Searching for just that right fit for a national membership can be an exhausting process with costs, travel and amenities all weighing on a golfer’s choice for that alternative to his or her home club.
A location that seems to be reemerging along the southern East Coast as a unique choice on that front is Haig Point, a private 1,000-acre community on Daufuskie Island, South Carolina — located between Hilton Head Island and Savannah, Georgia.
Accessible only by boat and founded by International Paper in 1986, Haig Point offers seclusion at the highest level along the oyster-rich Calibogue Sound. Its 20-hole layout was designed by legendary architect Rees Jones, which helped launch his solo career back in the mid 1980s.
Haig Point, owned by its members since 2001, offers what it calls “Our Discovery Experience” for those with the means to consider the exclusive community as a golfing option now or into the future.
“It’s not easy to get to and that’s a good thing,” says CEO Don Hunter, who came to Haig Point from Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst a year ago. “If you go to any high-end location other than us you’re really going to the same thing, you’re really going to the same chaos you have at home. When you come to Haig Point you don’t get to be in traffic, you don’t get to be under stress — these are things that you just don’t get to do here. Some people don’t get that, and that’s OK.
“Our membership is full of high achievers, high-stress folks who really are looking for a relief valve, who still want to play golf, still want to have all the nice things but be surrounded with such an amazingly different environment here that you can really unplug.”
There are no cars on the island other than service vehicles and most arrive by ferry or water taxi via a Hilton Head Island access point.
“When I left CCNC, I was looking for more of a challenge and I certainly got it here,” says Hunter of his previous Pinehurst roots. “There are things you don’t really think of like food deliveries and how a house is built. They can be extremely complicated here, but not impossible. It’s kind of like a puzzle, a Rubik’s Cube, and I’ve got a great team of professionals who help our members. Our most frequently asked question is ‘Well, how do I get groceries because there’s not a Publix here, right?’ You get groceries like you would if you lived in New York. You order your groceries and they deliver it to where you meet the boat, or the valets sort your groceries and they transport them all the way to your house. Or if you are flying in from somewhere else you can call one of our valets and say ‘Hey, I’ve ordered some groceries. I’d like them in my fridge.’ Now I bet you can’t do that in San Francisco. It takes some planning and getting used to but once you get used to it you’ll never want to give it up.”
After almost 40 years, Jones still regards Haig Point as one of his best designs in what is a masterful Hall of Fame career.
“It was a wonderful opportunity for me because International Paper let me put the holes where I wanted to,” Jones says. “The the north part of the island is the high part so I had lots of opportunities to do great shaping because it drains so well. And then we had spectacular vegetation because it really hadn’t been harvested. We had all the elements to build a top golf course.”
Once opened, the course immediately was embraced by golf course raters and became one of the nation’s top 100 golf courses, along with a critically acclaimed golf community. That allure has faded somewhat. But Hunter says there are major plans on the drawing board to have Jones back to the island to enhance his masterpiece and re-energize Haig Point’s national membership appeal.
“There are standards that you have to keep pushing and we know what those are and we’re working on that with Rees on our strategic plan,” Hunter says. “I think over time clubs have a tendency to either encourage golf course raters to come or discourage raters to come and this club’s been through that cycle. And once you do that it’s kind of hard to get them back. But over the next two years we’re going to implement strategies to expose Haig Point and we’ll be right back in the game at a really high level.”
Haig Point’s layout of 20 holes — not 18 — provides golfers with a challenge and variety on the 8th and 17th holes as Jones tinkered with angles over marshes and sandbars.
“I realized that the course was going to be a second home or retirement community for many and that those two forced carries were going to be too difficult for the senior golfers because we couldn’t have any forward tees since the wetlands came into play. So we built tees that could accommodate all levels of players.”
Golfers must declare which holes they will play prior to teeing off — probably the most stressful item they will check off their list all day on relaxing Haig Point.
“This golf course aesthetically is one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever seen,” says director of golf Jay Carrick, who came to Haig Point 5 ½ years ago from a private club in Florida.
“We want to attract folks with club experience,” added Hunter of the opportunity to come play the course via a vetting process. “For most of our members this is not their first rodeo. They’re usually in several rodeos concurrently. And we love the fact that we’ve got such an experienced group of members who know how to support the club. And about 30 percent of those who get off that boat and spend a Discovery Visit Weekend here at the club wind up buying a house or a piece of property. That says a lot.”