Challenges of Playing Golf at The Links at Brick Landing

May 6, 2025. Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina

For the past five years, we lived on a sailing catamaran, and we often transited north or south by Ocean Isle Beach. We frequently saw golfers teeing off on holes 1 and 18, which run parallel to the Intracoastal Waterway. We would look on with envy, wondering how nice it must be to be playing golf at that moment. Well, we are wondering no more; today, we got to play at the very course in question, The Links at Brick Landing. With this experience in hand, by the time we reached the 18th hole, we wondered how nice it must be to be sailing instead of playing golf.

We arrived early, as usual, for our 12:20 PM tee time. The staff at the pro shop were very friendly and quickly offered insight into the idiosyncrasies of the course. They mentioned the unique feature that the course does not return to the clubhouse after the 9th hole, as is customary, but continues to meander through the neighborhood until the 18^th when you return to the beautiful and opulent clubhouse. Once outside, we met Bob, who offered great insight into the course. He cautioned us to keep the driver in the bag until hole #6, the first par five. He provided tips for navigating the greens and the hazards we would soon encounter. There was no putting green to gauge the speed of the Sunday Ultra-Dwarf Bermuda greens, which were as new to me as my mallet putter, but off we went.

While many of Myrtle Beach’s golf courses have been designed by well-known golf professionals and architects who have designed dozens or even hundreds of courses, The Links at Brick Landing Golf Course was designed and completed in 1987 by Mike Brazeal, a real estate developer in the area. The golf course has had a difficult history, changing ownership several times and even closing due to poor revenue generation. In 2020, local residents created an LLC and signed a lease-to-purchase agreement to save the course for local residents and visitors.

We feel the course is in good condition; the greens are lush but overgrown, making putting very slow and not reacting readily to the reads. I would venture to guess they are being nurtured to maturity until further mowing takes place. We feel like the entire future of the course hinges not on the will of the residents or the hard work of the maintenance staff but on overcoming what we are confident in judging as simply bad course design. We felt the course was unforgiving and made shot placement almost impossible. The course is entrenched in a limited space as it winds through neighborhoods, crosses major highways, and butts up against the waterway, so we see no room for improvement. We got the feeling that the course fails to coexist with the neighborhood, and in several areas, we could see house development encroaching on what used to be golf course land. We are not avid golfers but always feel like a course should provide a reasonable path to bogey; not so for The Links at Brick Landing. There are only two options for a mid-handicapper: the gold tees, which make the course more like an executive one, or the whites, which force you into teeing off with irons but require long carries over water, sometimes twice in one hole.

We feel blessed to be retired and traveling full time; the old saying that a bad day at the golf course beats a good day at the office still holds true, but we left the course dejected. We wish the course and the residents who have so bravely engaged in saving it good luck in their endeavors, but perhaps their investment should be directed into redesigning the course rather than pouring resources into improving the conditions a golf course that was poorly thought out.