Locals paid to play golf at Rose Hill for three years. Now they’re shut out of the course
A group of Rose Hill Golf Club members say they’ve been shut out of the course with no refunds and no answers.
Their memberships with the Bluffton golf course, paid upfront, are valid through Dec. 31, 2022, according to a membership agreement and membership card obtained by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
But when Rose Hill severed ties with its operating company, Stephens Golf Group, in late March due to “issues with the State of South Carolina,” non-residents who paid to play golf at the course were left with no explanation and no access.
Andrew Stephens, owner of Stephens Golf Group, was arrested in August 2020 by the S.C. Department of Revenue and charged with operating Rose Hill Golf Club without a retail license. That retail license, revoked in 2018 due to $144,000 in unpaid sales taxes, remains revoked, according to a SCDOR spokesperson.
Stephens did not return a call for comment Wednesday.
The company continued operating Rose Hill until this spring. A note handed to potential golfers in late March warned that the course was closed temporarily. Under the neighborhood’s covenant, Rose Hill cannot operate its own golf course, general manager Crystal Higginbotham told a reporter at the time (Higginbotham has not returned calls and emails from a reporter since).
Rose Hill’s property owners association has sent periodic email blasts to residents about the future of the course (The board is deciding between a management company and a course operator). But non-resident members say they haven’t been contacted directly. And their calls aren’t returned.
“We’d like to remind residents that you may play the course if you have your own golf cart, but the course remains closed to the public,” the POA emailed residents on April 5. “Also, please do not call in passes for non-residents.”
This week, a group of eight non-resident Rose Hill members told a reporter they just want to get back on the course again. They said they don’t understand why the club is not honoring the three-year memberships they paid for in 2019. They’re considering a class-action lawsuit against Rose Hill.
“We’d like to see this resolved,” said Rose Hill member Don Painter. “But, if they don’t want to respond, they’re going to leave us in a corner where we may have to seek legal counsel.”
Painter and his seven friends, all neighbors in Sun City Hilton Head, said they joined through the club’s 30th Year Anniversary Membership in late 2019. It was a good deal — $189.39 for three years of golf — and they couldn’t pass it up.
They called and recruited friends and family to join the club. Painter said he recruited more than 20 people to take advantage of the price.
The group tried to get together once a week, usually on Wednesdays, for a round. It was $20 per golf cart and free for those who walked the course.
The anniversary membership at Rose Hill is a three-year, pre-paid green fee program that allows members to play golf during “open play” periods, according to the membership agreement. Members can schedule tee times three days in advance — something Painter and his friends haven’t been able to do in over a month.
The agreement states that members will not be able to play when the course is closed due to weather, special events or golf course maintenance. And, the agreement says, Rose Hill is not responsible for “any acts of God.”
The total number of non-residents who paid for a membership at Rose Hill and are now shut out of the course is unclear, but Painter said he thinks “hundreds” signed up for the anniversary membership.
An email sent by the POA to Rose Hill residents last week said the operation of the golf course was a “major topic” of the community’s most recent town hall meeting. It said the POA board, golf committee and general manager were weighing two options to operate the course:
▪ One option, the email said, is hiring a management company to maintain and operate the course. This would require the POA to pay a fee to the management company, and all revenue would benefit the POA. The fee for management services would be paid by the revenue received, the email said.
▪ The other option, the email said, is to contract with a golf operator (similar to the contract with Stephens Golf) with a possibility to receive rent.
Rose Hill recently elected new board members, the email said, and once those members are seated and review the options, the board will make a final decision.
But, more than a month into Rose Hill’s temporary closure, Painter and the other paying members at the club are still wondering what happened to their money and whether they’ll ever be able to golf the course again.
This story was originally published May 6, 2021 at 4:35 AM.
