The Carr Team

Marty Carr

is Chief Executive of the Carr Group, which operates the business interests of the famous Carr family who hail from Ireland. The Carr Group comprises Carr Golf Travel, Carr Corporate Events and Carr Golf Services. The Group’s areas of expertise include conference and event management, corporate travel, golf course management and advisory services in addition to the renowned golf travel business.

Based in Ireland, Marty gained a BSc in Finance from the University of San Francisco before living and working in the United States for nine years until 1989. Carr Golf Travel was founded in 1990 and since then the Carr Group has developed into a successful international business. Marty is a respected authority on golf and maintains a hands-on role in managing the organisation.
Prior to founding Carr Golf Travel, Marty worked with Paine Webber (now UBS) and NCB Stockbrokers. He also held the position of chairman of the Ireland Golf Tour Operators Association (IGTOA). He is a member of Portmarnock Golf Club, Mount Juliet Golf Club, Doonbeg Golf Club, Dromoland Castle Golf Club, and an honorary member of The Old Head of Kinsale and a member of the Floridian Golf Club in the US.

Marty is a son of the legendary Joe Carr, who was one of the world’s best amateur golfers during in the 1940's, 50's and 60's and a wonderful ambassador for Irish golf. In his glittering career he amassed 40 championship wins, three British Amateur victories, numerous Walker Cups and three US Masters appearances. He was elected captain of the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in 1991 and in 2007 Joe became the first Irishman to enter the World Golf Hall of Fame. Other members of the famous Carr dynasty have also played Walker Cup and represented Ireland at international level. Marty has the name but not the game, and plays off a 10 handicap.

Roddy Carr

Roddy Carr, son of the legendary late J. B. Carr, is now based in Ireland marketing major new golf initiatives with particular focus on ladies golf. He is currently involved in a government group set up to develop the future platform for promoting golf and is also the key driving force behind the promotion of Killeen Castle, where the Solheim Cup will be played in 2011. Roddy is involved in the staging of the five Ladies Irish Opens and 2011 Solheim Cup. He has over 25 years international experience in the golf business. As well as being a player of distinction in his earlier life he spent many years with IMG managing players, setting up their first office in Hong Kong and he headed up IMG Tourism a division of IMG consulting.

As a golf events promoter based in Spain in partnership with Seve Ballesteros, Roddy ran over 40 European Tour Events and played a significant role in running the 1997 Ryder cup at Valderrama which Seve captained, and who Roddy was managing at the time. Roddy has significant experience having worked on major projects in the Far East, the Caribbean, where he developed his own golf course where he is a significant shareholder and throughout Europe where he represented Jack Nicklaus design for several years. Roddy recently represented Killeen Castle and Ireland's successful bid to bring The Solheim Cup to Ireland for an historic first time and as part of that project he will be promoting, marketing and staging The Solheim Cup at Killeen Castle, in association with the Ladies European Tour and also reviving the Ladies Irish Open, which commenced in 2008.

Gerry Carr

Director of Golf, is based at Elmgreen Golf Club where he manages the day-to-day operations. Gerry has worked in the golf industry for over 15 years and has served on golf club committees at both Sutton and Elmgreen Golf Clubs. Gerry has also captained several golf teams for both clubs and is the 2005 captain of Elmgreen Golf Club. He has worked at Elmgreen since the opening of the course and plays off a handicap of 5 out of Portmarnock. Prior to working at Elmgreen, Gerry worked as head of sales for Joe Duffy Motors, one of Ireland’s leading motor dealerships.

Ed Pettit

joined the Carr Group in 2006 as CEO of Carr Golf Services and took up the position of Commercial Director for the Carr Group in August 2007. During his first year Pettit gave fresh impetus to the services business of the organisation by securing additional contracts and enhancing both the work practices and vision for the company to ensure greater revenue and profitability.
Prior to joining the Carr Group Ed was Operations Manager at PGA National Ireland at Palmerstown House, one of Ireland’s most prestigious golf resorts. He was responsible for setting up the golf operation at PGA National Ireland prior to opening in 2005. His role involved recruitment, devising and implementing standard operating procedures and overseeing the successful running of the business.
Ed is a member of the PGA and studied Sports Management in University College Dublin. Ed has held several other senior positions in some of Dublin’s larger member clubs, such as Hermitage Golf Club and Killiney Golf Club.

Stephen Lyons

is Finance & Operations Director of the Carr Group. A qualified accountant with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), Stephen has over twelve years experience working in varied finance related roles. He joined the Carr Group in 2004 as financial controller after previously spending five years working in the financial services arm of the computer giant Hewlett Packard as a finance analyst.
His background and comprehensive knowledge of the golf industry ensures Carr Golf Travel provides an unparalleled financial service to our clients. From financial feasibility studies, funding options, tax planning and financial controls, he ensures all aspects of financing are covered.

