I had the pleasure of playing all 27 holes at Carne on the last day of my honeymoon in Ireland.

There is a lot to be said about Carne and a lot has now been documented about it thanks to Tom Coyne, No Laying Up, and John Garrity. The content that these three creators have produced is awesome and I would highly recommend watching for anyone contemplating a trip to Carne.

Pulling into the clubhouse parking lot at 630 AM on an overcast morning after a 7 PM tee time the previous night at Rosses Point was a memory I will not soon forget. The eeriness of the clouds added a mysterious blanket to the morning and only added to the intrigue of the round. I have seen a lot of comments about the playability of the Wild Atlantic Dunes course before I came, but this was the round that my wife wanted to play the most due to the affordability of the round (she has played under 10 rounds in her life).

Because of what had previously been written about Carne, I had the expectation that we would have the course mostly to ourselves, and my expectations seemingly met reality when we were the only ones at the course at the time of teeing off. The opening stretch of Wild Atlantic Dunes is my favorite stretch of three holes I have ever played, and to kick off the round with this stretch was something truly special.

The first is a medium length par 5 that is framed by dunes on either side that is a fantastic introduction to what is to come- minimalist golf course architecture on a site that is anything but tame. The first green is framed in an amphitheatric type dune with a false front protecting the front of the green. The second is a risk-reward par 4 dog leg right in which a gigantic dune guarding the cut-off dictates the strategy of the hole. If one chooses to lay up they can easily run out into a fairway bunker and leave themselves the possibility of a challenging uphill second. Cutting off the corner is typically a very doable play, but we were faced with a strong head wind that led to a more timid line off the tee. Due to the nature of the dogleg, the protecting dune, and the fall-off long of the fairway, a fade is called for to hold the fairway and leave a flip wedge in. Through the beautiful hand of the Creator, the third is a hole that is very similar except a dog-leg left in which a draw is called for and hanging one out way to the right leads to OB with the cattle. In addition, there is a massive drop-off to the right of the green that makes one want to hug the dune with their drive up the left.

I will not go into describing every hole, but I do think that this opening stretch is truly special and gives one an idea of what the landscape allowed for the architecture to be in the coming stretch of holes. Another hole of note was the par 5 8th which one must play to experience the wildness of the shots that the hole calls for to reach in two, or even to lay up. The blindness of this hole on the second shot cannot be understated, but the dunes do open up as one draws closer to the green.

Although I did rate this course as a 6 due to the fact that I believe the course has 16 perfect holes and the best setting for golf I have seen, the course is not without a weak one as I think that the uphill 9th is to the extreme that drives can roll backwards for a few yards due to the firmness and extremeness of the uphill. The other thing that I will say about Carne is that it is not in the best condition if your definition of condition is unblemished green. The conditioning is great on the greens and fairways and lends to a authentic links experience, but tee boxes can be patchy at times. I get that Carne can be a brute to walk, but I do think the course should be walking only and lean more into the Wild Atlantic Dunes routing as the current numbering system is confusing.

Yes, there are some narrow corridors at Carne, but there are multiple scorable holes as well. It felt as though most holes were designed to be half par holes and should be approached that way. I did not find playability problems other than the aforementioned 9th and if the wind picks up at the 10th it feels near impossible to not lose a ball. I thought that the framing of the dunes made shots so enjoyable and every shot required thought and strategy.

I also loved the experience of the peninsula, the drive in, the setting, and the people there (shoutout Gerry), but left most of those details out as I wanted to focus on the course. I hope to someday come back to Belmullet and play this course on repeat and will make sure to include this course in any future trips to Ireland.