Lahinch Work

[Charles_P.]

Here's a brief article on the renovation efforts at Lahinch:

http://www.ireland.com/sports/golf/2001/1218/golf1.htm

The article is pretty sympathetic; have any of you seen the efforts to date to corroborate?

[Greg Ramsay]

Paul Daley has a very impressive CD featuring fly-throughs of all the holes as they are now, with fly-throughs of the proposed alterations with very good commentary explaining the reasons.  I think they seem pretty sound. I loved Lahinch- but the course does have some fairly weak holes, as well as some v.dangerous routing so I think the plan is to make the cuorse better whilst making it safer.

Thanks for the link Mr Price

Greg Ramsay
www.barnbougledunes.com

[John_McMillan]

Interesting article.

The "untouchable" holes at Lahinch have always been the fifth and sixth, and it's not clear how the "danger" can be taken out of the course without changing these holes.

The article quotes a plan by Peter Thompson to uncross the fifth and eighteenth fairways, but it's unclear what the status of that plan is.  The article mentions that the members are not pleased at the plan - but it's unclear whether the Peter Thompson changes are going forward, or still being debated.

[Tim_Weiman]

Greg/John,

I never really found the famous Dell hole at Lahinch dangerous.

Whenever you play a Par 3, you always have to wait until the group in front clears the green.  On this hole it is very easy to see when this happens: the seventh tee is plainly in sight.  Moreover, when you make your way over the hill on #5, activity on #6 is plainly in sight, so I can't see what all the fuss is about.  My guess is that people, especially Americans, don't play such a hole more than a couple times in their life and they just find it odd.  But, dangerous?  I think that's overdone.

Now what about #5?  I suppose a better case can be made that danger exists on this hole or that avoiding danger is kind of a hassle as you really need someone to climb the hill and check out where the group in front is.  The club positions someone in that little hut over the hill, but I'm not altogehther sure how effective that person is.  You can't even count on such a soul being there.

Anyway, if we were to change these holes because they are dangerous, what does that say about the famous 3rd hole at Prestwick?  Isn't the second shot more likely to hit someone than either shot at Lahinch?

[Dan Kelly]

I've read the story cited by Charles P. -- and am left wondering:

A 2-million-pound renovation? Why?

I played there in the fall of 1999, and the course was completely captivating.

Two million pounds is a good bit of change to spend fixing something that, to my eyes, wasn't broken. Has Ireland gotten THAT prosperous?