The owner of a long-closed golf course on the north end of the Grand Strand has plans to reopen nine holes.
Kevin Blum, who closed Brierwood Golf Club in the Shallotte area of Brunswick County in 2017, has submitted a special use permit application to the town of Shallotte that requests the reopening of nine holes, the clubhouse and restaurant.
The application from Blum Investment Group Golf LLC also proposes adding other amenities for community use over three phases. They include a swimming pool, kids playground, basketball court, multiple tennis courts and multiple indoor and outdoor pickleball courts.
Blum plans to reopen the former front nine of the course, and the new development would cover 76 acres.
Under the proposal, the grand 10,000-square-foot three-story clubhouse would be renovated and house a 70-seat restaurant.
Golf courses require the issuance of a special use permit within Shallotte’s development jurisdiction, according to the town.
Blum is working with Eli Engineering of Ocean Isle Beach for the reopening of the course, which is zoned for residential development.
According to the proposal submitted to the town, the project’s first phase would include cart path work, and the reopening of the course, clubhouse and restaurant.
The second phase would include three indoor pickleball/tennis courts in a former maintenance building, six outdoor pickleball/tennis courts and a basketball court.
Phase three would include the swimming pool and kids play area.
The 6,643-yard Brierwood Golf Club opened in 1967, making it one of the 10 oldest 18-hole courses on the Grand Strand.
Blum purchased the course and some adjacent property totaling more than 160 acres in 2014 from the family of late Dr. Ben Ward, who is the original course developer and is credited with the design.
Blum did not return messages from On The Green Magazine as of Thursday morning.
According to a 2017 article by Alan Blondin in the Myrtle Beach Sun News:
Blum was a real estate investor working largely in Arizona when he began looking for property on the Carolinas coast with friend and real estate broker Chris Sprow, and they found Brierwood.
They purchased the course for $1.25-$1.5 million.
Blum said he closed the course because it wasn’t playing enough rounds to be profitable.
“It’s kind of a bummer because I had pretty big goals for this place and thought it would be attainable. I feel I would make good on my plans but I need the community support,” Blum told The Sun News in 2017.
Blum said in 2017 that he put the course up for sale for $1.5 million for six months prior to its closing but didn’t receive any credible offers. He said then that he wasn’t ruling out reopening the course at some point in an altered form, and the golf business has enjoyed a resurgence on the Strand over the past few years.
“There aren’t too many golf courses that make it just as golf courses. There has to be something else,” Blum said in 2017.
Reopening the front nine will require a lot of maintenance work, as much of it has been overtaken by nature.
