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K Club
The Kildare Hotel and Golf Club (abbreviated The K Club) is a golf and leisure complex in the Republic of Ireland, located at Straffan, County Kildare. It is built on the original grounds of the Straffan estate, incorporating the 1830s Straffan House, and was owned by Michael Smurfit. History In 1831, Hugh Barton of the wine firm Barton and Guestier bought land at Straffan and nearby Barberstown Castle from the Henry family and had Straffan House built whilst he and his wife stayed at Barberstown. Completed in 1832, the design was based on a French chateau, with the later addition of a bell-tower, and now forms the east wing of the present complex. From Hugh the property passed, via his eldest son Nathaniel, to his eldest son Hugh Lynedoch, after which it passed to Hugh Lynedoch's brother, Bertram Francis. All served in turn as High Sheriff of Kildare. The estate remained in the Barton family until 1949, when Derick Barton was forced to sell the property to manufacturer John Ell ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Straffan
Straffan (variously ''Teach Srafáin'', ''Strafáin'' or ''An Cluanini'' in Irish) is a village in County Kildare, Ireland, situated on the banks of the River Liffey, 25 km upstream of the Irish capital Dublin. As of the 2016 census, the village had a population of 853, a nearly two-fold increase (from 439) since the 2006 census. Straffan is the name of the surrounding electoral division which is within the ''Celbridge Number 1 Rural Area'', and which (as of 2006) had a population of 1,449. At one time a separate parish, it is today joined to the parishes of Celbridge (in the Roman Catholic structure) and ''Celbridge and Newcastle'' (Church of Ireland), in the respective Dublin dioceses. Straffan is home to the ''Kildare Country Club'', commonly known as the K Club, and its two championship golf courses, which have staged major international events such as the European Open (hosted annually there between 1995-2007), and the Ryder Cup tournament between Europe and the USA i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madison Dearborn Partners
Madison Dearborn Partners (MDP) is an American private equity firm specializing in leveraged buyouts of privately held or publicly traded companies, or divisions of larger companies; recapitalizations of family-owned or closely held companies; balance sheet restructurings; acquisition financings; and growth capital investments in mature companies. MDP operates using an industry-focused investment approach and focuses on the following sectors: basic industries, business and government software and services, financial & transaction services, health care, and TMT services. Since the founders established MDP as an independent firm in 1992, the firm has raised seven funds with aggregate capital of approximately $23 billion, and has completed investments in more than 130 companies. History Madison Dearborn Partners was founded in 1992 and is based in Chicago, Illinois. The founders, John A Canning Jr, Paul J. Finnegan, Samuel M. Mencoff, and Nicholas W. Alexos, had previously ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PGA European Tour
The European Tour (currently known as the DP World Tour for sponsorship reasons), legally the PGA European Tour is the leading men's professional golf tour in Europe. The organisation also operates the European Senior Tour (for players aged fifty or older) and the developmental Challenge Tour; the second tier of men’s professional golf in Europe. The tour's headquarters are at the Wentworth Club in Virginia Water, Surrey, England. The European Tour was established by the British-based Professional Golfers' Association through the 1970s, and responsibility was transferred to an independent PGA European Tour organisation in 1984. Most tournaments on the PGA European Tour's three tours are held in Europe, but starting in the 1980s an increasing number have been held in other parts of the world; in 2015 a majority of the ranking events on the European Tour were held outside Europe, though this included both Majors and World Golf Championship events that are ranking events for mul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Great Britain and Ireland), North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the List of islands of the British Isles, second-largest island of the British Isles, the List of European islands by area, third-largest in Europe, and the List of islands by area, twentieth-largest on Earth. Geopolitically, Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Ireland), which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. As of 2022, the Irish population analysis, population of the entire island is just over 7 million, with 5.1 million living in the Republic of Ireland and 1.9 million in Northern Ireland, ranking it the List of European islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golf Course
A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The cup holds a flagstick, known as a "pin". A standard round of golf consists of 18 holes, and as such most courses contain 18 distinct holes; however, there are many 9-hole courses and some that have holes with shared fairways or greens. There are also courses with a non-standard number of holes, such as 12 or 14. The vast majority of golf courses have holes of varying length and difficulties that are assigned a standard score, known as par, that a proficient player should be able to achieve; this is usually three, four or five strokes. Par-3 courses consist of holes all of which have a par of three. Short courses have gained in popularity; these consist of mostly par 3 holes, but often have some short par 4 holes. Many older courses ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HighBeam Research
