Hilton Templepatrick Golf Club

We didn’t play this course as part of one of our tours. I’ve qualified for a team at work and this is the course where we playing our match against a team from Manchester. So I used this round as a practice round before the match. We played with work colleagues of mine, Alisdair (who’s also on and the team) and Alan (who’s having a hip replaced soon!!)

Hilton Templepatrick is an 18 hole parkland course not far from Belfast International Airport. I’m surprised we hadn’t yet played this course but in a way I’m glad we didn’t Both Alan and Alisdair, who had played it before, said that it looked so much more mature and they noticed a few differences in the layout, particularly at the 10th tee (the Google Map below is not up to date - the upper-right corner is now a driving/practice area and the 10th tee is just beside the pond there).

Read more

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.

Read more

Whitehead Golf Club

Date played: 30 March 2007, 1pm
Weather: Windy and cloudy to start, calmer and sunny towards the end.

Parkland, 18 holes, Par 69

We played this as part of my society outing and we didn’t play it together since I was also playing a matchplay competition (I got stuffed 7&5 - not one of my better days on the golf course).

The weather was mostly fine although rain threatened to accompany the strong winds early on. But as we played on the day got brighter and we could enjoy some the fantastic views from the top of the course. It’s high above Whitehead which not far north from Carrickfergus.

The first few holes are all uphill which can make it quite a struggle to keep your breath and hit decent shots. However the climb is worth it for, by the fourth tee, the views over the North Channel are spectacular - although it was a bit hazy today. The outward half holes are mainly on the higher ground with the inward holes much more on a level.

Read more