Lahinch Golf Club, Ireland- Celebrating it's 125th Anniversary

Golfers in the early days tee it up at Lahinch Golf Club, Ireland. Lahinch celebrates it's 125th Anniversary in 2017.

When a number of officers from the Black Watch Regiment of the British Army went to the west coast of Clare, Ireland in search of sand dunes that would be suitable for the development of a golf course, they discovered Lahinch. It was a month later in April 1892 that they returned and using feathers and sticks laid out a links golf course.  The first game of golf was played at Lahinch on Good Friday 15th April 1892 between Lieutenant William McFarlane of the Black Watch Regiment and William F. McDonnell, a Limerick businessman.
Two years later, the club invited Old Tom Morris, the celebrated Scottish golfer, to design a new links golf course.  Old Tom  said Lahinch was “the finest natural course he had ever seen”.
Remarkably, in 1895 the first South of Ireland Amateur Golf Championship was played at Lahinch making it one of the oldest existing Championships. Down through the years Lahinch has played host to  a number of championships including the Irish Professional Championship in 1961, where Christy O’Connor Senior won following rounds of 67 and 68 on the first day. In 1975 Lahinch hosted the Carroll’s Irish Match Play Championship and his nephew, Christy O’Connor Junior, defeated Peter Townsend by 3/2 in the final.
in 1999 golf course designer, Dr. Hawtree was brought in to modernise the links golf course at Lahinch turning it in to a top class championship golf course.  In the new layout, the sand dunes closer to the Atlantic Ocean were utilised and, in all, 14 greens were redesigned.
in 2020, Lahinch is set to host the Arnold Palmer Cup, an international collegiate event between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland.
The vision of club founder Alexander Shaw in 1892 to develop Lahinch into a top class golf links course has inspired and drawn golfers from all parts of the world and from all walks of life to ply their skills on the great golf links course.