Greenacres Golf Centre

Greenacres is an 18 hole parkland course just outside Ballyrobert on the road to Ballyclare. I first played here about 5 years (or more) ago and, truthfully, I wasn’t that impressed. It was soggy, next to featureless and not very memorable.

But the Greenacres I played this time around was so much improved it was like a brand new course. I can’t say that I remembered the layout of the course very well – except for the par 3 6th over the pond, which was still there – but it was in tremendous order. There were far more trees than I remember and the greens were in fantastic condition. Whilst they didn’t have the immaculate look of the greens on the courses we have played recently they were fast and tricky enough to land on and read.

The 2007 Captain, Gabriel Murphy, is a good friend of mine and he finally got around to inviting myself and Clive to play Greenacres. (He’s been promising to invite us for many years). Also with us was another good friend, Stephen Clarke, who plays off a girl’s handicap!

As well as some major improvements the the course there is also a state of the art driving range as well as a 9 hole par 3 course and mini golf to attract visitors. It’s an impressive set up. Gabriel introduced us to the owners, Stephen Crawford and his son Colin, who chatted to us about the course and demonstrated the facilities of the driving range. We were suitably impressed.

There’s a brand new clubhouse which houses the changing rooms, a members’ room (where they can help themselves to free tea/coffee, comfy chairs and SKY) and provides access to the driving bays. There’s also quite a lot of space in the entrance hall. A LOT of space in fact, and not very much in it. Maybe they have plans for a shop or something but at the moment it’s very open plan.

Across the way is Barnaby’s Restaurant (under different ownership to the golf course) which has recently been extended and which served up a decent pint of Guinness and generous portions of standard bar food, but there’s quite a lot more on offer.

Thomas says:
I’ll get this out of the way first – the standard of golf was bad all round. No one was hitting their stride at all. And I can’t blame the weather this time. I managed a few good shots here and there but mostly I just lost balls and fluffed around.

Having said that I very much enjoyed Greenacres. It was unrecognisable to the last time I played here and I was very impressed. The fairways and greens were in top order and the rough was lush, long (and getting longer in preparation for the Irish Junior Cup according to Gabriel) and lethal. There is a fantastic near-panoramic of the surrounding countryside view from the 9th and from all over the course you can see planes coming and going from Belfast International Airport.

My favourite hole had to be the 18th. It’s a great finishing hole – a card wrecker if ever there was one. It’s not a particularly long par 5 at just 480 yards. There’s out of bounds and some nasty rough down the left side. It dog legs with about 100 yards to go to the green, which is protected by a large pond. Only the brave, the stupid or the good could try for the green in two. The green presents its narrowest side for your approach shot – too short and you’re wet, too long and you’re out of bounds. And there’s a bunker in there somewhere as well. Needless to say I got wet (but I managed a 6 all the same).

We’re playing here again later this month at a society outing and I’m very much looking forward to it.

Clive says:
This was a new course for me. It was a great morning and the prospect of playing golf here with Gabriel – who is the captain this year – and Stephen was definitely a game to look forward to. It’s a lovely track, maturing over the past years it seems. There are some tricky, and long, par 4s and the hole which I liked best was the 13th with a raised tee box which gave a beautiful view over the mid Antrim hills.

The golf complex at Greenacres is something different with a driving range, a par 3 course and a mini golf game all on the site. I think it’s the first course I ever saw all these attractions. Top marks to the owners and I’d give the course a good 7 out of ten.
In the area too is Ballyclare which is another testing parkland course. So if you have a full day available you would be advised to tackle both of them.