Lahinch Golf Club - The Old Course Part 1

Part 2 of golfing in Ireland, or what I now refer to Beauty and the Beast.

Our second golf experience in Ireland was at the Old Course at Lahinch.  Lahinch is a small town on Liscannor Bay on the west coast or Ireland.  Its two big draws are the golf and surfing.

We stayed in Lahinch the night before at a nice B&B called Marless House, which I would highly recommend.  Just a short walk from town, it was a pleasant, but all too quick of a stay.

The town is very compact and the course(s) sits right on the edge of the town.  Perched right on the beach Lahinch town is a very picturesque setting.  The picture here of the town shows the beach nearly submerged during high tide.  The Marless House is among the houses to the far right of the photo.

Right along the beach is also the old course, sandwiched between the town to the south and the Inagh River to the north.  Shown here is the beach at lower tide, along with the rugged fescue covered hills of the course in the distance.

A quick 5 minute drive from our B&B and we were at the course.  The first view of the course you can see from the car park is looking west towards the 2nd and 3rd holes.

The course itself is very unpretentious and very old school. The putting green is right next to the parking and is the only practice area to be found.  There is no driving range and no pitching/sand practice areas.  Lining the edge of the parking lot are a row of National flags, below which  are the reserved parking spaces for the clubs officers.

The clubhouse is a modern, purposeful, building.  No ostentation here either.  Right in front of the clubhouse is the first tee.

The pro shop is well stocked with some especially delicious souvenirs.  I picked up a sweet putter cover, which you can see in the corner of the Pro Shop desk photo.

Lots of great merchandise offerings here.  A large selection of waterproofs and umbrellas lets you know this is a serious links golf course.

The locker room was well appointed with lockers for members and a nice shower and drying room to get those soggy clothes dry after you round.

One of the cool things in the locker room is a series of photos on the wall from an annual tournament they play at Lahinch.  One of these was from 1987 and the photographs and names that took part in this match are a crazy who-s who of famous names in European golf!

Outside the locker rooms are the club's myriad of trophies.

We paid for our round and picked up our clubs which were waiting for us in the pro shop.  I received a nice set of Taylor Made RSi irons and Burner Woods.  One thing I didn't notice until I was on the course was my clubs lacked any wedge beyond a Pitching wedge. NOT a good thing for this course!

With my rental trolley loaded up with my bag, we headed over to the putting green to get a sense of the speed of the greens.

The green spreed was surprisingly slow.  I was a little leery of this as it really felt like you needed to strike the putt to get it any distance.   The wind was whipping in from the north/northwest as we putted.  We had all our playing layers on since it was sprinkling  on and off while we waited for our tee times.

We were going to go back into the clubhouse to warm up our hands before we teed off but before we had a chance we were called to the first tee to begin our round.

Next to the first tee is the caddy "shack" which is actually a pretty nice looking building.  We didn't get a caddie for our round (I would recommend you do if you play here the first time) however, our playing partners from the day did have one which was fortunate for us!

About Lahinch

Lahinch offers 36 holes of golf.  There is the famous Old Course, ranked as one of the top 50 courses in the World, and then there is the Castle Course.  The Castle course opened as 9 holes in 1963 and was later been expanded to 18 holes in 1975.  The Castle is inland from the Ocean and across a road from the Old Course.  It is a shorter course, playing only 5,488 yards and a par of 69.  The club claims this course is easier with wider fairways- a claim I couldn't possibly imagine could not be true.  For you see, The Old Course is to put it simply- a beast.

The Lahinch Golf club was founded in 1892 when Alexander Show and Richard Plummer, members of the Limmerick Golf Club, headed to the west coast after hearing a suitable parcel of land existed for a golf course.  The club was founded with an original layout of 10 holes on each side of the road making the original course actually lying on what is now both the Castle and the Old courses.  In 1894 old Tom Morris of St. Andrews re-did the layout.  1907 offered another revision to the layout by George Gibson.  5 holes were added to the ocean side of the road, which was the preferred location of members of the club.  1927 brought the arrival of Alistair MacKenzie (pre Pebble Beach, Cypress Point, and Augusta fame).  his work at Lahinch brought him the acclaim that led him to his later masterworks.  His style then could be considered in vogue again today as a "minimalist" design philosophy.  He beleived in using the natural attributes of the course and wanted to shape holes that ran through the natural hills and valleys.  The greens would also follow the land with subtle (or sometimes not) contours to follow the fall of the land naturally.

Since 1895 Lahinch was hosted the oldest championship in Ireland, the South Ireland Amateur Championship.  Past winners include John O'Leary, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clark, Paul McGinley, and Graham McDowell!

In 1999 the course was renovated to restore the original MacKenzie designs that had been lost by more contemporary renovations.  This work took 5 years and was done over the winter months,  After this only 4 of the greens remained unchanged: 4, 9, 14, and 18.  The tees on 16 holes were rebuilt.  2 new par 3 holes were made and 4 holes had the routing significantly changed.

Now on to playing the course itself!

Zoom zoom

I will be splitting the course tour up into 3 hole posts so that this one post doesn't get so enormously long.

