A Very Warm Welcome
It is a great honour for us to be elected as Captains of Lahinch Golf Club for 2024. We look forward to welcoming all our members, guests and visitors to the Golf Club for this coming year.
The Championship Course, founded in 1892, was originally designed by Old Tom Morris and further enhanced by the world-renowned course architect, Dr Alister MacKenzie, in 1926. It was returned to its natural beauty, in more recent times, by our current course Architect, Dr Martin Hawtree. It is a true links with many towering dunes, overlooking Liscannor Bay. The ever-changing Atlantic weather provides a variety of golfing challenges and enjoyment to golfers but is also worthy of respect. Indeed, the Club has invested considerable sums over recent years to protect the course from the many storms which roll in from the sea.
Lahinch is the permanent home of The South of Ireland Championship, which was first played in 1895 and has rightly, over recent years, regained its status as the premier Amateur Open Championship in Ireland. The South, as it’s known by many, has been won by Major Champions Graham McDowell and Darren Clarke and by recent Ryder Cup Captain and honorary member, Paul McGinley. Another recent Ryder Cup Captain and three times major winner, Padraig Harrington, won the Irish Amateur Close Championship when it was played at Lahinch.
The Championship Course is currently rated number four in Ireland and will be further enhanced by the recently commissioned industry leading irrigation system and our exciting plans to develop the Clubhouse. Many of the world’s greatest golfers have played the course, particularly in preparation for the Open Championship.
We are fortunate to also have the adjacent Castle Course which is a true links with high quality greens and testing and interesting holes. Coupled with our short game academy and our state of the art indoor teaching facility, it provides golfers with multiple opportunities to hone their skills.
Lahinch Golf Club was the proud host in 2019 of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open which featured fifteen of the world’s top 50 players and finished with Jon Rahm as the worthy winner. The tournament took place in splendid weather conditions and the week was also memorable for the accompanying festivities in the village. Lahinch has long been known as the St Andrew’s of Ireland due to its proximity to the village and to the knowledgeable and friendly welcome that our golfers and visitors enjoy within the local community. Later in 2019, we hosted the Home Internationals featuring the top amateurs on these islands.
As Captains for the year to come, we are enormously excited about hosting the Arnold Palmer Cup, which will take place between the 5th & 7th July 2024. The event is a Ryder Cup style tournament that pits the top university/college golfers from the United States against an International Team. The tournament is one of the world’s leading amateur events and is unique in that it features men and women playing side-by-side as partners. Numerous former Arnold Palmer Cup alumni have gone on to earn cards on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and LPGA Tour while many have represented Europe or the USA in the Ryder Cup, Presidents Cup and Solheim Cup including Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson, Graeme McDowell, Lucas Glover, Webb Simpson, Ben Curtis, Bryson DeChambeau, Luke Donald, Rickie Fowler, J.B. Holmes, Billy Horschel, Matt Kuchar, Francesco Molinari, Alex Norén, Brandt Snedeker, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Colin Morikawa, Brian Harman, Ludvig Aberg, Vincent Norrman, Allisen Corpuz, Linn Grant and Rose Zhang.
The Arnold Palmer Cup is organised by the Arnold & Winnie Palmer Foundation with the tournament providing a platform for perpetuating Arnold Palmer’s commitment to youth development and to the growth of amateur/collegiate golf.
In September the Ladies will be hosting the Women’s International Team Challenge, and we both look forward to greeting the competitors from nine other leading clubs from both sides of the Atlantic.
We are a forward-looking Club that intends to make sure our warm welcome is extended to the Arnold Palmer Cup, the Women’s International Team Challenge and throughout 2024, and beyond to the 51st Walker Cup to be played at Lahinch in 2026.
Enjoy your golf.
Miriam Abernethy and John F McInerney
2024 Captains