LAHINCH, Ireland — Lahinch is a quiet seaside village of 1,018 residents on Ireland's southwest coast, centered around a single main thoroughfare and a world-famous links course just a stone’s throw away.
This week, Lahinch hosts the 51st Walker Cup for the first time and it has embraced it in nearly every possible way — logos and streamers abound, and a large Walker Cup banner crisscrosses above Main Street.
Of the various businesses that crowd in along Main Street, Flanagan’s Bar is one of at least 10 bars. The bar is exactly what a visitor might expect an Irish bar to be — dark, a maze of rooms, wooden floors, bar stools fronting a sturdy bar, rustic with photos all about, tables that look like they came from a Salvation Army warehouse. Some might call it Irish quaint.
Hanging prominently on the wall of the main room is a poem by Dermot Kelly dedicated to Jean Van de Velde, the French golfer whose 18th-hole collapse at Carnoustie during the 1999 Open Championship remains one of the sport's most memorable moments. The poem is affixed beside a 2000 Irish Times titled "Ridiculed Frenchman has ridden out the storm."
Kelly’s verse celebrates Van De Velde's grace and sportsmanship under immense pressure:
Jean Van De Velde
One hole to go and there it was
The British Open’s glittering prize
Steady Jean – be not afraid
The Cup is yours come from the shadeVive La France – from eighteenth tee
Your drive is wide that’s bad you see
For now you have an uphill lie
In angry rough and yet you tryThree shots later you’re in the water
The crowd in turmoil, grief and laughter
Barefoot you stand to drop or play
And live to fight another dayBut first you pause and look around
And on your face a smile is found
You’ve won the world, you’ve won our hearts
It's only a game but you’re apartAnd so to golfers who play for pay
If money’s your God – please go away
But do observe a sportsman of the world
A smiling star Jean Van De Velde
Whether celebrating historic team clashes or enduring heartbreaks, Lahinch stands as a town where the spirit of the game lives in every brick and on every pub wall.