"One less thing I got to bring across on a boat." Architect Andrew Green said this at a Bald Head Island Club town hall in September 2025. He was explaining why he wanted to keep the course's existing fairway grass rather than strip it out and replant. The remark was offhand, but it is the most useful way to understand what begins on the island on Monday, November 9.
That day, the back nine of the George Cobb course closes for the Club's Golf Course Rejuvenation Project. The course has wound through maritime forest, around freshwater lagoons and along a dune ridge since 1974. For most of the next year it becomes a construction site in the middle of the island. The plans rework ground the course already occupies. Wherever possible it reuses what is already on the island, and the parts that change most reach past golf into the trees, wells and stormwater the whole Village shares.
The Calendar, in Four Dates
The Club has posted a staged timeline and says every date may move as the project goes on.
- November 9, 2026. The back nine, holes 10 through 18, closes.
- January 4, 2027. The remaining front nine, holes 1 through 9, closes.
- June 20, 2027. Construction is expected to be finished, followed by a summer of grow-in and preparation.
- October 5, 2027. Target reopening.
The staging matters for anyone who plays. On the posted schedule, the front nine is the last to close, which leaves a stretch from November 9 to early January when holes 1 through 9 are the only part of the course not yet under construction. The Club's maintenance page also says that late fall, winter and early spring openings and tee times depend on the weather. The Golf Shop at 910.457.7310 handles day-to-day questions.
The four dates also fit a pattern. Construction is scheduled to end just as summer starts, and the reopening date falls after the season's peak. The grass needs the warm months to grow in, so the course sits out the summer of 2027 and comes back in early fall.
The Same Corridors, Reworked
At the 2025 town hall, Green described a plan to improve the course's existing corridors rather than reroute it or reverse its direction. He called what he showed members a draft and asked for their feedback. His reasoning was simple. Golf course components age, and parts of the Bald Head course needed reinvestment to keep the experience where members expect it.
That restraint follows the course's own history. The Club's golf page credits architect Tim Cate with a renovation a few years ago that replaced acres of turf with natural areas and opened up views, bringing out the barrier island setting. The same page notes the hundreds of sabal palms on the course. Bald Head is the northernmost place in the world where they grow naturally. Golfers regularly spot foxes, herons, egrets, ospreys and the occasional alligator. Keeping the corridors means the course stays in the same place relative to the homes, palms and lagoons around it.
Green's changes are concentrated at and around the greens. His draft called for putting surfaces with more varied contours and more short grass around them, so a missed shot could be played back in more than one way. For the greens themselves, he said the team was leaning toward an ultradwarf Bermuda, probably TifEagle, mainly because "it's tried and true."
All of that was presented in 2025 as the team's thinking at the time, not a final specification. By 2026, board member Anne Gardner wrote in her candidate statement for the Club's annual meeting that "planning is complete, materials are arriving," and that the project is meant to be carried out efficiently while "minimizing disruption" and "protecting the Club's financial strength."
What the Boat Ride Decides
The ferry and barge shape this project as much as any design idea does. Every truckload of material that is not already on Bald Head has to cross the water, and Green's choices keep coming back to that fact.
"I also see that we have roughly, I don't know, out of 90 acres of Bermuda grass... about 70 acres. Seems kind of foolish to ball it up and throw it away."
That exchange, from the Club's recorded town hall, is the clearest statement of the approach. Green said that trying to change the grass in Bermuda climates is "a real pain." Getting rid of existing turf means using products that "aren't overly nice." Keeping the established fairway Bermuda avoids that and spares the barge a large load.
The bunkers follow the same reasoning. Green proposed using native sand, with liners considered near the greens. On a barrier island, sand is the one material there is plenty of. For contrast around bunkers, he favored a dark green zoysia called Stadium, which he said sets off features well and "has a really nice way of staying where we want it to stay."
Water edges get the same practical treatment. Green said the bulkhead on the 16th hole needs repair or replacement. Elsewhere on the course, a more natural edge of turf and plantings could cut ongoing maintenance. He also talked about connecting cart routes and using sandy areas for cart movement and service access. That detail fits an island where the golf cart is the household vehicle, a pace of life covered in our earlier piece on car-free coastal living on Bald Head Island.
Where the Work Reaches Past the Fairways
A golf course on Bald Head shares trees, groundwater and drainage with the streets around it, so the Village has been part of the planning from the start.
The Village of Bald Head Island's Council meeting recaps record two threads.
- Irrigation, wells and stormwater. At a September 2025 meeting, the Village's public services staff reported meeting with Club staff about the irrigation system and other items that would affect the Village. The discussion included relocating some potable wells and making stormwater improvements. Some of that work would need to go through the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality and could affect the current permit.
- Trees. In a later 2026 Council update, Development Services Director Boyett described riding the course with the Club's superintendent, who showed him every tree the Club has asked to remove. Boyett estimated that about half had disease or damage. Many others were for turf management, since shade works against grass, and some removals open up space for holes. He said the requests were in keeping with what the project needs. Some plantings will be relocated, and the Club will mitigate some areas in coordination with the Bald Head Association.
For a homeowner along the course, the tree work is the change most likely to show up outside the window. The canopy around some holes will open, and thinning that is partly about sunlight for turf is also, by the nature of the work, a change in what neighbors see. The wells and stormwater items are less visible. They are a reminder that the course sits on the same island water system as everyone else, and that parts of this project answer to state environmental review as well as to the Club.
The Club's Calendar Keeps Going
The course is only one part of the Club. The Club's 2026 public events calendar lists a six-wicket croquet tournament on November 13 through 15 and a mixed-doubles tennis event on November 14 and 15. Both fall in the first week the back nine is closed. The Club describes three croquet courts with play and programming throughout the year, and tennis and pickleball clinics, socials and lessons. Gardner's statement also credits recent policy changes with more pool and fitness center hours and more racquets and fitness programming. For anyone weighing how the two island clubs fit into a household's routine, our guide to the Bald Head Island Club and the Shoals Club covers the broader picture.
When the course reopens, targeted for October 5, 2027, it should play through the same maritime forest, past the same lagoons and along the same dune ridge. It will have new greens, native-sand bunkers and fairways of grass that never left the island.
If you own along the course and want to talk through how a year of construction and replanting may affect your property's setting or your timing, Stephanie Blake follows these island projects closely and is glad to help. Let's Connect.
