No matter what golf club you visit around the globe there is always a unique tale to tell.
Lahinch is no different but then this famed Co. Clare club, and host to this coming week’s Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, is more known for its goats and this is a tale of why the club chose a goat for it’s logo.
And what is also somewhat bizarre is the wording written by a former long-time Secretary on the club’s then malfuncting barometer located just inside the front door of the clubhouse that sports a simply message: ‘See Goats’.
The ‘See Goats’ Lahinch GC famed barometer (Image Lahanich GC)
The original goats that used to wander the fairways of Lahinch were owned by Tommy Walsh, a caddie at the club, who lived close to the old 3rd tee.
Tommy had lived in the UK and caddied John Ball in capturing the 1890 Open Championship before he moved to Lahinch in the early 1900s. He kept the goats first in his backyard before sometime in the 1920s he was allowed to let them roam the course.
Tommy soon established the goats were a great guide to the impending weather because if the goats were present around the clubhouse the weather prospects weren’t good.
But if the goats were out on the outer regions of the course, then the weather was good and you were sure to enjoy a game of golf without getting soaked.
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In the 1960s the club’s now famed club barometer broke down and it was then Secretary, Brud Slattery, took the barometer home in an endeavour to fix it but in frustratingly in the end he gave-up by hand writing on the barometer ‘See Goats’.
A few years earlier in 1956, the club had approved an emblem incorporating a thistle, a shamrock and a goat.
In 2001 the club sadly had to ‘put down’ four goats due to the then fears of foot-and-mouth disease and with the club at the time vowing the goats would return and they did.
The ‘goat’ statue to commemorate the part goats played in the history of the Lahinch club. (Image Lahinch GC)
The goats did return and continue to remain a unique feature of Lahinch.
Earlier this year (2019) the Lahinch goats were truly honoured when Irish Open tournament host, Paul McGinley unveiled a stature of a goat close to the clubhouse.
