IMA Brookwood Golf Club Review

HAS Brookwood Golf Club
Burton/Flint, MI
Grade: B-
Teacher’s Notes: Lots of interesting holes. Good value.

IMA Brookwood is a classic parkland layout, built in 1938 to a design by Joe Szilagyi. It runs over rolling hills and creeks and is an interesting and fun game.

The course hosted the 1965 Michigan Open, which was won by Gene Bone, who is now a member of the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame.

IMA Brookwood has a fascinating history tied to Michigan’s early auto industry and union history. IMA is the Industrial Mutual Association, an organization founded in 1922 to provide recreational and educational opportunities for workers in Flint’s burgeoning automotive industry.

The IMA itself was the creation of a merger of the Flint Vehicle Factories Mutual Benefit Association (an insurance collective) and the Industrial Fellowship League, which was part of the local YMCA. In addition to their other projects, IMA sponsored an evening Auto Trade School, which became the Flint Institute of Technology, then the General Motors Institute and now Kettering University.

IMA offered a variety of recreational activities including softball, hockey, basketball, chess, quilting, soccer, karate and theater, as well as food and catering. The Industrial Mutual Association Auditorium was built in 1929 and was Flint’s entertainment center for decades. The last major event was a 1979 Peter Frampton concert. The Dort Financial Center, a sports, entertainment and convention venue now run by the city of Flint, was also built by the IMA.

And then there’s golf.

In 1963, IMA purchased Brookwood Golf Club. It is actually the only remnant of the original association left. In 2019, the IMA closed down its assets and transferred them to the IMA Recreation Association. The IMA Recreation Association manages the course, the adjacent banquet hall and sponsors The First Tee in the area.

Good for them.

So on with the review.

Brookwood has the classic course feel with its tree-lined fairways and small, round, often elevated greens. As I’ve discovered at many courses of a similar ilk in Michigan, the route runs over and around a small valley carved out by water centuries ago – in this case a creek that is a tributary of the Flint River. The use of the river/creek valley reminded me a bit of Western Golf Club, Atlas Valley and Flushing Valley.

Elevation changes created by the river/creek valley affect six of the holes. The par 3 third plays from near the creek, over and to the green on a ridge. The ninth and eighteenth cross the creek as they approach the green towards the clubhouse. Ten, playing outside the clubhouse, cross the river from the tee.

And while the river doesn’t cross any of the holes at the back of the property, it does run around those sides, having long ago created a slope from the highest points of the course to the bottom. Twelve and Thirteen are on a low, possibly flood plain. Sixteen and seventeen run up and to the left of a ridge.

Unlike many courses of Brookwood’s vintage, the gaps are not parallel back-and-forth affairs. I counted twelve doglegs of varying degrees. For me that added a lot of interest.

I thought there were a lot of good holes at IMA Brookwood, and it was very difficult to choose my favorite.

It could be the par five seventeenth, a dogleg right with a hill along the outside edge (sloping to twelve and thirteen). The hole rises slowly from tee to green and ends at what is perhaps the highest point on the course.

I also really liked the dogleg left par 5 fourteenth. The tee shot is straight out, after which the fairway dives towards a pond. The approach shot is uphill to the green, over the pond. The pond calls for judgment on where to place the second shot to avoid a watery death, but leaves an optimal shot to the green.

IMA Brookwood also has what I thought was a very good collection of par threes. Three plays uphill over the creek. Eight is uphill from the floodplain to a ridge. Fifteen play along the same ridge, further on the site.

As you’d expect from a course that once hosted a Michigan Open (albeit in 1965), Brookwood is respectable based on the tips. However, as befits a community course, the shorter tees are more than manageable.

The conditions on the day I played were adequate. Spots in the fairway may be thin, but not bald. It was more common for areas to need to be mowed. The tee boxes were a little worn, but to be fair I played in the fall after a long and busy season. The greens were in good condition.

Like many courses these days, Brookwood would fare much better if chainsaws were used judiciously. I think a lot of courses in Michigan are getting to that stage in their lives where major maintenance is needed. I know it’s expensive, but work like this is a long-term investment. Washtenaw Golf Club – my home course – has been working on this for several years.

Despite the less than optimal conditions, IMA Brookwood gets a good mark for its smart and interesting design, combined with an affordable price. In the summer of 2025, a weekday eighteen – with cart – cost just $40. As a hiker I paid $30.

If I lived in the Flint – Burton area, IMA Brookwood would be a regular stop.

The IMA Brookwood Golf Course Review was published on February 3, 2026 from notes and photographs taken during a round played in the fall of 2025. Follow the link for a list of all of GolfBlogger’s golf course reviews.

A photo tour of the IMA Brookwood golf course follows:

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