Lahinch Golf Club - Old Course

Lahinch is in nearly every sense a very unusual Irish links course. The golf club was founded by Scots--the officers of the Black Watch regiment stationed in Limerick. It was laid out by Morris in 1893 and revised by Mackenzie in 1927. Impeccable lineage! Despite the revision or perhaps because the membership forbade Mackenzie from changing most of Morris's original layout, the championship course remains more a nineteenth than a twentieth century design with such anachronisms as a blind par 3, a blind par 5 approach and crossing fairways.

With its magnificent views of the sea, the Cliffs of Moher and Aran Islands, play at Lahinch is always delightful and adventuresome. Its best-known holes are the par 5 fourth called "Klondyke" and the par 3 fifth called "Dell". On Klondyke, a hillock sits astride the narrow fairway making the green completely invisible. (On my first visit, I thought it to be a hole without a fairway.) On Dell, the golfer hits over a white stone to a blind green then tries to complete the hole without getting beaned as he crosses the intersecting eighteenth fairway. Both these holes remind one of Scotland's Prestwick, but Lahinch has a far better collection of par fours than its Scottish cousin. Number 14, in particular, is outstanding but only slightly better than 10 and 17. Number 1 is as difficult a starting hole as one could want.

Another Lahinch oddity is the small herd of goats which roams the course and serves as the local weather forecaster. When one finds the goats about the course, one may reasonably expect fair weather. The presence of the herd near the clubhouse foretells an ensuing storm. A chum of mine once found the goats in the men's changing room and concluded the approaching weather must not be fit for beast nor man. He promptly retired to the bar on the upper floor. When I asked him of the accuracy of the goats prediction, he replied that the quality of the pub's conversation and the stout was such that he did not remember the subsequent three days.

The small village of Lahinch takes its name from and exists solely because of the golf course. Its sobriquet, "the St. Andrews of Ireland", must result from this latter fact and the influence of Morris. Most assuredly, the rural village of Lahinch bears no physical resemblance to the "auld grey toon" of St. Andrews whatsoever. Lahinch Golf Club is actually rather like Scotland's Prestwick Golf Club but with a view. First time visitors are either captivated at the opportunity to find an unscathed nineteenth century course or convinced that early attempts at course architecture were painfully inferior to the work of God and grazing animals at St. Andrews. In either case, Lahinch is worthy of a visit. In fact, we find the recent improvements by Martin Hawtree to be outstanding. Lahinch is the equal of any course on the Emerald Isle.

Independent travellers: The club is located on the right (north) side of the N85 as one enters the village from Ennistymon. Report to the Secretary's window on the right side of the ground floor of the clubhouse. Caddies are obtained from the starter's office across the first tee. Remind Paul, the caddie master and starter that you are travelling with H&B. Changing rooms are on the ground floor; bar and restaurant on the upper floor. Soup and toasties are a favourite lunch.