Former Rose Hill Golf Club operator pleads guilty to tax-related charge. What we know
Andrew Stephens, the former operator of Rose Hill Golf Club in greater Bluffton, pleaded guilty in magistrate court last month to a charge that he operated the business without a retail license.
A Bluffton Magistrate judge imposed a $100 fine on Stephens on Aug. 17, according to court filings. The misdemeanor charge, operation of a retail without a license or a suspended license, typically carries up to 30 days in prison and/or a $200 fine.
Called Tuesday, Stephens declined comment.
Stephens’ guilty plea comes after a roller-coaster spring and summer for Rose Hill, a gated community along U.S. 278. The community’s golf course was abruptly closed to the public for months before finally reopening under a new operating company in August.
Rose Hill severed ties with Stephens and his company, Stephens Golf Group, in late March due to “issues with the State of South Carolina,” leaving non-residents who paid to play golf at the course with no explanation and no access.
The course’s closure appeared to be tied to Stephens’ August 2020 arrest for operating the Rose Hill Golf Club without a retail license. The S.C. Department of Revenue revoked the retail license in September 2018 over $144,000 in unpaid sales taxes, according to Stephens’ arrest warrant.
Stephens was told to close the business and stop making sales.
On June 17, 2020, however, a revenue department agent found the business open and was able to make a retail purchase.
Stephens was released on a $10,000 personal recognizance bond the same day of his arrest and continued operating Rose Hill until this spring. In March, The Island Packet and The Bluffton Sun reported that Stephens was finalizing a deal to operate another greater Bluffton golf course — Island West Golf Club.
Asked about his arrest in March, Stephens told The Island Packet he dropped “the ball on a couple of things” and was “in the process of getting that finished up.”
Shortly after news spread about Stephens’ upcoming deal with Island West, Rose Hill shut down its course temporarily. A note handed to potential golfers, signed by Stephens, warned that there were “issues” with the state.
The golf club and Stephens had severed ties and, under the neighborhood’s covenant, Rose Hill could not operate its own course, Rose Hill General Manager Crystal Higginbotham told a reporter at the time.
Rose Hill’s property owners association sent periodic email blasts to residents about the future of the course, but non-resident members were largely left in the dark about its status, golfers previously told The Island Packet.
More than two months after the course shut down, Rose Hill’s board of directors hired a new company, Hallmark Golf Group, to operate the course.
The company, based in Houston, Texas, reopened the course to the public on Aug. 1.
Hallmark Golf is in charge of operating two other Bluffton courses, Crescent Pointe and Eagle’s Pointe, and The Golf Club at Hilton Head Lakes in Hardeeville, according to the company’s website. Hallmark Golf Group I LLC purchased Crescent Pointe and Eagle’s Pointe in 2019, according to Beaufort County property records.
