The Lahinch Golf Club is walking distance from the town’s center, and The Old Course is consistently ranked in the Top 50 courses in the world.  (There is also another course owned by the club, the Castle Course, across the street.)  It is an unassuming place, with terrifically nice people, which make the preamble to that first tee shot a relaxing affair.  But once you get out there, you understand what all the hype is about.

I played in a rain that ranged from slight to heavy.  It was likely the heaviest downfall we saw the whole time we were there.  The winds gusted up to 30 miles per hour, which made the rain sting against my cheeks.  With the heaviness in my arms from a lack of sleep, it was hard to swing the club with any efficiency.  The greens were true, but were still being nursed back to health after a national amateur tournament the week before had cut them rather low.

And none of that made the experience of playing the course any less exhilarating.

The narrow 4th fairway at Lahinch. The green is over the mound with the white dot.

At 6,950 yards from the back tees, Lahinch is often considered one of the hardest courses in Ireland.  It was founded in 1892, then Old Tom Morris came from St. Andrews in Scotland to redesign it in 1894, and George Gibson from Westward Ho! did a “modernization” in 1907.  But the real bones of the course was laid out in 1927 by none other than Alister MacKenzie, famed designer of Augusta National, Cypress Point and many other great courses around the world.  In 2003, a restoration of MacKenzie’s layout was completed, and the results are spectacular.

Yet the front nine and the back nine still have two distinctly different characters.  The front is defined by two consecutive holes originally designed by Old Tom.  The fourth is a 475-yard par-5 that has a tee box with the ocean lapping at your back, and it looks out to the narrowest fairway imaginable, framed by fescue-laden hills.  And it ends with a blind shot over a large mound, maybe 20 feet high, almost identical to “The Alps” hole at Prestwick, in Scotland — another Old Tom design — with a white rock at the top used as an aiming point.  Over the mound is some fairway before the green, making for a welcome reception into a rather flat putting surface.

The approach shot to the 6th at Lahnich, one of the best holes anywhere -- period.

It is followed by the fifth, a wild par-3 that is completely blind, similiar in nature to “The Himalayas” hole at Prestwick, only a lot shorter at 154 yards.  It plays to a newly redesigned — and somewhat out-of-character — hourglass green that is so narrow it can make for some very difficult (if not physically impossible) putts.

The rest of the front weaves in and out of the mounds, with constant ocean views.  The sixth might be one of the best holes in the world, a 424-yard par-4 that doglegs left, over a deep ravine with a bunker at its base, to a green that is backdropped by the water.  The seventh is equally as nice, with a green perched out over the beach to the left.

The wonderful approach to the 7th hole at Lahinch.

The back nine then pulls away from the ocean and down into somewhat flatter land.  It is defined by a string of difficult and long par-4s, with the par-5 12th as the highlight, hugging an expansive beach for a tidal river all down the left side.  The final hole is a 534-yard par-5 that plays over the tee box of the fifth for one last touch of quirkiness.  The final green is framed by a background of the stout clubhouse and a handful of flagpoles, and it’s almost a troubling sight.  It means the round is coming to a close, and you’ll have to wait to come back.