The Full Irish: Carne Golf Links
We head to the remote club to tackle a course that's become a cult favorite.
In the northwest corner of Ireland, in County Mayo, there’s a town called Belmullet. It’s remote enough that many Irish locals have never even considered making the trip.
And it’s the kind of a course I would have never thought of adding to our rota until I really started getting into the research.
I’d first heard of Carne, of course, by reading Tom Coyne’s “A Course Called Ireland,” a book that has brought a great deal of fame to the course and worthy attention after Coyne raved about it so extensively. I then saw the No Laying Up crew (with Coyne joining for the trip) play it on their Tourist Sauce: Ireland trip.
That was enough for me, it had to be part of the trip. I later saw the crew from Chasing Scratch play it - and say it was the best day of their golfing lives - as well as read John Garrity’s Ancestral Links, where he moves to Belmullet and plays Carne over and over, including the 17th hole 18 times in a row, building a course solely from one hole trying in vain (sadly) to make par. (I was so tired by the time we played this I didn’t pay nearly enough attention to it. But suffice it to say, I too did NOT make par.)
To put it MILDLY, I was incredibly excited about Carne. We would be playing the new Wild Atlantic Dunes routing, which adds the new Kilmore 9 and the back nine of the original course, then playing the original opening nine later in the day. 27 holes in the wild dunes of Carne was something I quite literally had been dreaming about for almost three years.
CARNE GOLF LINKS
Founded: 1993
Designer: Eddie Hackett
Ratings:
Top100GolfCourses: 66 (Britain and Ireland), 14 (Ireland)
Irish Golfer: 12 (Ireland)
Golf.com: 66 (Britain and Ireland)
It’s a bit of a trope for golf architects and designers to say that they “found” the course just sitting there, and barely had to do much to create a playable golf course. But that’s essentially true in Carne, where the work including mowing grass, installing bunkers and that’s about it. Any digging was done with shovels, not heavy equipment and the bumps and lumps strewn about the fairways were caused by nature, thousands of years ago and likely under the oceans.
So when you get to playing golf, there are a few things that are really fun - one, of course, is playing well. A second is playing a course you’re super excited about. And the third is when both things occur on the same day. Fortunately, that was the case for me at Carne. I made eight pars, and three-putted two other greens for a bogey, and ended up shooting my best round of the trip thus far. And I did this on a course that was so laughably great it was bonkers.
(As a side note, we realized during the round that exactly five years earlier - to the day - AC and I had played The Old Course. Where will we be playing on August 18, 2028?)
I’ve looked through my photos and my guesses were realized - there’s really no way to illustrate the scale of the course just from walking it with an iPhone. (The above photo is borrowed from Top100GolfCourses.)
One of my biggest joys was NOT being the first person to a tee and seeing David, Dean or AC just start giggling when they saw what lay ahead of us, because it was often so preposterous in the best possible way.
We played the Wild Atlantic Dunes course, which is a combination of the original front nine (Hackett) and the new Kilmore nine, then had a late lunch and went out and played the back nine of the Hackett course.
As you can see from Dean’s fit, we were blessed with literally PERFECT weather. Almost no wind, about 65 degrees but with enough cloud cover to not be hot at any time.
This course in the rain and wind would be absolutely BRUTAL, and I couldn’t be more thankful that we had such luck with the weather.
The 18th hole of the Wild Atlantic routing is hilarious - it’s SO steep you almost can’t believe it. So I took this video to help illustrate it. If you clear the hill on your drive, you are down below.
It is RAW golf, a stern test, and truly unlike any other golf course we’d ever played. I should also add that the course was almost absolutely silent. I’ve never thought of golf as loud, it’s usually a calm walk through trees, on a beach adjacent course, etc.
But on most courses, there’s ambient noise everywhere, whether it’s cars driving by, other golfers talking or blasting music or noise from homes, etc. Even wildlife adds to the noise at most courses. Not at Carne. It was almost so quiet it freaked us out, but it was truly serene. It was literally us, our caddies Darragh and Kevin, and the course. We did see a few other golfers, but on the last nine we played we essentially had it to ourselves. (We smartly decided to play Wolf and not really care about our scores, which was the right call after 18 in the morning.)
It was also David’s last round, and he finished in style, absolutely CRUSHING his drive, nailing his approach and making the world’s comfiest par to end his trip. We were all very psyched for him and wished him safe travels home. Coming in to take his slot is AC’s younger brother, Third Rob, aka Big Bob. He’s a stick and the best golfer on this trip so we’ll see if we are QUITE as excited for him when he plays well. (I’m kidding. Sort of.) Here’s a sneak peek at the weird, funny guy that is Big Bob.
Back to Carne. I’ll also add that it’s fun to meet folks like Gerry and Fiona from the course who I’ve seen in the NLU and other videos, and they are just as welcoming and lovely as one could hope. Tremendous people and one of the most welcoming golf courses I’ve ever been to.
Listen, Belmullet is “the edge of the world,” or as our caddies (both born and raised there) said, “about an hour away from civilization.” But it’s SO worth it for any golfer who wants to experience something new and special in golf. It’s worth the effort, and immediately became one of my favorite rounds not just in Ireland, but anywhere. Make the trip.