The club is located in the eastern half of Emo parish with a small catchment area south of the village of Ballybrittas and mainly covered by the local school Rath NS.

The locality is bordered on one side by County Kildare and by three neighbouring clubs in Laois: Annanough, O'Dempsey's and Emo.

Courtwood is the home club of Fergal Byron, the 2003 All-Star goalkeeper who was also instrumental in Laois's 2003 Leinster SFC triumph.

In 2014, former Courtwood player Eddie Kinsella refereed the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final between Kerry and Donegal, with his four umpires Alan O'Halloran, Pat O'Connell, Arthur O'Connor and Niall Murphy also all club members.

In recent years, Courtwood have supplied a number of players to Laois senior, under 20/21 and minor football teams including Luke Doyle, Mark O'Halloran, Conor Hogan, Danny Luttrell, Alan Kinsella, Matthew Byron, Niall Dunne, Sean O'Flynn, Seth Burns Mooney, Paul O'Flynn, Nathan Little, Sam Krebs, Adam O'Halloran, Cian Doyle, Collins Ugochukwu, Ryan Little and Dan Boland.

Offaly All-Ireland Senior Football Championship winning medallist in 1971 and 1972, Larry Coughlan, played for Courtwood for a period in the mid 1970s beginning in April 1974.