The Complete Guide to Lahinch Golf Club

The short answer

Yes. Visitors can play the Old Course at Lahinch every day in season, booked online and paid in full, if each man's handicap index is no higher than 24 and each woman's no higher than 36. Fly into Shannon, 50 minutes away, and pair it with Doonbeg, 35 minutes south, then Ballybunion and Tralee in Kerry.

First game

1892Old Tom Morris links from 1894

Green fee

€4502026 visitor rate

Visitors

Every day in seasonbooked online, prepaid

Fly into

Shannon (SNN)50 min to Lahinch

This guide is for the trip captain building a week in the west of Ireland around Lahinch Golf Club. It covers the club's history in brief, the four holes worth knowing before you tee off, the order to book in, the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren between rounds, where to stay in Clare, and a six-day route that adds Tralee, Ballybunion and Doonbeg.

Lahinch Golf Club history

The first game of golf at Lahinch was played on Good Friday, 15 April 1892. Alexander Shaw, Richard Plummer and a group of officers from the Black Watch regiment had come to the Clare coast that March to look for sand dunes. In 1894 Shaw invited Old Tom Morris to design a new links, and the club says Morris thought it the finest natural links he had seen. Two of his holes, the Klondyke and the Dell, are still in play.

Three architects shaped the course after him:

• Charles Gibson, from Royal North Devon, worked mainly on the holes by the sea, around today's 6th and 7th, from 1907.
• Dr Alister MacKenzie was invited to submit a new design in 1927 (the club's history page dates the first approach to 1926). He spent a year on it and gave Lahinch its undulating, triple-tiered greens. The club quotes his prediction that Lahinch "will make the finest and most popular golf course that I, or I believe anyone else, ever constructed".
• Dr Martin Hawtree restored MacKenzie's character in 1999. He re-routed four holes, added two par 3s, the 8th and the 11th, rebuilt 16 tees and reshaped 14 greens. In the club's words, he "wisely left the magical Klondyke and Dell holes alone".

The South of Ireland Championship, an open amateur event the club calls the oldest provincial championship in Ireland, has been played at Lahinch every year since Shaw gave the first cup in 1895, apart from 1914–1919 and 2020. Jon Rahm won the Irish Open here in July 2019, at 16 under par. In September 2026 the course hosted the 51st Walker Cup, and Great Britain and Ireland beat the United States 13½–12½.

Look for the goat on the club crest. The club says the goats on the links were its weather guide: goats near the clubhouse meant bad weather, and goats out in the dunes meant a fine day. When the club barometer broke in the 1960s, the secretary wrote "See Goats" on it.

The holes to know on the Old Course

The Old Course is a par 72 of 7,066 yards from the blue tees, the longest of the club's four sets. The lengths below are from the blue tees too.

4th, Klondyke

One of the two Old Tom Morris holes still in play. The club's advice is to aim the tee shot at the right half of the fairway, then play the approach at the "V" in the Klondyke Hill and take one club less, because the fairway slopes toward the green. The Irish Times describes blind shots as a prominent feature of the 4th and 5th, so a caddie's line is worth having here.

5th, Dell

A short par 3 with a dune guarding the front of the green, so you may not see where your ball finishes. The club tells you to aim for the white stone on the hill, which marks that day's pin position, and to trust your yardage.

6th, Paradise

A par 4 near the sea, where Charles Gibson did most of his work from 1907, and stroke index 2 on the card. The club's hole guide puts the tee shot on the right side for the best angle into a well-guarded green, and says the fairway runs out at 270 yards from the white tees, so check the number before you take driver.

8th, Crater

One of the two par 3s Martin Hawtree added in 1999, 166 yards from the back. The other is the 11th, at 170.

Cliffs of Moher and the Burren

Lahinch Golf Club recommends both to visitors staying in the village. They sit in the same protected area, the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark, in north Clare.

