Shandon Park Golf Club Centenary 1926 – 2026

The course for Shandon Park Golf Club was originally founded as Knock Golf Club in 1895 with the opening of a nine-hole course beside the Knock Railway Station on the Belfast & County Down Railway line on 6 May 1895. The Knock G.C. moved to its current location, Summerfield, 80 acres a half mile from the terminus of the Dundonald tramway line in 1920. Their original (Edwardian) clubhouse which was built in 1904 became a private residence named ‘Ben-Hur’ but was demolished by 2019. The originally nine holes which had laid dormant for five years from 1920 were rebranded as the Shandon Park Golf Club in 1925 and officially opened on 22 May 1926. An old wooden hut costing GBP60 was used as the clubhouse and pro shop. Shandon Park Golf Club is a private members’ club, owned and operated by its members.
The club purchased the land, which had been subject to a short term lease, for GBP3,100 plus and annual ground rent in 1932 and a new clubhouse was erected in 1935 designed by Thomas Callender. The course was extended to 18 holes by 1935, prior to the erection of the clubhouse, and appears to have been designed in-house by the club professional, J.C. Lilley, and Mr. Eric Riley. The club was selected to host the 1935 Ulster Professional Championship. By 1938 rules against playing on the sabbath and serving intoxication liquor were voted out. In the sixties new road construction siphoned off land from the golf club and necessitated redesign/reconstruction work and presented safety issues. In September 1972 the troubles visited the club when a car bomb blew up outside the clubhouse and another in the locker room causing significant damage and the following year the club was robbed by armed and masked men.
Over the decades, Shandon Park has hosted numerous prestigious competitions, including Ulster Professional championships, the Blaxnit Championship in 1964 and the Gallaher Ulster Open from 1965 to 1970 and the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Stroke Play Championship in 2012 which was won by Sarah-Jane Boyd.
The club has produced many notable golfers, including Michael Hoey, a four-time winner on the European Tour including the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Other prominent members include the Hoey brothers (Brian, Dermot and Michael) children of Captain Caldwell Hoey (who was instrumental in introducing a junior programme/section at the club in the fifties), David Long, Niall Anderson, John Duncan, Philip Purdy, Gary Wardlow, Brendan and Michael Edwards amongst others. The success of this junior programme was reflected in their unprecedented success by winning thirteen Senior Cups and six Barton Shields between 1960-2000. The club won the 2000 and 2001 European Men’s Club Trophy at Parco de’ Medici G.C. in Italy and remains the one of only two Irish clubs to have won this event since its inception in 1975.
Shandon Park Golf Club is a gem of a parkland golf course, situated in the leafy suburbs of East Belfast. It is consistently regarded as one of the most competitively successful golf clubs of the modern era.