Gweedore golf club Donegal

Members Achievements

Gweedore won the Gaeltacht Alliance in 1999 and 2000

Gweedore won the Donegal League Championship in 1998 and 1999.

Members who played representative golf for Country or Province;

Ciaran McMonagle represented Ireland at international Youths level from 1996 to 1997 playing  8-matches, won 4-matches halved two and lost 2-matches accumulating 10-points. He represented Ireland at Irish Boys level from 1993 to 1994 playing 10-times won 6-matches halved one and lost 3-matches accumulating 13-points. He represented Ulster in the Senior Interprovincial’s from 1997 to 2000 playing 24-times won 13-matches halved three and lost 8-matches accumulating 29-points. He represented Ulster as a Youth in the Interprovincial Championships from 1994 to 1997 playing 23-times won 14-matches halved four and lost 5-matches accumulating 32-points. He represented Ulster at the Boys Interprovincial Championships in 1993 playing 6-times won 5-matches halved one and lost 0-matches accumulating 11-points;

History of Gweedore

What the Club tells us:

Gweedore Golf Club was founded in 1923, becoming affiliated in 1927, playing on a 9 hole course, mainly on Commonage land and some privately owned fields. It seems the club did not function from 1939 until it was resurrected in 1960.

Small scale but significant developments occurred over the years, from having a small tin hut close to the graveyard in the 1930s, built at a cost of £27, to a new modern clubhouse in 1976, to replace the temporary prefab from 1970 and then the extension and refurbishment in 1989.

The purchase of strips of land began in 1970 – the site of the Clubhouse and the present first fairway – bought from Johnny Conaghan, Cotteen. Further land and share purchases followed regularly and after many years of effort and enthusiasm the club finally achieved its first objective in 2014, of having a 9 hole course on its own land.

Combined with its majority shareholding on the Commonage, the course now comprises of 14 distinct holes and the club is determined to achieve its ultimate aim of having an 18 hole course for its members whose efforts over many years should result in a much needed amenity for the parish of Gweedore.

The old course record of 65 is held by Pól ‘Monty’ Ó Maolagáin achieved on the 19/8/2007. The record for the new layout will soon be up for grabs once conditions for records are in place.

Course development remains high on the priority list in the coming years and the spectacular scenery of the links will be difficult to surpass.

Gweedore Ladies Branch was founded in 1977, and had approximately 12 members with a few country members joining in for the summer months, set up and ran by local ladies, it’s numbers soon increased to 30 ladies by the early eighties and today there are approximately 35 members who play regularly on the links course. Wednesday is ladies day and twice a month 2 ladies sponsor a tea evening, which is a great opportunity for a get together and keeps all the ladies up to date on events in the club. Kind and generous local sponsorship, which the ladies seek out, is the bread and butter of the club and provides the much-needed revenue to run a voluntary club, all of our sponsors are very much appreciated.

All of our competitions are played in stroke or stableford format and scoring is generally good with 68 net or 39 points being the norm as the Atlantic breezes make the scoring a challenge. In certain conditions, in the summer months the scoring can be as good as 62 net but the course has undergone a few changes in recent years and the fast links fairways are now grassy and make it necessary to carry the ball and not depend on the run, also rough has been allowed to grow making it imperative to stay on the fairways.

The only matchplay event the ladies enter is the Maura O’Donnell Cup which is played at clubs all over Donegal and consists of 5 teams from each club who play fourball matchplay with a home and away match, much enjoyed by all who take part and a great opportunity to play the beautiful Donegal courses and meet with like minded ladies. The ladies branch is part of a winter Alliance which consists of Cruit Island Golf Club, Narin & Portnoo Golf Club, Cloughaneely Golf Club and Gweedore Golf Club and on one Saturday each month the ladies play on each of these courses, a prize is awarded for the Club of the Alliance with scores taken from each outing.

A very friendly group of ladies with a warm welcome for visitors and great encouragement for beginners makes up a very well organised and hardworking team who work well together in running competitions and events and who are very supportive of their club. Lady Captains day is the highlight of the golfing calendar for the ladies and is usually played in July, August or September and usually consists of an 18 hole qualifying round with the top 10 scores and equal going back out for a 9 hole play-off to decide the winner. All the club functions are held in the clubhouse with local caterers providing the food and the craic at club functions is always second to none!