{"id":55147,"date":"2026-08-24T06:47:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T06:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/55147\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T06:47:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T06:47:13","slug":"lahinch-golf-club-prepares-to-host-the-walker-cup-its-an-unbelievable-course-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/55147\/","title":{"rendered":"Lahinch Golf Club prepares to host the Walker Cup: \u2018It\u2019s an unbelievable course\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walker Cup<\/a> venues don\u2019t miss. After the almost fictional beauty of Cypress Point on the Monterey Peninsula in California last time and the home of golf St Andrews the time before that, the best amateur golfers from the US, Britain and Ireland will soon compete at Lahinch Golf Club, a course described as Ireland\u2019s St Andrews.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liken it to everyone\u2019s favourite auntie. Nobody has a bad word to say about Lahinch,\u201d says Paul McGinley, who hosted the Irish Open<\/a> at the Old Course in 2019.<\/p>\n

Indeed, it is hard to find anyone in west Clare with a bad word to say about Lahinch Golf Club, one of the top links courses in Ireland, where the course is intertwined with the community. That special relationship is akin to St Andrews. Physically it looms over the village and many people\u2019s livelihoods relate to its success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are very few clubs like this who are so adjacent to the people who live in the village, when you think about it. Clubs like Waterville, Tralee, Ballybunion, they are all a drive out of the village, so it is a unique model,\u201d Lahinch\u2019s lady captain Miriam O\u2019Keeffe says.<\/p>\n

To play at the famous Old Course at Lahinch, however, you will have to pay a pretty penny for the privilege. In 2023, it was \u20ac275 to play at Lahinch, with a gradual rise to \u20ac450 for this year. Next year, it will rise once more to \u20ac500, without a Golf Ireland-discounted rate. Playing the Old Course requires at least one caddie in the group, where a senior caddie costs \u20ac100 for a bag, or \u20ac160 for a double bag.<\/p>\n

Accounts from 2025 showed Lahinch recorded an operating \u20ac2.5 million surplus on green fees, which increased by 26 per cent on the previous year to \u20ac4.2 million. Income from green fees makes up 65 per cent of the club\u2019s revenue, while \u20ac1.6 million was made from the club\u2019s shop. Tee times at that \u20ac500 price are already all booked up from September 10th to September 25th next year, with the Ryder Cup not too far away in Adare Manor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s pretty standard for all of the top clubs tend to be in or around the same,\u201d says club captain John Gleeson, with Lahinch\u2019s \u20ac500 green fee for next year the same as Ballybunion, Waterville and Tralee and still less than Portmarnock (\u20ac530), Royal Portrush (\u20ac554) and Royal County Down (\u20ac577).<\/p>\n

\"DylanDylan Keating tees off on the fourth hole during the South of Ireland Men’s Amateur Open at Lahinch Golf Club in July. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the green fee income, this model wouldn\u2019t work. Green fees would be a considerable revenue source. It\u2019s always been the case, even going back to the 1950s, Lahinch has always relied on green fees. It\u2019s very significant now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gleeson says \u201cvery, very few\u201d Irish people pay the standard green fee, instead taking advantage of the \u20ac50 guest fee to play with a member, and the full price is aimed at the US market. Annual membership at the course costs a very reasonable \u20ac950, where you also play on the Castle Course.<\/p>\n

But with 2,500 members, new members are limited mostly to family members of existing members, making it \u201cnigh on impossible\u201d for outsiders to join.<\/p>\n

Hosting the Walker Cup is estimated to cost Lahinch between \u20ac500,000 and \u20ac600,000 in green fee revenue, but Gleeson says it is \u201cmoney very well spent\u201d on an event that will be broadcast across the world on Sky Sports and NBC in the US with wall-to-wall coverage.<\/p>\n

The money earned in recent years has at least been put to good use with the completion of a lavish new \u20ac6.1 million clubhouse worthy of its status at the top of the game. \u201cIt is something that will serve members and visitors for a significant period of time,\u201d says Gleeson.<\/p>\n

Lahinch was established in the 19th century, with Old Tom Morris, a four-time Open Championship winner, invited over to advise on the layout. Morris called it the \u201cfinest natural links I have ever laid eyes on\u201d and two of the most famous holes at Lahinch, the par-five Klondyke (fourth hole) and the par-three Dell (fifth hole) remain from his day, with blind shots a prominent feature.<\/p>\n

