{"id":4468,"date":"2011-07-08T03:40:53","date_gmt":"2011-07-08T10:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/robertfagan.com\/?p=4468"},"modified":"2011-07-25T16:39:25","modified_gmt":"2011-07-25T23:39:25","slug":"theworldsbestunknowncoursecarnegolflinksbellmulletireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/golf\/courses-and-travel\/4468\/theworldsbestunknowncoursecarnegolflinksbellmulletireland","title":{"rendered":"The World’s Best Unknown Course \u2013 Carne Golf Links, Bellmullet, Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Looking back down the eight hole at the fantastic Carne Golf Links – in my opinion it’s the “World’s Best Unknown Golf Course.”<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Recently I was asked by one of my compatriots on The A Position to submit my favorite golf course in the British Isles for our monthly A-List.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take me long to pick one, and write and submit my favorite in just a couple of hours.\u00a0 I was tardy.\u00a0 Seems one of my other fellow writers had already beat me \u2013 we had both submitted the Carne Golf Links<\/strong>.\u00a0 I have played fifty Irish courses including the consensus the \u201cForty Best,\u201d but it was Carne that immediately came to mind.<\/p>\n

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Yes, Royal Dornoch, The Old Course, Royal County Down, Lahinch, Tralee, Enniscrone, Sunningdale Old, and Ballybunion Old are all great, but my heart yearns to return to the rustic Carne Golf Links of Belmullet, Ireland, perhaps the least known and played of the great courses.\u00a0 Interestingly it is also one of the youngest.\u00a0 Anyway one publication had it ranked the 7th best in the British Isles and another 28th in the World so it does have some impressive credentials in addition to my approval. \u00a0Finished in 1993 by designer Eddie Hackett, Carne is located in the remote northwest corner of Ireland.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Looking back on the par-three 16th hole.<\/strong> The tee is atop the dune.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


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Did I say “remote?”\u00a0 Go any further west and you’ll be in Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts.\u00a0 Carne is set on a peninsula practically surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean.\u00a0 The spectacular views of Blacksod Bay and the Atlantic islands of Innis are breathtaking and the proper location for a course that rivals or may even surpass the likes of Ballybunion, Royal County Down, and Portrush.<\/p>\n

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The interesting thing is that when I mention Carne to most other well-traveled golfers, I get a blank 300-yard stare in return, or maybe an occasionally faint recognition that they heard something about this great remote links.\u00a0 And once in awhile, I will meet someone like fellow golf scribe, John Garrity.\u00a0 When I mentioned this \u201chidden gem\u201d he lit up.\u00a0 Garrity wrote the book \u201cAncestral Links\u201d about discovering his ancestors in the tiny Bellmullet village and how Carne influenced his life.\u00a0 Our conversation turned into an hour exchange of superlatives and great stories we tossed at one another.\u00a0 Why we might even be related!\u00a0 And Carne was our shared delight \u2013 one of the best experiences of our lives inside or out of golf.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Looking back on the demanding par-four 17th hole.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Carne was the last links course to be designed by the late Eddie Hackett. \u00a0 Hackett only lived three years beyond the course’s opening, but there is every reason to believe that he considered Carne perhaps his best creation.\u00a0 This is an amazing property that the architect scarcely disturbed while formulating a routing that has a fun ebb and flow, and is indeed memorable.\u00a0 A quick glance at the scorecard’s 6,700 yards will scarcely prepare you for what waits.\u00a0 Yard-for-yard Carne may be the most awe-inspiring fun golf course on Earth. <\/em><\/p>\n

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Carne is a simple, almost rumpled layout that features massive dunes (up to 150\u2019 high), ocean views, and an unforced, quirky, but stout test of golf, along with friendly unpretentious folks.\u00a0 Where I might usually extoll the virtues of special holes, Carne has eighteen of them.\u00a0 All of them are memorable and some of them qualify as quirky.\u00a0 Like so many links, its challenge can be immense when the ocean breezes pick up and then play like a lamb on a quietly peaceful day.\u00a0 Either way, the pacing, the views, the shot values, and one “Oh Wow” encounter after another greet you hole after hole.<\/p>\n

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Astonishing, natural, staggering, inspiring, and just plain fun only begin to describe Carne.<\/strong> It\u2019s not crowded or expensive, but one of the best walks and plays you could ever imagine. \u00a0If I was destined to play just one golf course for the remainder of my days, book my reservations to remote Belmullet, Ireland for I want to tee it up at Carne.\u00a0 And please don\u2019t tell anyone about my secret \u2013 the Carne Golf Links.<\/p>\n


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A view of the tenth green and the immense dunes that unfold on the back nine.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Fagan Grade:\u00a0 A. <\/strong>Carne is one of those rare modern links courses that appears that it has been there for centuries just waiting for golfers to challenge its grounds.\u00a0 It works for me from every angle to capture the rare “A.”\u00a0 Carne is the epitome of fun with character disguising its many puzzles, a place that I could spend a lifetime of golfing days uncovering its charming mysteries.\u00a0 Carne may be one of Ireland’s most remote golf courses, but it is well worth the effort to play there – one of the thrills of my golfing lifetime that I was fortunate to play there.\u00a0 You should be so fortunate too!<\/p>\n

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The par-four 9th returns to the clubhouse and sets you up for a spectacular back nine.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Looking back down the eight hole at the fantastic Carne Golf Links – in my opinion it’s the “World’s Best… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":4469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,3600,3729,5353,1694,2247,17],"tags":[6217,65749,65750,65751],"class_list":["post-4468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-perrygolf","category-world-golf-tour","category-golf-travel","category-tourism-ireland","category-haversham-baker","category-course-reviews","category-courses-and-travel","tag-carne","tag-eddiehackett","tag-johngarrity","tag-ancestrallinks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/33\/2011\/07\/carne8.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4468"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4489,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4468\/revisions\/4489"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/robertfagan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}