IRELAND Carne Golf Club, Belmullet

Construction has resumed on the new nine at Carne Golf Club in County Mayo, Ireland.

Carne’s existing 18, the last course designed by Eddie Hackett –- he died in 1996, three years after it opened –- has been called “one of Ireland’s last true hidden gems,” and it appears that Hackett knew he’d created something special. When the course opened, he said, “There will be no better links course in the country or, I doubt, anywhere.”

The 6,742-yard track is often described as “wild,” “natural,” and even “lunar” -– you should check out the pictures at the club’s website, CarneGolfLinks.com -– and the same descriptions will probably also be applied to the new nine, a 3,500-yard track that’s been designed by Jim Engh, an architect based in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Mitch Scarborough, an architect in Engh’s firm -– both architects are members of the club and are working pro bono -– says the addition is taking shape on “a super wild, incredible site with enormous dunes.”

“It’s mind-blowing, how wild it is,” adds Scarborough.

The club is in Belmullet, a town located along the nation’s northwestern coast. It’s owned by Erris Tourism (Turasoireacht Iorrais Teo), a community-owned group that was created to promote tourism in the area, which is far off the nation’s well-beaten tourist tracks.

The addition has been routed through the highest dunes on the club’s 260-acre property. The members began building it in 2005, and they finished three or four holes before the construction stopped, in 2007. They anticipate that the new nine will open in late 2011.