Golf> Introduction
Lahinch Golf Links has the distinction of being
a MacKenzie course, a mecca for keen golfers.
The Club was conceived in 1892, as reported in
the Clare Journal of 11th April, of that year.
The Club had started when on 26th March, 1892
Alexander W. Shaw and Richard J. Plummer, two
prominent officials of Limerick Golf Club, went
to the West coast of Clare as a result of a casual
rumour that, somewhere between Ennistymon and
Miltown Malbay, there was suitable ground for
a golf course. While travelling from Ennistymon
they passed what was then a dreary desolate piece
of land, a mass of sandhills. As a result of further
visits to this area Lahinch Golf Club was born.
Clubhouse
The first layout of Lahinch Golf Links in 1892,
was redesigned by Old Tom Morris of St. Andrews
in 1894. A remaining example of his work is
the present 5th hole "The Dell". In
1907 George Gibson the Westward Ho Professional
was invited to modernise the links to cope with
the newly developed rubber cored golf ball.
He brought all but five of the holes to the
seaward side of the road, which was the favoured
choice of the committee at the time. 1927 saw
the arrival in Lahinch of Dr. Alister MacKenzie.
Dr MacKenzie was a qualified doctor who gave
up medicine in favour of golf course architecture;
happily for Lahinch and its now famous MacKenzie
course. After Lahinch, he was to go on to design
Augusta National, Pebble Beach, and Cypress
Point among others in the United States and
Royal Melbourne in Australia. Lahinch Golf Club
is proud that the qualities he perfected at
Lahinch were to earn him such a high reputation
in his later years.
MacKenzie was a purist in golf course design.
He would use all the natural benefits of the
site he was working on. He strongly believed
in keeping a natural appearance to a golf course,
creating and shaping holes through the sand
dunes and creating greens with subtle contours
and movement rolling with the natural fall of
the land.
Liscannor Point
Lahinch Golf Club added another 18 hole links
in 1975 - the Castle Course designed by Commander
John D. Harris. This course was built on the
land identified first by Gibson in 1907 on his
visit to modernise the original links.
The Old Course at Lahinch has been the home
of the oldest Provincial Championship in Ireland
- the South of Ireland Amateur Open Championship,
since its inception in 1895. Previous winners
and finalists of the "South" have
gone on to great heights in the professional
ranks. Names like John O'Leary, Padraig Harrington,
Darren Clarke and Paul McGinley spring to mind.
Picture Of Liscannor Bridge
Lahinch Golf Club and the village of Lahinch
are steeped in golf and its traditions. There
is always a welcoming face and pleasant smile
to greet the visitor. In the Club nothing is
too much trouble and the members and staff delight
in the visitors who come to play and enjoy the
marvellous links. In 1999 the Club embarked
on a very big challenge of Course Development
to modernise the Old Course, first of all, with
the Castle Course to follow. This process was
started in order to put back the MacKenzie characteristics
on the links that had been lost by alterations
carried out in the 1930s. The Club undertook
a screening of many world renowned Course Architects
and finally decided on Mr. Martin Hawtree, whose
father and grandfather before him were also
eminent golf course architects. Martin Hawtree
was selected after officials from Lahinch Golf
Club travelled to Royal Birkdale, venue for
the 1998 British Open Championship, to see Hawtree's
work on this course. Mr. Hawtree is a keen student
of the MacKenzie traditions and endeared himself
to all Club members in responding to a question
at an Extraordinary General Meeting of the members
to approve his plans for the Old Course. When
asked what the Club would have after his endeavours,
he replied "a restored MacKenzie course".
Hawtree came to Lahinch in early 1999 and commenced
his planning of proposed work on the Old Course.
His plans fell into five phases, which were
expected to take five years to complete. The
Club took the ambitious step and decided to
try to complete the task in four years. Construction
of Phases 1 and 2 started in October 1999 and
were completed by mid March 2000. Phase 3 was
begun in October 2000 and completed in March
2001. Phase 4, which was the most intensive
part of the Plan, began in October 2001 and
was successfully completed in March 2002. The
work to date has seen 13 of the 18 holes altered.
The remaining phase, Phase 5 has seen the 2nd,
4th and 6th holes being undertaken, with minor
alterations to holes 5 and 18, and was completed
in March 2003.
View Of The New 7th Green
Looking Back The Fairway
The Club is proud of the improvements which
Mr. Hawtree has completed. Lahinch Golf Club
wishes all our members and visitors many happy
hours playing the restored MacKenzie course
at Lahinch
