Kids Club which runs daily.
 
The magical setting of the resort, the magnificent grounds and stringent attention to detail and service has made the property a firm favorite with golfers, families, business travelers, spa goers and wedding couples.  The K Club offers excellent value-added packages for the corporate, leisure and incentive markets.  For more information on packages, services or for best available rates offered log on to www.kclub.ie   The K Club is a member of Preferred Hotels & Resorts.
 
About World Travel Awards  
World Travel Awards was launched in 1993 to acknowledge and recognise excellence in the global travel and tourism industry. Now celebrating its 19th anniversary, it is regarded as the very highest achievement that a travel product could hope to receive.
 
WTA's global media partner network includes International Herald Tribune, CNBC Arabiya, Newsweek, ASTA Network, National Geographic Traveller, Access New York, Travel & Leisure China, Khaleej Times, Trade Arabia, TTN, Trav Talk India, Publituris, ABTA Magazine, Outlook Traveller, Breaking Travel News, eTurboNews and Travel Daily News International.
 
This global media partner network has a monthly readership of 1.7 million and a TV audience reach of 90 million.