Lahinch switches focus to Walker Cup after Palmer Cup

Work on a magnificent new clubhouse area is due to start this September at the famed Clare links

Team USA's Brendan Valdes plays from the heavy rough into the 12th green overlooking Lahinch beach during the Palmer Cup Am-Am. Pic: Brian Arthur

The traces of a hugely successful staging of the 2024 Arnold Palmer Cup were still being removed when Lahinch Golf Club turned the page to the next chapter: a clubhouse extension and the 2026 Walker Cup matches.

Sunday’s 32.5-27.5 victory by the USA over the Internationals following three days of intense matchplay golf between the world’s best collegiate amateurs had picked up where the 2019 Irish Open had left off.

The event, run by the Arnold and Winnie Palmer Foundation in conjunction with the Golf Coaches Association of America, had enjoyed the biggest crowds in its 27-year history and they were rewarded by some excellent competitive golf as the historic Old Course on Ireland’s Atlantic coast was shown in its best possible light.

The ever-popular annual South of Ireland Championship remains the constant for Lahinch and the 122nd staging will take place on July 24-28, while the Palmer Cup proved a resounding success in its own right, with the Internationals’ Irish quartet of Max Kennedy, Sara Byrne, Ryan Griffin and Kate Lanigan all contributing points in the mixed event.

Yet the Walker Cup will be an even greater spectacle with the club preparing for crowds of up to 10,000 per day when Great Britain and Ireland host the United States in the biennial men’s matches.

Lahinch Golf Club chair John Gleeson was delighted with the staging of the Palmer Cup and the feedback received from the organisers and is now focused on delivering an excellent Walker Cup in two years, complete with extended and upgraded clubhouse.

Team USA's Brendan Valdes plays to the 16th green during Fridays Arnold Palmer Cup in Lahinch Golf Club, Clare today. Pic. Brian Arthur

The 2026 hosts were in St Andrews last year as the USA won for the fourth time in a row and with the matches moving to an even year after the next renewal, at Cypress Point in California in September 2025, Gleeson and his cohorts will have another opportunity to see the tournament up close before their own staging 12 months later.

Work on the clubhouse is due to start this September and Gleeson told the Irish Examiner: “We’ll be ready.

“The uniqueness of the Walker Cup, it’s not just the history, it’s walking the fairways with the players, totally different from a professional event, the vibe and the feel. And you will have big crowds here and we may have as many as 10,000 a day but we’re ready for Walker Cup, we can handle it.

“That’s the unique piece and it takes a lot of planning to be able to walk the fairways and yet let the players play. We don’t have a lot of experience of that but we saw it at St Andrews last year and we’ll see it again next year at Cypress and we’re ready.

“We’re embarking on a big clubhouse project in September so we will have a spanking new clubhouse, substantially new – we’re not knocking it down but building around, and that will be something extra for the Walker Cup but having said that it’s all about the golf course and the match.

“There’s a lot of planning to go ahead over the next two years but we’re confident we’ll able to deliver a special Walker Cup and part of that is allowing a lot of people here to appreciate it and I’m sure the Irish golfing public and even wider public will turn out for the Walker Cup.”

Gleeson explained the need for Lahinch’s clubhouse upgrade “The clubhouse has served the club really well for 60 years but a lot of its functions don’t really work anymore and we were faced with a major renovation just to keep it as it is. So we decided to go the extra mile and give us something that hopefully will serve the club for the next 50 years.

“We kind of feel the clubhouse and the facilities have fallen behind the standards of the golf course and this is to improve that. I can’t tell you how much it’s going to cost because tenders are only in next Friday and so we’re waiting with bated breath but we’re confident it will look well. It’s a significant job but we believe it will further enhance the Lahinch Golf Club experience.”

As to the works themselves, the Lahinch GC chair added: “The footprint will be expanded. We’re going to build a whole new pro shop and downstairs will look much better, a big, impressive entrance lobby with all the memorabilia and on the other side we’re extending out the existing balconies facing the second fairway and the sea and also the first fairway to bring them inside the clubhouse and building new balconies further out.

“It’s a big project and it will be done in two phases. Works starts in September, very intensive work over the first winter up to next May then we hope to have a fairly uninterrupted summer in the clubhouse.

"We’ll have most of the downstairs work down by that stage and then the following September we’ll do the upstairs and the extensions. And it will be ready for the Walker Cup.”