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!