The Carne Golf Links is located outside of the town of Belmullet, on the remote and beautiful Mullet Peninsula. The golfer who chooses to include a day at Carne in his golf tour of Ireland must be prepared for a long journey to reach Belmullet town and the course, but he will be richly rewarded with beautiful scenery and a natural Irish golf links set among some of the most imposing dunes and sandhills imaginable.
The course at Carne was designed by Eddie Hackett, Ireland's leading links architect of the late 20th century. At Carne, Mr. Hackett was presented with the most dramatic piece of dunesland of his career, but as with many of the courses he designed he was also presented with a small budget that did not permit any significant earth-moving in the design of the course. The result is an extraordinary natural golf links that heaves and tosses through and over one gigantic dune after another.
The front nine at Carne contains many outstanding links golf holes, including the par three 2nd hole, where the flagstick is barely visible between two dunes, and the uphill par three 7th, where the green is literally cut out of a large dune. Yet it is the back nine, which runs through the largest dunes on the property and along the ocean, that contains the most memorable holes at Carne. These include the 11th and 12th, a pair of par fours that are each about 320 yards long. A quick glance at the card will have many a golfer thinking about birdie on these short holes, but, when the golfer sees the green on each of these par fours perched precariously into the side of a large dune, he is quick to realize that par is a fine score on these great short holes.
With the enormity of its dunes and generally wild nature, Carne is the perfect choice for certain golfers on an Irish golf vacation yet not the preference of other golfers. For those who like their links golf on the wild side, such as at Cruden Bay and the Cashen Course at Ballybunion, Carne is a must play that will prove to be a thrill-ride. On the other hand, for those who prefer a more subtle style of links golf, such as at Portmarnock or Muirfield, the course at Carne may prove to be a bit too wild.
