Carne (Hackett) - Mayo - Ireland

Played Carne on our 2nd "annual" Irish golf trip and what a pleasant surprise. Heard about this after reading a novel in which it is mentioned, so we made the drive over after playing RCD. This is a wild ride and one that you will enjoy if you like links golf in a natural setting. I especially liked the back nine and 18 was the icing on the cake. We will be back again this year and give it another go.

I have been lucky to play all the top courses in Ireland and last week played Carne, Wow! It may not be RCD, but it was as wild and natural a golf course you will find. It is a roller coaster ride ending with an exciting par 5 that was terrific. If manicured fairways are what you like, then stay away, but if a day on one of golfs most natural and exciting courses is your thing, then do play Carne, you won't regret it.

A solid course but a little too over the top for my tastes.

We played Carne on a beautiful, sunny day last week (6/15/10). Let me preface by saying I played poorly, hitting only one fairway and losing at least a dozen balls. Carne is a wild ride, up and down and side to side with huge dunes framing the fairways and greens. The fairways were brown,hard and fast while the greens were nice and green and receptive. Carne plays fairly for the most part. Most holes you can see what's required to have success. There were two holes that I felt were tricked up. Numer 11 a dogleg left that plays around a huge dune and then plays WAY uphill for the second shot ( I hit one of my few good approach shots here and ended up about six feet right of the hole) with a sheer drop off if you miss the green to the right. If your walking ( which we weren't) I guarantee your not walking up that hill twice. The other hole is number 18 a hole you will absolutely love or hate, I'm the latter. About a hundred and fifty yards from the green you find a huge gulf between you and the green big enough to lose an apartment building in. Carne is a wonderful course with an extremely friendly staff that is well worth the trip even if a couple of the holes aren't to my liking.

For those who dont know, Carne is located in splendid isolation at the far west corner of Ireland. Remote but beautiful, the course sits in the middle of enormous sand dunes to the west of Belmullet town and really is the ideal setting for a golf course largely thanks to the tranquility, vistas and hospitality of the locals who reside in this corner of the country. The drive up to the clubhouse reveals the towering dunes that you will soon pit your wits against and it soon becomes apparent that this land was destined to be a golf course. In fact as you navigate through the dunes it appears as though it always has been a golf course due to the most natural of routings and the minimal earth movement to create the course. It is as pure and natural a links course as you will ever encounter.

The clubhouse, pro shop and facilites are all quaint yet sufficient and do not distract from the main attraction which is the course. Strokesavers are a necessity here rather than just a luxury as there are twists and turns that you would not believe. Also the stone markers in the fairway relate directly to the strokesaver and do not give the same yardages for each hole (ie) the yellow stone might be 92 yards from the green on one hole but 220 from the green on the next. So get a strokesaver!

The course starts of with an upwards dogleg right par 4 and for the next few holes you are brought down to the lowest part of the course where you gradually begin to climb back up toward the club house as the opening nine wears on. The holes on the lowest part of the course are regarded by some as the weaker holes on the course but my view is that they afford the golfer the chance to build a bit of rhthym and momentum as well as confidence to tackle the challenges ahead. Indeed there are some terrific holes on the outward nine with the 8th and 9th in particular being my own personal favourites. The 9th returns you to the clubhouse and when you step onto the teebox on number 10 you get the sense that something very special awaits.

The back 9 at Carne is quite simply the finest inward 9 holes of any links course on earth. Set amoungst the tallest of dunes you start with a rollercoaster of a par 5 where you rise and fall back down again toward a green nestled at the base of a large dune. The 11th is probably the best tee shot of the day where you try to pierce the two dunes infront of you before the hole turns at a right angle to reveal an elevated green. The next hole is almost the reverse of the 11th and brings you down further to the boundry of the course. Two very dramatic holes in quick sucession gets the heart racing. Even their layout on the strokesaver wets the appetite. The par 5 13th that follows could well be the best hole on the course, as it gradually rises up to a flag that you can see on top a hill in the distance. It reminded me a lot of the 8th at RCD. What makes this par 5 so good is the views of the bay to the right of the hole as you get nearer the green and the view of the bay behind the green is simply stunning. A lovely par 3 along the bay follows and from here the course gradually brings you back up to the clubhouse.

The best thing about this course is that the majority of the elevation changes occur on the cart paths between holes which the course is far better for because if the giant dunes had to be traversed as golf holes, then we would all need oxygen masks. The 16th is a fun par 3 that is hit way down into a valley. Your ball seems to be in the air for an eternity. The 17th is a brute of a par 4 but with a beauitful green setting and rightly deserves its index 1 status. The 18 is reminicent of the 10th, and again is a rollercoaster of a par 5 that brings you back to the clubhouse, by which time you will be in a daze as to majesity of what you have just experienced.

