Meadowlands Golf Club Named Finalist for National Course of the Year Honors

Meadowlands Golf Club, the popular Willard Byrd design located along the Grand Strand’s north end in Calabash, N.C., has been named as one of four finalists by the National Golf Course Owners Association (NCGOA) as its National Course of the Year.

Meadowlands is representing the Southeast as one of four regional finalists (along with the West, Midwest and Northeast region representatives) up for consideration of the national honor. The winner of this award, as well as the Association’s other individual and group recipients, will be recognized at the NGCOA’s annual Golf Business Conference taking place February 5-7, 2019 in San Diego, California.

This national honor recognizes excellence based on each nominee’s exceptional course quality, outstanding ownership and management, exemplary contributions to its community and significant role in helping to grow the game. National Course of the Year Award winners are chosen among the NGCOA’s core membership that make an outstanding contribution to the game of golf in their markets, and are model operations to their peers.

The national recognition comes on the heels of Meadowlands’ recent selection as the 2018 Myrtle Beach Golf Course of the Year by the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association (MBAGCOA). The course is recognized by Golf for Women Magazine as a “Top 100 Women-Friendly Course,” and has earned high marks from visiting golfers for its series of renovations in recent years. Those course improvements have included the redesign of two holes on its front nine, installation of new TifDwarf bermudagrass greens, and strategic removal of select bunkers and trees to improve playability and foster optimum turf conditions.

Meadowlands’ owner, Sheila K. McLamb, and the McLamb family have also been active supporters and contributors to the greater Brunswick County community. Several organizations have benefited from the McLamb family’s volunteer efforts and financial assistance – among them Brunswick Community College, the Brunswick County Chamber of Commerce, the Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center Foundation, Camp United Methodist Church in Shallotte, N.C. and Canine Angels, which trains rescue dogs to become service dogs for disabled veterans.

Meadowlands has also played an active role in growing the game among area youth through their ongoing support of The First Tee of Coastal Carolinas (TFTCC). Most notable among these efforts is the course’s donation of more than 8 acres of land to the local First Tee chapter, where children are taught the essential elements of the game through on-site instruction and implementation of The First Tee’s Nine Core Values.

Since the NGCOA’s inception of the National Course of the Year Award in 2003, the Grand Strand has seen two designs receive this honor: World Tour Golf Links (2004) and Grande Dunes Resort Course (2009).