Peter Keighery

Peter holds the position of Customer Services Manager for the Carr Group. He has worked with Carr Golf Travel for the last 16 years both as driver and tour guide for many of our clients. Over the years Peter has had the privilege of looking after clients such as Jack Nicklaus, Seve, Sam Torrance, Curtis Strange and a host of celebrities including Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dan Marino, “Boomer” Esiason, Vice President Dan Quayle, Wayne Huizenga and members of the Miami Dolphins Football Team. Other clients of Carr Golf Travel that Peter has accompanied include: Jennifer Mills from the Golf Channel, Maury Povich of TV fame and the cast of the hit TV show Scrubs. The list is endless!!

Peter was a musician (in his younger days!) and has been known to tinkle the ivories many a night in the Butler Arms in Waterville (his favourite hotel in Ireland) and other establishments all over the country! He has a thorough knowledge of all the golf courses in Ireland and Scotland as well as where one can enjoy the best pints! Peter is a great asset for anyone making a trip to Ireland where fun and great golf is guaranteed! He is also a whistler, which is a dying breed!!

Sarah Caulfield

Sarah Caulfield has over 15 years experience in the Tourism Industry in Ireland. Having starting her career in the Irish Hotel industry, Sarah joined the Carr Group six years ago as a Sales Executive and is part of the Travel Sales Team. She has extensive experience in organising golf vacations to Ireland, Scotland, Spain, South Africa and the USA. In addition, Sarah facilitates trips for the corporate market, including incentive travel, hospitality and meetings. She is also responsible for event management of the World Invitational Father & Son Golf Tournament. Sarah has a Diploma in Hospitality Management and a BSc Degree in Tourism & Marketing, both from DIT Cathal Brugha Street.

Find me on Skype: CarrGroupSarah

Mark Byrne

Mark joined the Carr Group in February 2007 as a Travel Executive and has built up extensive knowledge of golf in Ireland, Scotland, Portugal and other key destinations worldwide. Mark joined the company from Microsoft, where he was part of the pricing team for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Prior to this Mark worked with Icon PLC as a clinical data coordinator. Mark is from Dublin originally and graduated from University College Dublin with a Bachelor of Science degree specializing in Statistics.

Find me on Skype: CarrGroupMark

Susanne Wang

In January 2007, Susanne joined the Carr Group as part of the Finance Department. Reporting directly to the Finance Director, her main duties include: Intercompany Accounts, Credit Control, Group Payroll and coordination with external Auditors. Susanne graduated from Griffith College Dublin with a BA Honours degree in Accounting & Finance. She became an Affiliate of ACCA in 2009 and is fully qualified.

Stephen Keane

Stephen joined the Carr Group in 2010 as Sales & Marketing Manager. He has over 5 years experience in sales and marketing across 2 different sectors. He previously worked as sales manager for Golf Digest Ireland, Irelands biggest selling and award winning golf magazine. Due to this he has an excellent knowledge of the Irish golf club scene and the Irish golf product as well as vast experience dealing with international golf suppliers in countries such as Spain, Portugal,Scotland,UAE and America. A keen golf traveller he has previously lived in South Carolina and played golf all over the globe including Austraila. Stephen works across both the travel and the services side of the businsess and holds the position of Sales and Marketing Manager. He grew up in Skerries just outside Dublin and studied at DIT Bolton Street where he obtained a BSc. Stephen is a keen sports fan and active member of Skerries Golf Club, playing to a handicapp of 9





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Julia Erfurth

Having previously worked at the Carr Group as an intern back in 2007 Julia has returned from her native Germany to work as a Travel Sales Consultant for Carr Golf's Travel Division.
Julia worked previously for a golf tour operator in Germany for 2 years and was able to gain extensive knowledge about the key golf destinations in Europe and the rest of the world. She was part of the Marketing, Events and Team Travel Department. Due to her great knowledge about Ireland and Scotland she was also in charge of all travel sales to Ireland and Scotland.
Julia has graduated from the University of Applied Science in Worms, Germany with a degree specializing in Tourism and Transportation
Find me on Skype: CarrGolfJulia

Michael Steele,

Sales Manager for the Carr Group, holds a BA Degree in French Language & Literature from Queen’s University Belfast and a Masters Degree in Hotel & Tourism Management from The University of Ulster, Jordanstown. Michael has over ten years experience in the travel industry in Ireland and Italy. He was responsible for building the database that powers Goireland.com, Ireland’s leading Internet Travel site. During this time he developed commercially viable tourism projects including car rental and accommodation booking service, golf tee time service, Irish genealogy search and the official website of the Vintners Federation of Ireland. This experience was then transferred to an international level when he took up the position of Business Development Manager with Travelmad, a multi-lingual 22 country travel booking service. He managed a team of four product development managers in key income generating sectors. Following four years in this position he decided to open his own business and successfully grew an inbound Italian travel service targeting N. American and British clients.



For futher information please contact Carr Golf Travel.