Cliffs of Moher

The cliffs rise to 702 feet (214 meters) at their highest point, according to the Geopark, and the rock is around 320 million years old. The visitor center is built underground, with an exhibition, a restaurant and a café. Check tickets and opening hours on the cliffs' own website before you go.

The Burren

The Burren's limestone pavement is part of Europe's largest karst landscape. Burren National Park was set up by the state in 1991. Its information point is in Corofin, 5 miles (8 km) from the park, and is open all year. The park runs free guided walks, which you book through the information point in advance.

Poulnabrone portal tomb

A stone tomb on one of the highest points of the Burren, and a National Monument in the care of the Office of Public Works. It's an unguided site. Remains found there date to 3800–3200 BC.

Where to stay near Lahinch Golf Club

Stay in Lahinch village if the Old Course is the center of the trip. The clubhouse, the beach and the two village hotels below are close together. Gregans Castle suits a group that wants the Burren on the doorstep, and Doonbeg puts you beside a second links.

• Vaughan Lodge

  Lahinch · 30 rooms, run to a four-star standard by a family of Lahinch hoteliers, with its own restaurant

• Lahinch Coast Hotel & Suites

  Lahinch · 4-star, 144 rooms, a short walk from the golf club, with a pool

• Gregans Castle

  Ballyvaughan, in the Burren · 21 rooms and suites, a Michelin Key for 2026

• Trump International Golf Links & Hotel, Doonbeg

  Doonbeg · graded 5-star by Fáilte Ireland, beside the links, 35 min from Lahinch

Make Lahinch Part of Your Trip

Tell us your dates, group size and the Clare and Kerry courses on your list, and adjust the day-by-day plan that comes back.

Plan My Lahinch Trip ↗

Where else to play near Lahinch

Doonbeg and Lahinch's own Castle Course are close enough to play from a base in the village. Ballybunion and Tralee are in north Kerry, 2 h 15 min and 2 h 50 min from Lahinch by road, so they need nights of their own. Each course with a link below has its own page on golftripbuilder.com, covering visitor days, handicap limits and how to book.

• Lahinch, Castle Course

  Same club

  The club's second 18, opened as nine holes in 1963 and extended in 1975, beside the ruin of Dough Castle. A shorter round for the day you land, or a second round the same day.

• 

  Doonbeg

  35 min

  A resort links further south on the Clare coast, with online tee times. It's open daily for the 2027 season from 27 March, and prices change with the date and time of day.

  View Doonbeg →
• 

  Ballybunion

  2 h 15 min

  Visitors play the Old Course on weekday mornings only, from mid-April to early October, with at least one caddie or forecaddie per group. Cancel within six months and the fee is lost.

  View Ballybunion →
• 

  Tralee

  2 h 50 min

  Visitors play four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, between 08:00 and 15:00. A 50% deposit holds the time and the rest is due 90 days before you play.

  View Tralee →
• 

  Adare Manor

  1 h 10 min

  Mostly for guests staying on the estate. For 2027, the Ryder Cup year, the resort offers only a limited number of two-day golf packages.

  View Adare Manor →

Further south, Waterville, Dooks and Old Head are 2 h 55 min to 3 h 30 min from Lahinch. They belong on a longer Kerry and Cork trip rather than a week built around Clare. If the group wants Northern Ireland as well, start with the complete guide to Royal Portrush.

Your Lahinch Golf Trip Starts Here

Play Lahinch, Ballybunion, Tralee and Doonbeg in one week from Shannon. Here's a sample six-day itinerary to start from, then change the dates, courses and hotels to suit your group.

The order follows each club's visitor rules. Tralee takes no visitors on Wednesday and Ballybunion's Old Course only on weekday mornings, so Kerry comes first. Lahinch takes visitors every day in season, which makes it easy to place after the drive north, and finishing in Clare leaves you 50 minutes from Shannon. Run it between May and September, when all four courses take visitors. The drive times in this route are the same road-routing figures golftripbuilder.com's course pages show, measured without traffic, so add time in July and August.