He might have been talking about Lahinch Golf Club, which has undergone myriad changes since it was founded on Good Friday in 1892 but remains the magical place imagined by those 19th-century golfing pioneers.
The latest chapter in the history of the Co Clare links is now being written as work is already underway on the €6 million refurbishment of the clubhouse where all the greats from John Burke and Joe Carr to modern masters like Jon Rahm, celebrated their triumphs.
It’s a major project, set to be completed in two phases by April 2026, leaving plenty of room for manoeuvre before the club hosts what will arguably be the biggest event in its history, the Walker Cup, later that year.
As one of Ireland’s leading clubs, it was felt internally that it needed a clubhouse in keeping with its standing as one of the world’s leading links courses.
But the project is also a reminder, not only of how far Lahinch has come over the past 132 years, but of how the club’s ambitions and golf’s place in the economic and social life of the village have changed with the passing years.
In June 1965, the club invited the Bishop of Galway, the Most Reverend Dr Browne, to open its new £33,000 clubhouse and the addition of a new nine-hole links on the other side of the Liscannor Road.
Tourism had started to transform the club, which didn’t build its first clubhouse until 1895, when a pavilion was ordered at a cost of £50 “and no more than £80.”
It lasted some 50 years and in 1947, a new clubhouse designed by Donogh O’Malley was built before that too, was replaced.
The 1965 project has served the club well and while it was significantly upgraded and refurbished at a cost of around £500,000 in 1991, taking advantage of storm damage to the roof, six decades of wild Atlantic weather have left their scars.
Not only that, Lahinch is now such a hugely popular links with its members and overseas visitors that there simply wasn’t the room to comfortably serve the needs of all.
The awarding of the Walker Cup to the club provided the sense of urgency required to make a change that was approved unanimously by the members.
“The project started on the basis that our existing clubhouse is 60 years old, and it had actually reached the end of its useful life,” explained John Gleeson, the Chairman of Lahinch, who has worked with General Manager Paddy Keane to unify the club’s efforts to make this important change.
“Nearly every component in it is at that end-of-life stage; not just the roof, and all the glazing, but all the internal mechanics and electrics.
“You know, 60 years is a long time in the west of Ireland, and it has served us extremely well.”
An aerial view the new plans for Lahinch Golf Club in Clare.
Rather than demolish the old building, Lahinch is considerably expanding and reimagining what’s already there, adding a new golf shop to the village side of the current structure, building a new colonnade at the entrance and redeveloping the car park so the putting green will be relocated just behind the first tee.
All the locker rooms will be refurbished, complete with wet rooms, while a spectacular new foyer/lobby area will display memorabilia that will give visitors a sense of the history of a club that’s hosted the South of Ireland Championship since 1895 and many other championships, including the 2019 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open captured so memorably by Rahm.
All the external works, including the entrance steps and paving, will be done by April before work stops for the 2025 golf season and resume again in October when Phase Two will see the upper-floor and balcony areas utterly transformed.
The clubhouse will be extended west towards the ocean, which will mean the complete refurbishment of the bar and dining areas, replacing the existing roof with a new copper covering and developing a north-facing veranda and a new outside terrace area overlooking the second fairway.
“The project started really on the basis that our existing clubhouse is 60 years old,” explained Mr Gleeson, who will end a five-year stint as club chairman next Easter.
“Given the usage and the prevailing climate and everything else, the clubhouse had reached the end of its useful life.
“Nearly every component in it is that end-of-life stage, not just the roof, all the glazing, but all the internal mechanical and electrical components. Sixty years is a long time in the west of Ireland, and it has served us extremely well. But as we looked at the project, we decided rather than just repair and renew, we felt that as Lahinch is now so internationally recognised, we need a clubhouse in keeping with our standing as one of the top golf courses in the world.”
Getting the Walker Cup drove on the project and MCA Architects, whose Executive Director Gerry Murphy has been a member of the club for 30 years, has produced an innovative and modern design that will take the club to a new level.
While he’d been a member for decades and had built a house in Liscannor, Murphy was unknown to the members as he never played competitions and teed it up late in the day when he was in Co Clare.
On learning that his late mother hailed from nearby Ennistymon, the members embraced him as one of their own and unanimously approved the design, which quickly received planning permission.
The interior designs for the clubhouse at Lahinch Golf Club in Clare.
While the first phase of works will stop in the spring, minor elements of the building process will continue quietly during the summer before the upper area is tackled with a vengeance between October next year and the spring of 2026.
“We have room for manoeuvre in the event of a problem, which we don’t envisage,” Mr Gleeson added. “So we are absolutely confident that it will be ready for May 2026, well before the Walker Cup that September.”
The extension required for the new pro’s shop gives the club extra space downstairs to make a statement with an impressive entrance teeming with memorabilia, while the upper level will offer spectacular, panoramic views of the links and the ocean.
With local stone facing the new clubhouse, it will be very much in keeping with the club’s west of Ireland surroundings, close to the Cliffs of Moher and the Burren, while also offering a modern face to the world.