Ironclad Golf and Beer Garden

Greens were an absolute disaster!

All chewed up. Worst I've ever seen.

Pin was in the fairway on One hole.

While visiting my parents in Wilmington, NC, my father suggested that we play a round at Ironclad Gold and Beer Garden as he had played here several months prior. We drove the hour to arrive advanced of our tee time. We decided to hit a small bucket at their driving range. The matts were missing the rubber tees but we managed to get in a brief warm up. We then decided to get some lunch before our round. Surprisingly, “Shacko Taco” has a location here and the food was great.

Now for the disappointing part. Apart from changing hole #1 to start at where hole #10 is located ( swapping front and back nine hole essentially) my GPS wasn’t updated but the scorecards were. Each tee box had tuffs of grass missing. A good 75% of the fairways were in declining shape. Burnt grass and hard pan surfaces littered the fairways. The greens were in the worst condition that I had ever played. Mostly missing grass, which I can only assume is a fungus issue. What’s worse is the fact that before checking in, we were no given advanced notice of the poor course conditions. My father attested that he did not experience such poor course conditions the last time he played here. We made the best of the situation and had a good laugh on how poor the course was in. The other disappointing aspect was that this “ Beer Garden “ was lacking the beer! Infact, they posted a sign by the check in that stated no alcohol allowed on the course! One can only assume that they lost their liquor license. Maybe, the check in should advise golfers of these poor conditions. Maybe offer discounts or full refunds if they aren’t willing to repair these conditions. I would stay away from this one. Maybe check back in a year or two to see if it’s returned to its earlier glory days.

if it weren’t for the guy that I was playing with telling me that the course is usually in better shape, I would have rated this a 1 star. There were patches of dead grass on the greens that made putting nearly impossible. The fairways were dry with a lot of weeds.

For a “Golf and Beer Garden” I expected more food and beverage services. No beverage cart, the keg of beer had only one beer left in it, so that was a miss, and the only food that I saw were chips.

The greens were full of fungus and missing grass. It was impossible to putt on almost all greens. Back 9 was in much better shape then the front.

Greens were a mess, fairways not mowed. Overall we had fun, due to good company

Beautiful day and, truly, that made it a great day but a lot of hurry-up-and-wait-golf. The greens on the back nine (formerly the front nine) were for the most part unplayable. Decent enough otherwise. Overall though, price is more than fair, staff is friendly, and Shaka Taco is always delicious. I will continue to support.

They are working diligently to improve the condition of the course, especially the greens. I usually play there about once a week and each time the course is better than the previous week. Definitely a good value for the fees paid.

The people at Iron Clad continue to work to improve the course. The fairways are filling in from the installation of the irrigation system and working the new tee boxes continues.

It is a family friendly establishment designed for public play.

Good layout. A few rough greens, but evident that they are working on the course.

Great Beer Garden. Food is awesome.

I live downtown in Wilmington and drive by multiple courses to come here at least once a week since I decided to make the trip. The vibes at the golf course just feels more upbeat! I would compare regular golf courses like the PGA, and you guys are the LIV! I am thrilled by the upgrades already made with the course and super excited to see the golf course in years to come!

Brandon Fresia

Really hard to beat the price. Course has a decent layout and the fairways are starting to come together. Greens are really rough. Great course to play for a beginner or a person/group that’s just out to hit some balls.

The fairway grass is starting to come to life again.

The grounds crews were working on the greens, which have been a continuing problem.

It is a nice public facility and they are continuing to make it better.

Pace of play was excellent today which is not the case here or on many other courses in this area.

A good value for the cost.

Staff is extremely friendly and helpful. I made a mistake with booking and the lady at check in couldn’t have been more helpful. The course itself is in bad shape. Tee boxes and putting greens are unacceptable. The tee boxes are uneven and you have to find a spot good enough to tee off at. The putting greens are bumpy and have random spots of different types of grass growing. Which causes your ball to bounce while putting. The putting greens also had some type of weird, green chemical on it, which caused it to be uneven also. To pay $50 for a round and you can’t tee off properly and putt on terrible greens isn’t worth the price.

I grew up in the surrounding area and this was always a more challenging course with multiple doglegs on each nine. Ironclad is always a fun round, while the conditions are not tour quality they are starting to get this course into better shape. I can see it competing with Wilmington Municipal golf course in conditions and affordability. Not to mention, the driving range at Ironclad is one of the best in town.

I don’t want to be to harsh on the condition of the course, we were told ahead of time by someone that lives on the course that they are redoing a lot of the course and that it wasn’t in the best of conditions. They were right, but I don’t think it’ll be in this condition within a year. So conditions aside the course itself, in my opinion, is VERY tight with houses. If you or someone in your party tend to slice or hook ANY you’re gonna be hitting houses. The staff was hands down the friendliest I’ve ever encountered. I’d go back just to have a beer with them. I can’t emphasize enough how nice they were.