Cleared for takeoff: Lahinch's Klondyke hole.

Despite being one of the great golf courses of the world, Lahinch, located on Ireland’s west coast, is the kind of course that no one would ever build today, largely due to the advent of bulldozers...and lawyers.

Designed and then revised by two of golf’s greatest minds — Old Tom Morris of St. Andrews and Dr. Alister MacKenzie of Cypress Point and Augusta National — Lahinch remains full of fascinating quirks that defy the logic of contemporary golf course architecture, including the most unusual back-to-back holes you’ll find on your Ireland golf vacation.

The fourth and fifth holes are the only original designs by Old Tom Morris left entirely unaltered by MacKenzie and are genuine curiosities from a bygone era.

On the fourth, a short par-5 called Klondyke, your drive must land in a fairway that is no more than 15 yards wide and hemmed in on both sides by huge, grassy dunes.

Then, you’re required to fire a blind second shot directly over a dune, this one more massive than the others, which stands between you and the green.

If you’re short of the green, you must hit your third shot standing in
the line of fire from golfers teeing off on the 18th hole, because its fairway crisscrosses Klondyke’s. A ranger equipped with signal flags is stationed atop a huge dune to regulate the flow — a ball-traffic controller if you will — but there’s also a signage indicating that you're playing at your own risk.

On the next hole, a 142-yard, par-3 called Dell, the green is entirely hidden from view, tucked behind two enormous dunes. Your only point of reference is a white stone marker atop one of the mounds.

You have to pitch it over with a short iron and just hope for the best, which many times happens. Sort of. We were told that Lahinch’s wily caddies occasionally place a ball in the cup with the hope of scoring an especially generous tip.

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