How to play the famous 5th and 6th holes at Lahinch. Video: David Gorman <\/p>\n

After some work from Charles \u2018Mo\u2019 Gibson, Alister MacKenzie made his mark at Lahinch before constructing masterpieces like Augusta National and Cypress Point. The Englishman had a special love for the Co Clare links, though, saying it would \u201cbecome the finest and most popular golf course that I, or anyone else, has constructed\u201d. Many of the sloping greens are credited to MacKenzie, with Martin Hawtree aiming to restore the essence the renowned architect created with his restoration in 1999.<\/p>\n

The club\u2019s logo features a goat, in tribute to the presence of the animals that freely roam across the course, which only adds to its natural feel. The Atlantic Ocean is most beautifully seen from the sixth hole, a par-four aptly named Paradise.<\/p>\n

\u201cI play a lot of courses, and a couple in Ireland that have five to six unbelievable holes. But I\u2019d say Lahinch has 18 really good golf holes. That\u2019s what makes it special,\u201d says Patrick Adler, the 2024 South of Ireland champion<\/a> who played on the PGA Tour\u2019s John Deere Classic this year.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Lahinch Golf Club logo pays tribute to the goats that still roam on the course. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Unlike the burnt out fairways and rough that were typical this summer across Ireland, Lahinch was kept in immaculate condition for the South of Ireland Championship, Ireland\u2019s oldest and one of its most important provincial amateur championships, in big part down to the work of head greenkeeper Brian McDonagh.<\/p>\n

Despite hosting the Irish Open in 2019, which Gleeson described as a party atmosphere with \u201ceveryone out enjoying themselves until two in the morning, with streets mobbed by people\u201d, Lahinch considers the Walker Cup to be the biggest event the course has ever hosted, despite smaller numbers attending.<\/p>\n

The Irish Open had more than 20,000 people a day, sold out, whereas the Walker Cup is limited to 7,000 per day, as the R&A focuses more on the quality of the course rather than infrastructural concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe R&A want people to walk the fairways,\u201d says Gleeson. \u201cThere will be ropes and teams of people with every match to give players some space. But it\u2019s unique to the Walker Cup that you can get very close to players hitting the shots.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Inside the Doonbeg bubble where the locals and Trump have reached a deal of mutual benefitOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Gleeson says the DP World Tour would \u201clove to come back\u201d and have been in touch with Lahinch about hosting the Irish Open again, but it has been a busy time with the Palmer Cup in 2024 and now the Walker Cup.<\/p>\n

While the prestige does not match the Ryder Cup, the closest professional equivalent, \u20ac45 per day tickets are fantastic value compared to \u20ac499 for Adare Manor next year, especially when it will be much easier to see the action for the average punter.<\/p>\n

\"StuartStuart Grehan plays a shot on the third hole at Lahinch during the South of Ireland Men’s Amateur Open. Photograph: Nick Elliott\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Those who attend will likely see future Major champions, as the likes of Tiger Woods, Scottie Scheffler and Phil Mickelson played in the event before turning professional.<\/p>\n

On the Irish side, Rory McIlroy, P\u00e1draig Harrington and Graeme McDowell are among those to have represented the Britain and Ireland team. This year spectators can see future stars like world number one Preston Stout and 17-year-old phenom Miles Russell, while home fans can cheer on Irishman Stuart Grehan, who won the Amateur Championship earlier this year, the only Irish player in a 10-strong team, although David Howard and Thomas Higgins are reserves.<\/p>\n

With Robert Rock shooting a course record 60 in 2019 in benign conditions and champion Jon Rahm firing a final-round 62, Lahinch will require wind to blow to test the world\u2019s best amateurs, but with a focus on match play, the 18-hole scores are less important.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an unbelievable match play golf course,\u201d Britain and Ireland Walker Cup captain Dean Robertson says. \u201cYou got to plot your way around. We will be doing our homework and preparation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Walker Cup venues don\u2019t miss. After the almost fictional beauty of Cypress Point on the Monterey Peninsula in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12347,44,3215,16650,656],"class_list":["post-55147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-clare","tag-golf","tag-irish-open","tag-lahinch","tag-walker-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}