Golf courses, considered lifeblood to Hilton Head, furlough hundreds due to coronavirus
April, typically the busiest month of the year for Hilton Head Island’s golf courses — an industry that brings in $2.59 billion statewide — has become financially unrecoverable for most courses.
The hallmark industry, which has seen layoffs or furloughs for hundreds of employees on the island, is facing an existential crisis. Courses continue to operate, but with skeletal staff. Course managers say golf is an essential service, thus allowing them to remain open, but without caddies, starters or rangers, locker rooms or dine-in meals at the clubhouse.
Nearly all tourists have stopped coming to Hilton Head Island as the spots many of them come from — Ohio and New York, for example — have discouraged travel, and families have canceled vacations in favor of staying home and avoiding exposure to the coronavirus.
Island residents have pressured officials with the Town of Hilton Head Island to limit short-term rentals during the pandemic, and most rental companies and hotels have agreed to stop taking new reservations through the end of April.
With those canceled vacations and holiday retreats come canceled rounds of golf and dinner reservations at the clubs.
By state decree, all restaurants on Hilton Head Island are closed to dine-in service, so vacationers have nowhere to eat. But golf courses, which have managed to stay open during the shutdown, also feel that sting.
Golf course layoffs on Hilton Head
Statewide, the golf industry is responsible for creating about 31,434 jobs and paying $857 million in wages and income, according to a 2019 South Carolina Parks, Recreation and Tourism study.
The slowdown in tourism and recreation has deeply scarred the island’s workforce writ large.
As occupancy falls, people responsible for cleaning, maintaining and entertaining visitors have found themselves unemployed.
The Heritage Golf Collection reported 73 layoffs effective March 25 to the S.C. Department of Employment and Workforce. The collection includes three courses - Port Royal Golf & Racquet Club, Oyster Reef Golf Club and Shipyard Golf Club.
In Sea Pines, nearly 500 people were furloughed, vice president of sports and recreation Cary Corbitt reported. While none of the courses’ maintenance staff was part of the furloughs, employees such as caddies and servers in course clubhouses are missing out on a month that many count on as the most lucrative of the year.
Corbitt said the resort is attempting to compensate by distributing hundreds of free meals to furloughed employees and by selling Sea Pines Cares packages, which he said will benefit furloughed employees by issuing them a check.
Is anyone playing golf on Hilton Head?
Despite tourism coming to “screeching halt,” most Hilton Head Island golf courses are open. But the numbers of players and rounds is a far cry from a typical April on the island.
At the Sea Pines Resort, where only one of the resort’s three courses is open every day, Corbitt said that around 110 players are playing golf on any given day.
In a normal April, each of Sea Pines’ three courses would average 160 players per course per day, for a total of around 480 players.
The Heron Point and Atlantic Dunes courses are opening on a rotating basis to respond to the lower demand.
The resort’s most famous course and the home to the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing, the Harbour Town Golf Links, is closed until further notice. Corbitt said it was closed due to lower demand for the signature course.
“We weren’t getting a lot of play here because there weren’t a lot of visitors,” Corbitt said.
A round at Harbour Town Golf Links runs close to $300 per person, while a round at the other two courses runs between $160 and $180 per person.
Other golf courses also are suffering.
At Palmetto Dunes, play is down by around 85%, chief operating officer Brad Marra said Friday.
Between 50 and 60 players are using the community’s two open courses each day, he said. At this time last year, between 100 and 150 players were visiting each course.
Like Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes has kept its third course closed. Marra said Palmetto Dunes’ golf traffic is in near lockstep with occupancy rates on the island — as many of its players come from the community’s two hotels and hundreds of short-term rentals.
In Hilton Head Plantation, the Oyster Reef golf course is getting about 40% its normal April traffic, according to golf pro Brian Crum.
“I‘ve been here 34 years, and I’ve never seen an April like this,” he said.
Around 70 players have used Oyster Reef each day during the pandemic, he said. Usually, that number is closer to 160.
All three course representatives said the majority of players are locals or members of their respective clubs. Crum said Oyster Reef has canceled all of its tournaments, which typically account for most of its out-of-state visitors.
But the diminished number of players hasn’t stopped at least one course from encouraging play.
Hilton Head National, a public course in Bluffton, announced last week it would reopen after two weeks.
“Other courses in our area are open, and we have had a significant number of requests from local golfers to re-open for play,” Thomas Schultz, director of golf sales for the course, said in a news release.
Hilton Head officials encourage golf during coronavirus
As coronavirus has evaporated opportunities for recreation by closing stores, beach access and many parks, golf courses have largely avoided regulation.
S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster has shied away from making any determination on whether golf courses are considered essential businesses, leaving course managers to decide.
As The Island Packet has reported, most courses in Beaufort County remained open and have implemented social distancing practices such as closing clubhouses and allowing only single riders in carts.
Town of Hilton Head Island officials produced a video on how to golf safely during the coronavirus, in which town council member Glenn Stanford shared social distancing tips for the golf course.
“Hilton Head Island has been dependent on golf and golf courses for a long time, and we know that many people come here to play golf,” Stanford said in the video. “In light of this pandemic it is really important for people to be careful, practice their social distancing, sanitize, et cetera.”
The video was not well-received by Facebook users, who accused the town council of being tone-deaf.
It represented to some a bigger divide on Hilton Head: While public access to the beach and parking lots of the major town recreation areas have been closed, those with private memberships to golf courses are still able to carry on with life as usual with only minor inconveniences.
“No beach walks but golfing is allowed? #noequity,” Bluffton resident Cindy Lou Boles wrote on Facebook.
“This just pours salt in our wounds over the beach decision,” she told The Island Packet.
“This is a disgrace and a travesty,” Hilton Head resident Chris Roach wrote. “How dare you encourage this behavior? None of you...not ONE represents this island and US...the ones (whose) families have been here since before the town charter. You’re failing us.”
The video, which still can be found on YouTube, was removed from the town’s Facebook page just two days after it was posted.
The town’s Facebook post, where many people expressed their anger about the video, has since been updated with a graphic that includes tips for golfers.
In the wake of the pandemic and the widespread furloughs it brought, the new post includes suggestions to golfers to bring their own equipment, load and unload their own bags into the cart and avoid touching the flag pole.