There are 4 teeing options on the course Blue (aka Masochist), White, Green, and the forward Red tees.  The yardages, slope, and rating are as follows:

• Blue 6,950 yards 133/74
• White 6,613 yards 131/73
• Green 6,339 yards 128/71
• Red 5,502 yards no slope provided but a 74 rating.

Hole 1

Par 4

381 | 373 | 363 | 344 yards

The first hole's tee ground sits right outside the clubhouse doors.  It is a straight ahead par 4 that rises gently from the tees all the way to the green.

A pair of bunkers, the first of many you will see today!, sit off to the left of the fairway.  They are only around 200 yards from the tee.  Another solitary bunker lies across the hole on the right side, a ways off the fairway at around 240 yards.

The preferred tee shot is down the right side of the fairway to provide the safest angle to the green.

As you make the uphill trek to the green you will see a pair of deep bunkers guarding the front right portion of the green.  The safest second shot is to the left half of the green.  There is room to miss left, with a sunken collection area over there.

As you can see the green is elevated up from the rising fairway making a run-up not likely.  The deep bunkers are to be avoided for sure.

I missed the green slightly left, thinking the winds blowing hard left to right would bring the ball back.  It didn't.  After a horrendous decision to try to chip from where I was instead of putt I ended up with a bogey (after skulling my chip across the green).

A view back down the hole from the green shows the rather open fairway and rough, along with the town behind the clubhouse.

Hole 2

Par 5

534 | 523 | 510 | 484 yards.

The second hole turns back the way you just came for a mostly downhill dogleg right par 5.  The tee shot here offers much more trouble if you leave the fairway.

A well placed collection of bunkers sit in the landing area off the tee.  There are 3 bunkers lining the left edge of the fairway, and 2 additional ones sitting on the right side, just before the hole turns right and guarding against a reckless attack at cutting the corner.

From ideal play from the tees is a right to left shaped shot aimed at the right bunkers.  This will find the contouring of the fairway and allow the most distance from the drive.

Making the ball move right to left shouldn't be too hard with the stiffening winds blowing in off the ocean off to the right.

The walk to the fairway shows some of the longer grasses you'll find if you miss the fairways and the sand.

A shot of the fairway just past the triple bunkers on the left shows the first glimpse of the green down the sloping fairway.

Lisa walking from the elevated teeing ground.

A view from the landing zone bunkers on the right side of the hole.  My ball had carried these traps and was in the hollow beyond.  it was a good drive, at 310 yards, just not the best line to find the short grass.  Luckily my lie was fine.

Another view as I approach my ball from the right side rough.  Beyond the dogleg another series of bunkers challenges the landing zone of the typical second shot.  2 deep bunkers sit 80 and 30 yards out on the left of the fairway.  To the right, a line of 4 bunkers guard the approach down that side.

The safest play here is to lay-up to 100 yards from the hole.  Any closer than that, the fairway narrows considerably and you enter the realm of the guarding bunkers.

Some views of the right side bunkers leading to the green.  I hit a good 5 iron here which hit the green about pin high but just rocketed passed and over the green.

The green is very deep (33 yards) with the edges falling off in all directions.  I managed to chip up and 2 putt for my first par of the day.

Hole 3

Par 4

446 | 418 | 401 | 374 yards

After finishing the second, you turn towards the water and climb towards the 3rd tee.  As you pass ever increasingly thicker grasses you start to encounter the true nature of the Old Course.  The first 2 holes are a bit of a warm-up, if you will.  An easing into the course before it chews you up and spits you out.  Welcome to Lahinch.

One of the defining characteristics you are about to discover about the course is what most would call its "quirkiness".  I was talking to my wife immediately after the round and we discussed how if an architect opened a highly anticipated course with the features of Lahinch today he would be ridiculed to no end.  After looking back at the round and going through my write-up I am not so sure about that.  I would assume it could be a debate that many would have.  To a degree that may be true occasionally, with the number of blind shots. But on the other hand the course is true to MacKenzie's design philosophy of using the land as it is to provide the best course possible.

The third hole requires a blind tee shot up hill.  The course guide says the best tee shot should be played 10 yards to the right of the hill guarding the fairway.

With no visually indication of where to play your ball, a caddie here would help substantially.  You must be careful on your tee shot not to play too far.  The light-bulb shaped fairway atop the rise runs out at 260 yards.

Climbing the hill into a sudden break in the cloud cover.  The winds at this point were really howling.  This is the first of the ocean holes.  Not really directly on the ocean, with the beach below, but the winds still scream in.  With the strong winds the clouds were flying by.  A patch of sun only lasted briefly before more clouds moved in.

From atop the hill you can see that the hole turns left.  After the initial landing area ends, it is essentially a forced carry the remaining 150 yards to the green.

The green is a rippling affair fronted by a pair of deep bunkers flanking either side of the putting surface.

Here, you can see how the hole requires a carry nearly to the green.  There is a small fairway extending out about 60 yards short of the green.  With the ocean behind this hole the winds were directly into us on the approach.

Lisa found the thick grasses between the primary and secondary landing zones.

The green here show from the right side.  The undulations at the back of the green can aid in keeping balls on the putting surface.  Missing around the green makes for a difficult up and down.

The Old Course Part 2
The Old Course Part 3
The Old Course Part 4
The Old Course Part 5
The Old Course Part 6