Carolina Shores Golf & Country Club in Brunswick County has closed, potentially for good.
The 6,755-yard Tom Jackson design opened in 1974 and is in the town of Carolina Shores, N.C., adjacent to the town of Calabash.
Course operator Philippe Bureau said he also owns the property with his wife, and they have decided to close it with no plans to reopen.
Bureau said there is currently no buyer for the property, and he declined to provide further details of the course’s closing or its future.
Carolina Shores G&CC has been an inexpensive local course with its primary customers being members and area residents, and its clubhouse included a pro shop and bar & grill that was open to the public. The property includes a pool and tennis courts.
The tight layout was cut through hardwoods and pines.
Bureau has been in the Myrtle Beach golf market for more than two decades and took over Carolina Shores in 2011 after being director of golf at the four-course Ocean Ridge Plantation from 2005-08. He made initial improvements to the course and clubhouse when he took over.
Carolina Shores G&CC is the centerpiece of the town of Carolina Shores, N.C., which was founded in 1998 when it split from Calabash.
The 156-acre property is zoned as a Conservation Recreation District (CRD) according to the town’s zoning map. CRD zoning “is intended to preserve Carolina Shores’ essential open space areas.”
Housing can be conditionally built within a CRD, however, according to the town’s code of ordinances, which reads: “Conservation zoning may be incorporated into surrounding developments. Large lot zoning for single-family residential development is conditionally allowed as an effective way to preserve natural and community open space resources.”
Town Administrator Chad Hicks told The Brunswick Beacon newspaper for an early August article that the property is under special use zoning, which permits residential development. However, plans to change the land use would have to go through the town.
The Beacon reported in August that Bureau confirmed on July 26 that the course was under contract at that time, though he declined to provide additional details.
A petition on Change.org posted by a resident titled “Prevent Rezoning of the Carolina Shores Golf Course for Residential Development” has garnered more than 1,000 signatures since July.
Carolina Shores is the latest course to close in Brunswick County over the past 23 years.
The others include Marsh Harbour Golf Links (early 2000s), Ocean Harbour Golf Links (early 2000s), Ocean Isle Beach Golf Course (2005), two 18-hole courses at Angels Trace Golf Links (2006), and Farmstead Golf Links (2021), which had holes in both North Carolina and South Carolina. Additionally, nine of 36 holes at The Pearl Golf Links closed in 2020.
Angels Trace was expected to be turned into the fifth course at Ocean Ridge Plantation, and though nine holes were designed and cleared, the course was never fully built.
