Bloody Point owner: Golf 'not the answer' for long-term viability

The owner of Daufuskie Island's Bloody Point Golf Course asserts he has no immediate plans to close the troubled layout, but more than two years of steep operating losses have shown him that golf will not keep the property viable.

"Obviously that wasn't our anticipation," said Brian McCarthy, who spent $2 million to restore the course after purchasing it out of bankruptcy.

"It was my goal as a Daufuskie landowner to resurrect Bloody Point from the trenches of hell to the former glory it had. Unfortunately, golf has not been the catalyst that we thought it would have been."

McCarthy is seeking a zoning change that will allow him to create a hospitality district around the current clubhouse, including construction of a 120-room inn, with up to 50,000 square feet of commercial space for local artisans and other shops.

Outlying fairways would be turned over to create another 150 housing units, leaving some 68 acres preserved for open space.

Beaufort County's planning commission will take up the proposal again Monday, after tabling it at this month's meeting. A handful of Bloody Point property owners have objected, arguing the economics aren't to a point where what had been laid out as a golf community needs to transform.

Commission members spent Tuesday on a field trip to Daufuskie Island to get a firsthand look at the situation.

County Council also would have to give its approval to the proposal. Even then, McCarthy said, it could take several years to implement the changes -- but it would allow him to secure financing to help keep the golf course operational.

"In the short run, it's better for us to keep the golf course open to make the property look attractive," he said. Nor have there been any discussions of a sale, he added.

Weeds had overtaken the fairways when McCarthy, an Atlanta entrepreneur who keeps a second home among eight Daufuskie Island properties, bought the course in 2011.

Love Golf Design was brought in to restore and upgrade the old Tom Weiskopf/Jay Morrish layout, and the course reopened in May 2013. Business, though, has been difficult to attract in a crowded Lowcountry marketplace featuring more than 60 courses.

Nor does the necessary 45-minute ferry ride to reach Daufuskie Island help attract potential customers.

"It's a great ride back and forth," said Bloody Point general manager Patrick Ford, "but trying to compete when (golfers) can just ride up to another golf course -- it's a tough sell."

What the course generates in a year's worth of play, he said, is roughly equal to what the course spends in a single month.

"Underperforming would be an understatement," said Ford, who first came to the Lowcountry in 1992 and was golf professional at what was then Daufuskie Island Resort during much of its bankruptcy.

McCarthy said the course had been open about 18 months when he began to realize that golf was "not going to be the answer." Millennials, he noted, have not embraced participation the way previous generations did.

"One of my goals is to try to get my arms around millennials' buying power," McCarthy said. "We have to learn to adapt to their wishes if we're going to keep any activity at all on Bloody Point."

McCarthy sees promise for Bloody Point as a destination for weddings, citing statistics that show 25 percent of ceremonies these days fall into that category. Some of the proposed commercial space, too, can be used for kayak or bike rentals.

Asked how he long he can sustain a golf course enduring such heavy losses, McCarthy said, "I ask myself that question all the time."

"But this was a labor of love from the beginning," he added. "At least if I know there is a future path to a positive end, it will at least encourage me to continue to try to keep all the assets in good running order until a new path is finally embarked upon."

This story was originally published January 26, 2016 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Bloody Point owner: Golf 'not the answer' for long-term viability."