Since 1924
Gort Golf Club, founded in 1924, and originally known as the Rockfield Club, spent its first 50 years on its home off the Galway Road. However, from the beginning, the annual winter flooding reduced the golf course to a veritable lake for up to six months each year causing much upset to the members.
Finally in 1974/75, under the captaincy of the late Bob Forde and Gerry Cahill, the Club decided to move to a new location at Laughtyshaughnessy, where members could enjoy their golf in all seasons. However, it soon became clear that the 30 acre site could not properly accommodate the growing membership, and thus during the late 1980's and early 1990's successive committees searched long and hard for a more suitable location.
The current site, purchased from the Finnegan and Fleming families at Castlequarter, has an interesting history. It is recorded that one "Nehemias Follane, in respect of his travaile and pains taken for Her Majesty (Elizabeth I) - shall have 2 quarters (240 acres) in the New Toune, in the Barony of Kiltaraghe" (Kiltartan). The castle, built by the above Nehemias Follane, still stands on the property adjoining the course. It is also an area of outstanding beauty, overlooking the Slieve Aughty mountains and the woods of Coole on one side and on the other the Clare Hills, and the world famous Burren.
Visitors to Gort Golf Club have always been most welcome and we hope you will find the present course an attractive and fair challenge. Remember, the area also affords the visitor the oppurtunity of visiting Coole Park, home of Lady Gregory and Thoor Ballylee, one time home of W.B. Yeats.