At Letterkenny Golf Club, it is business as usual.

"You don't know how good it is to see you again," one of the members calls out to club captain Bobby Mullally. "I've never been happier to see you in my life."

Already on Monday morning car park is two-thirds full. “You can smell the normality in the air . . . there’s something of summer about today,” says Mullally. “Everyone is delighted to get out.”

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That delight is evident on the smiling faces making their way towards the first tee. “It’s unreal” says former captain Ivan Fuery. “I can’t remember the last time I hit a golf ball.”

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“I don’t care if I shoot 100,” says Hugh O’Kane. “I’m just happy to be out - and away from the boss.”

"I've been going for a walk twice a day, and each time I met mostly the same people," says Ciaran Williamson. During the most recent lockdown, he noticed "people's mood dropped greatly – whether it was the weather, the time of year, or that in Donegal we were under lockdown for longer.

“My wife’s face lit up when she heard I was going back to golf, but my dog’s head went down, because he saw the clubs and knew we weren’t going for a walk.”

‘Very hard for people’

He is not the only golfer eager not just to play, but to socialise again outdoors.

"Speaking for the ladies," says lady captain Eugenia Moran, "we're looking forward to meeting everybody because we haven't met any of our friends during lockdown.

“It has been very hard for people. We managed it fine in the first lockdown, it didn’t really seem so bad, but this time was really, really difficult for people, and I think if they didn’t get out now at this stage I’d be worried it would start having a big impact on people’s spirits and mental health.”

Golf courses are among the outdoor sporting facilities which were allowed to reopen under the easing of the Level 5 restrictions yesterday.

This is not the first time the club has reopened after a period of lockdown, but this time, the atmosphere is more relaxed. The signs – quite literally – of Covid-19 are everywhere; placards remind people to social distance, benches are cordoned off with brightly coloured tape and everywhere but the toilets are closed in the clubhouse.

“Everybody was prepared this time,” says Moran. “They know exactly what they have to do.”

‘Out of action’

This does not necessarily extend to the expertise on display the course itself. “I hope it’s like riding a bike,” jokes Williamson as he prepares to tee off.

Next to him, Dessie Ferry – who has been unable to play for almost a year due to an operation – hits the ball. "That's my first shot in 10 months," he laughs. "At least while I was out of action, everyone else was out of action too."

Both feel golf courses could have been allowed to open sooner. “In Scotland the golf courses were kept open during lockdown,” says Ferry. “We’re here in 150 acres of open ground, yet you see pictures of people out in parks or beaches on top of each other.”

The hope at the club is that will be the last time they have to reopen after lockdown. “All the indicators are that the vaccines are working so hopefully this is the last time we’ll have to close down,” says Mullally. “Hopefully we’ll have some sort of normality for the summer . . . we can get back to good competitions and play plenty of golf.”