100 Years: Maple Brook in Charlotte

By Tom Lang

    The former Charlotte Country Club, for many years now a public venue called Maple Brook, turns a century old in 2026 – just like its Lansing neighbor 20 miles to the Northeast – Groesbeck Golf Course. 

    Maple Brook used to be outside of town, but with commercialization buildup thanks to a I-69 freeway exit a few blocks away, the course is almost hard to find with a Speedway gas station now sharing the backdrop with the clubhouse for the 9th green.

    And the 18th green – because they are one in the same. 

    What’s special about this 100-year-old course is that it’s always stayed 9 holes. It’s intimate. It doesn’t consume massive amounts of acreage. An expansion to 18 holes never came like many courses did when the popularity of golf grew in the mid-20th century.

    So as time passed, some creativity was implemented to build some extra tee boxes at various lengths and from different angles to allow playing it twice and having a different experience. At least six of the nine holes have alternate tee boxes – the most noticeable on the finishing hole. 

    No. 9 is a par 5 at more than 500 yards, yet the second time around plays as a medium par four with a completely different fairway corridor pushed off to the right. It’s probably at least 250 yards from the 17th green, possibly more, to 18 tee.

    Overall, several holes have a lot more natural roll and movement in the ground than you would first suspect when pulling into the parking lot.

    Hole 1 green has a ridge on both the right and left sides about 1/3 deep into the green, so if you don’t get over those, your ball can roll back off the front. 

    Hole 2 is a very hard L-shaped left-hand turning dog leg. If you don’t get the ball past the trees guarding the corner you cannot reach the green in regulation. Both are very nice holes to get the round going.  The brook on property runs in front of the first tee but doesn’t  come back in to play until fronting the seventh green, the eighth tee and the ninth green. Hole 7 green is a unique hourglass shape making for some very interesting pin placement options.

    Maple Brook is a delightful small town nine-hole golf course that likely has not changed much besides alternate tees in 100 years and there’s no reason to change it for the next century.