HighBeam Research was a paid search engine and full text online archive owned by Gale, a subsidiary of Cengage, for thousands of newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines, and encyclopedias in English. It was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. In late 2018, the archive was shut down. History The company was established in August 2002 after Patrick Spain, who had just sold Hoover's, which he had co-founded, bought eLibrary and Encyclopedia.com from Tucows. The new company was called Alacritude, LLC (a combination of Alacrity and Attitude). ELibrary had a library of 1,200 newspaper, magazine and radio/TV transcript archives that were generally not freely available. Original investors included Prism Opportunity Fund of Chicago and 1 to 1 Ventures of Stamford, Connecticut. Spain stated, "There was a glaring gap between free search like Google and high-end offerings like LexisNexis and Factiva." Later in 2002, it bought Researchville.com. By 2003, it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michel Flamme
Michel Flamme is a French chef. He worked in "Byerly Turk Restaurant ", the restaurant of the Michelin starred Kildare Hotel and Golf Club (K Club) in Straffan, County Kildare, when it earned its stars between 1993 and 1994. He was executive head chef of the K Club until at least 2000. Flamme's first Irish job was in restaurant ''Mirabeau'' in 1984. Later he moved on to the K Club. In 2006, Flamme moved to the high-profile restaurant ''No. 10'' in Dublin. Despite his cooking, this project ended in bankruptcy. In 2008, he worked in ''Solis Lough Eske'' in Donegal. Awards * Michelin star The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a ... 1993-1994 [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chef
A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitchen. Chefs can receive formal training from an institution, as well as by apprenticing with an experienced chef. There are different terms that use the word ''chef'' in their titles, and deal with specific areas of food preparation. Examples include the ''sous-chef'', who acts as the second-in-command in a kitchen, and the ''chef de partie'', who handles a specific area of production. The kitchen brigade system is a hierarchy found in restaurants and hotels employing extensive staff, many of which use the word "chef" in their titles. Underneath the chefs are the ''kitchen assistants''. A chef's standard uniform includes a hat (called a ''toque''), neckerchief, double-breasted jacket, apron and sturdy shoes (that may include steel or plasti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michelin Star
The Michelin Guides ( ) are a series of guide books that have been published by the French tyre company Michelin since 1900. The Guide awards up to three Michelin stars for excellence to a select few establishments. The acquisition or loss of a star or stars can have dramatic effects on the success of a restaurant. Michelin also publishes the Green Guides, a series of general guides to cities, regions, and countries. History In 1900, there were fewer than 3,000 cars on the roads of France. To increase the demand for cars and, accordingly, car tyres, car tyre manufacturers and brothers Édouard and André Michelin published a guide for French motorists, the Michelin Guide. Nearly 35,000 copies of this first, free edition of the guide were distributed. It provided information to motorists, such as maps, tyre repair and replacement instructions, car mechanics listings, hotels, and petrol stations throughout France. In 1904, the brothers published a guide for Belgium similar to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Restaurant Rating
Restaurant ratings identify restaurants according to their quality, using notations such as stars or other symbols, or numbers. Stars are a familiar and popular symbol, with scales of one to three or five stars commonly used. Ratings appear in guide books as well as in the media, typically in newspapers, lifestyle magazines and webzines. Websites featuring consumer-written reviews and ratings are increasingly popular, but are far less reliable. In addition, there are ratings given by public health agencies rating the level of sanitation practiced by an establishment. Restaurant guides One of the best known guides is the Michelin series which award one to three stars to restaurants they perceive to be of high culinary merit. One star indicates a "very good restaurant"; two stars indicate a place "worth a detour"; three stars means "exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey". Several bigger newspapers employ restaurant critics and publish online dining guides for the cities ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Automobile Association
AA Limited, trading as The AA (formerly The Automobile Association), is a British motoring association. Founded in 1905, it provides vehicle insurance, driving lessons, breakdown cover, loans, motoring advice, road maps and other services. The association demutualised in 1999, to become a private limited company, and from 2014 a public limited company (PLC). In 2002 the AA Motoring Trust was created to continue its public interest and road safety activities. In 2021, a consortium led by Tower Brook Capital Partners and Warburg Pincus completed the acquisition of AA Limited (formerly known as AA PLC). History Charitable association The Automobile Association was founded in 1905, to help motorists avoid police speed traps, in response to the Motor Car Act 1903 which introduced new penalties for breaking the speed limit, for reckless driving with fines, endorsements and the possibility of jail for speeding and other driving offences. The act also required drivers to hold a dri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star (classification)
Star classification is a type of rating scale utilizing a star glyph or similar typographical symbol. It is used by reviewers for ranking things such as films, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, a system of one to five stars is commonly used in hotel ratings, with five stars being the highest rating. Historical usage Repeated symbols used for a ranking date to Mariana Starke's 1820 guidebook, which used exclamation points to indicate works of art of special value: ...I have endeavored... to furnish Travellers with correct lists of the objects best worth notice...; at the same time marking, with one or more exclamation points (according to their merit), those works which are deemed peculiarly excellent. ''Murray's Handbooks for Travellers'' and then the ''Baedeker Guides'' (starting in 1844) borrowed this system, using stars instead of exclamation points, first for points of interest and later for hotels. The Michelin restaurant guide introduced a star as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