Going up the 17th, I could not wait to finish so I could head back out again. A second round is a must here. This place is better than any other links course ive ever played, with perhaps the exception of Royal County Down. It really has to be seen and played to be believed. How on Earth this course is not ranked in the Worlds Top 100 ill never know. That will change in time im sure as more people experience this place. If there is a golf course in heaven, it would have Royal County Down's front nine and Carne's back nine. It's that good. DF

Carne is a great test, I played it on a recent visit to County Sligo and Mayo while also playing Enniscrone and County Sligo. To be fair i felt Carne was probably the weakest of the three and also the most remote. The first hole is a dog-leg left running away from the fantastic clubhouse to a green sheltered in dunes. While the 2nd is practically a blind par 3, holes 4, 5 and 7 are the disappointing holes on the front side played on relatively flat land beside the towering dunes of Belmullet. The backnine starts of with in my opinion the finest hole on the course with a long downhill par 5 top a green secluded in awe inspiring dunes. The back nine takes you down toward the ocean with a par 5 leading you down to the shoreline before playing the memorable 14th a par 3 played along the remote shoreline with the brakers coming in off the Atlantic. Then an uphill 15th leads you to a slightly surreal 16th a downhill par 3 that is only around 130 yards but the day we played the wind was blowing so hard i hit a full 3 wood and came up short! The hole is maybe slightly gimmicky but its for that reason it is so memorable. Carne is a great test and is a great course to play if your in the area.

Played Carne in spring of 2009 with my father. It is a "hidden gem" in the middle of nowhere! The morning that we played, we had the entire course to ourselves. What a fantastic layout. It has a couple of gimmick holes, but more than makes up for it with some excellent elevation changes on a couple of excellent par 4's/5's. The sand dunes aroung the course are as majestic that you will ever see. If you aren't in good shape physically, you might want to consider taking a trolley (cart). My father and I Loved the quaintness of the proshop and friendliness of the staff which only made a great day even better. I'd recommend playing it before the rest of the golfing world realizes how great it is.

This course will take your breath away,from the remoteness and isolation of the course,to the GIGANTIC lunar-like dunes.Clubhouse is basic and the course could be improved regarding the condition in places.Prices reasonable for top links and views of bay on the back nine are spectacular.Must play if in the area....

On leaving Cruit Island, the newly crowned King of Donegal was basking in his new regal status. He set his shiny crown to a jaunty angle and prepared for the drive south to Belmullet where, we would stay before playing Carne early, and I mean early, the next morning. We rolled up to the course at dark o’clock, that’s 6:40 to you and me, and we prepared to play. The good people of Carne had kindly left us the keys to their course under the largest of welcome mats and although it was dark and it was dreech with that wet rain that soaked you right through, our spirits couldn’t be dampened. We drove off on a wing and a prayer and hoped for the best.

The 1st is a medium length par 4 followed by a short but tricky par 3. As it became lighter it was obvious that this was a quality track, right out of the top drawer with few, if any, weak holes. Along with the 2nd the 5th,6th and 8th were my pick of the front 9. To me, hole 10 is a mirror image of the 1st, both similar in layout, both designed to take you on to better things. It was at this stage, what can only be described as the miracle of Carne occurred. With little warning, the mist lifted and the rain stopped. It was as if someone had turned on the lights, and opened the curtains. Instantly, Carne’s true majesty was unmasked revealing quite possibly the finest back nine that I have ever played, (right up there with Hillside) it was simply magnificent. The best way to describe the back 9 is to say that it is like Cruden Bay on steroids with dunes the size of skyscrapers.

Holes 11 and 12 are more ‘L’ shaped than a dog - legged both culminating with elevated greens. (A wee word of advice don’t go through the green at 12 as it will cost you dear,) 13th is a lovely par 5 played to the oceans edge whilst 14 and 16 are stunning short par 3’s the former being up hill to a narrow green and the latter being steeply downhill to a well guarded green.15 and 17 see you play to narrow green entrances at the end of dune guarded fairways and the 18th with its humped and hollowed fairway sees the climax of a breathtaking inward half. As I sank the last putt on the 18th I confirmed the capture of Mayo to go alongside Donegal. Would I need to get another crown? Should I buy some corgis? Life was good. But that would have been the case irrespective of the result. Win or lose you cant help loving Carne a special golf course with the back 9 an almost spiritual experience. Eddie Hackett’s swansong just maybe his greatest gift to Irish golf. MPPJ

Carne and Enniscrone were the last two of the top 20 Irish links courses on this website that I had yet to play before this week and I’m glad to say they were both well worth waiting for! If you don’t like Carne - even with its relatively prosaic par 5’s at holes 4 and 13 and its, at times, unkempt appearance around a number of tee boxes (holes 1 and 10 in particular) - then you don’t deserve to call yourself a golfer. There, I’ve said it, it's as simple as that!

To think that a senior citizen in the shape of the late, great Eddie Hackett walked the landscape to route the layout less than 20 years ago is nothing short of astonishing as it has the feel of a course that has been in use for many, many decades. Pay no attention to those that might pick minor faults here - instead, REJOICE that local people had the foresight in the late 1980’s to develop a course within such a dramatic landscape. Remind yourself that environmentalists would fence off large portions nowadays to protect whatever species of crustacean happened to be flavour of the moment from those naughty golfers, given the opportunity. And please don’t try to compare and contrast Carne against the top classic Irish links courses as it lies in totally unique terrain and is therefore a different golfing animal altogether. Enjoy it for what it is; a wonderful place to play the type of golf that most modern golfers today can only read about in historical golf books. In case you’re not too sure from the above, I loved every second I was here. Jim McCann