Lahinch Golf Club

Lahinch isn’t just one of Ireland’s best links courses, it’s one of the world’s best golf courses. 

Lahinch is one of Ireland’s best links and one of the world’s best courses. It is one of the UK&I’s great old-fashioned links and one of its most characterful.

It gives you unforgettable blind shots, it gives you fabulous green complexes, it gives you tight sandy turf and it gives you mesmeric views. It is Ireland’s answer to North Berwick, Cruden Bay and Prestwick.

There is a picture in the pro shop at Lahinch of Phil Mickelson when he visited and one can only imagine what the all-American kid made of this quirky links.

Lahinch’s most famous hole is the 5th, a blind par 3 where you fire over a white stone on the huge hill in front and trust that no-one moved it overnight…

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It is situated in a town that lives and breathes golf, with a second course here to satisfy the appetite for the game (and visitors to it).

Lahinch’s history stretches back to 1894, when Old Tom Morris was commissioned to lay out a course on terrain he believed was the finest natural linkland he had seen. Morris duly included the seminal Klondyke (4th) & Dell (5th) holes in a routing full of quirky holes.

In 1907 Charles ‘Mo’ Gibson, a professional from Royal North Devon was invited to assess the course and, as the club says, “the main feature was the further development of the sea holes corresponding roughly to the 6th and 7th”.

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Two decades later a third man cast his eye over Lahinch – Dr Alister MacKenzie. His re-design took one year to complete and featured undulating triple-tiered greens. MacKenzie said: “Lahinch will make the finest and most popular course that I, or I believe anyone else, has ever constructed.”

Quite a statement, and let’s just say it is one of thievery finest courses in the world – as its positions in our World, GB&I and Links Top 100s illustrate.

Arrive in Lahinch from the south, where Doonbeg is located, and you catch an exciting glimpse of linksland as you enter the town.

Lahinch is not a playground, and you soon realise that on the 1s, a fairly brutal hole that plays uphill and is well bunkered. Then you play back down in the other direction on a fairly modest hole before the fun really starts on the 3rd, played along the shore to a cool green complex.

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The 4th sees you drive down a shute and suddenly all the wind disappears as you walk down between the dunes. Then you play a blind shot over the whitewashed stone to a green on the edge of the property. This is Klondyke and this is what you came for.

Turning roun, you face one of the world’s iconic holes, Dell. The totally blind par 3 is played over a huge dune to a shallow green that nestles between two large sand hills. The green must be no more than 10 paces in depth, even if it is wide. Enclosed from the wind, this is a real seminal hole.

Next is a reminder that Lahinch is a mix of the quirky and tough, as the next is a strong par 4 that is SI 2. It plays into the wind off the sea and uphill, however then it encapsulates Lahnich because after the exacting tee shot you then have a downhill 160-yard approach to an infinity green with humps and hollows all around it. There is also a bunker at the bottom of a pit 150 yards out that keeps you honest.

The green site is right on the edge of the land, oozing funkiness and with great views to Cliffs of Mohr, one of the great sights in Ireland.

World-class holes keep coming on a point-to-point par 3 beautifully sited between two dunes. Tough but beautiful, there are loads of undulations on the green and surrounds. The 3rd to the 8th is thus phenomenally good and while 9th is quieter and heads inland, the 10th turns right to left along a rollercoaster fairway but the turf is still great and interest apparent.

The next is a classic links par 3 among dunes with a green that rejects at the front markedly, with bunkers front right and left. Then you turn round and play the closest you do to the beach, and the river inlet is on your left. A ruined tower on the right is a good line off the tee for a hole that turns right to left.

The ‘crumpled sheet’ fairway leads into a ‘crumpled sheet’ green; narrow and with fall-offs to the side. There are grassy holes to the right and sand traps to the left – there is so much variety to the obstacles.

Lahinch has unique holes everywhere you look on what is a brilliant, massive piece of linksland and which yet has no walks between tees and greens. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 9th and 10th have some elements of ‘sameness’ to them but otherwise it is a box of chocolates – you just never know what you’ll get next.