SLOWLY PIECING IT ALL TOGETHER AT BEAUTIFUL GAOTH DOBHAIR
Closing in on the 18-hole dream in spectacular Donegal
THEY’RE rich beyond their wildest dreams in beautiful Gaoth Dobhair in Co Donegal. No, they haven’t won the Lotto or the EuroMillions, but when it comes to enjoying the delights of nature, this thriving Gaeltacht community in the parish of Gweedore in northwest Donegal, this is indeed the promised land.
It’s golf country too, and while the golf club, which was founded in 1923 and affiliated to the GUI in 1926, disappeared for a while in the 1940s and 50s, it sprang to life again in 1960s as tourists flocked to the locality to enjoy the beautiful sandy beaches and those spectacular views of Gola, Inishmeane, Inishinney and Inishirrer, all of it overlooked by magnificent Errigal.
Gweedore Golf Club is unusual in Irish golf as it boasts not nine or 18 holes, but 14 as the club slowly works towards achieving its dream to own a full, 18-hole course.
It’s wonderful links terrain too with the course built on a combination of club land, commonage and private fields.
“We have added five new holes in recent years, and as they grow in, they have slowly gained in quality,” explained competitions secretary Peadar Ó Gallchóir. “So you play four of the holes twice to complete your 18. We used to play the same nine holes twice, but with the new holes, we now have a much better course.
“First of all, we changed the third from a par-four to a parfive, then created a new tee for the fourth hole making that a new par-three, and then added the new 13th, 14th and 15th and 16th holes.
“At the beginning of each nine, we played the first, second, third, and then we play the ninth at the end of each nine to make up our 18.
“We’d love to have 18 holes, and there is plenty of land but our main problem, apart from the fact that much of the land is commonage, is that all the land there is part of a Special Area of Conservation (SAC). So you would need permission from the National Parks & Wildlife Service (NPWS), Donegal County Council and the local landholders to move forward. So it is not easy, but we have hope that one day we will have a full 18-hole course.”
The original holes were created by James Breslin and a Mr McCready from the Milford Hotel. But the new holes were built by the members themselves and the new stretch from the 14th to the 16th, played around An Binn Bhuí, have become know as Gweedore’s Amen Corner.
There is no nicer place on a fine day than standing on that 15th tee with your back to the Atlantic
The 14th is a 424-yard, indexone, par-four that is one of the most spectacular new links holes in Donegal while the 15th, a short par-three of just 110 yards, is played from a tee set right on the Atlantic shore, offering incredible views of the islands.
“The 14th is a tough index one to a new raised green, but there is no nicer place on a fine day than standing on that 15th tee with your back to the Atlantic,” added Peadar. “It’s just wonderful, and so too is the new 16th, which plays down to a narrow fairway and then to a raised green with trouble all around it.”
The old tin hut that served as a clubhouse, hard by the wall of St Mary’s Graveyard, was replaced by a modern clubhouse in 1976, which was further extended and refurbished in 1989.
The club remains an integral
part of the community to such an extent that you can still see the remains of potato drills, where the locals grew food on common land and herded cattle and sheep to help make ends meet.
“It’s come on a lot since then, and it is a great facility for any parish,” Peadar added. “It is just such a pity that we didn’t have an 18-hole course 50 years ago, which we should have had. It was a very popular place in the 1960s and 70s with three or four hotels packed in summer.”
The club first played in the 1968 County Golf Championships in Rathmullan, going on to reach the County Final for the first time in 1981. They won their first County Minor League Final in 1984, then claimed the County Main League for the first time in 1998.
A first Junior Scratch Cup arrived in 2014 before the club took another giant leap this year by reaching last month’s final of the Senior Scratch Cup for the first time, going down to Letterkenny at Narin and Portnoo.
“They all grew up and learned their golf at the club and got their handicaps down low enough to be able to compete with the best in the county”, Peadar explained. “It was a huge achievement for the lads. The team was Cathal Óg Ó Gallchóir with his brother Hugh Ó Gallchóir, Pádraig Ó Dochartaigh, Michael O’Dwyer, Cian O’Fearraigh and Seán Sweeney.”
Who knows if Pádraig, who was playing off a handicap of 11 just a few years ago but now plays off one, will not go on to become as successful a late developer as former Ryder Cup skipper Paul McGinley, who also learned his golf on those lovely Donegal fairways some 40 years ago.