Long Cove, Hilton Head SC: A Private Club Community

Long Cove is gated, with its security office at 8 Long Cove Drive, and every vehicle that comes in needs a pass. Members request passes for their guests, as many as they like, through the club’s Proptia app or by calling the security gate at (843) 686-1050, for anything from a day to 30 days at a time. Contractors and delivery drivers buy their own passes.

The golf course, dining and courts are for members and their guests, so a visitor comes in as a member’s guest. The exception is one week every March, when the club hosts the Darius Rucker Intercollegiate and spectators can walk the course for free.

The course, by Pete and Alice Dye, is the center of the community, routed through the salt marsh, lagoons and pine and live oak woods. Golf Digest ranked it among the top 20 courses in the country in 1985, and in 2026 Golfweek placed it eighth among private courses in South Carolina and 24th among residential courses in the United States. Members play it as part of their dues, paying only for carts, and a guest playing with a member pays $125. Our Long Cove Club golf page has the scorecard, the ratings and the flyover video.

The marina, at 65 Turnbridge Drive, is Long Cove’s way onto the water: Broad Creek, then Shelter Cove Harbour, Calibogue Sound and the ocean. Slips, jet-ski storage and kayak racks come with membership at no extra fee, for boats up to 40 feet, though space is limited. The club keeps kayaks members and their guests can take out, and a transient dock for a member’s visiting boat. The members’ Long Cove Yacht Club, open to everyone in the community whether they own a boat or not, runs fishing, boating, kayaking, cycling and social outings.

The sports center at 420 Long Cove Drive has eight Har-Tru tennis courts, four of them lit for evening play, four pickleball courts added in 2018 with a viewing pergola, and two bocce lanes added in 2019. Two full-time pros teach lessons and daily clinics, there are ball machines to book, a pro shop that strings rackets, USTA teams, and summer camps for children.

The clubhouse at 44 Long Cove Drive was restored in 2013 and has three places to eat: a snack bar, the Grill Room and the more formal Magnolia Room, plus the Jim Ferree Bar upstairs. Lunch is served six days a week and dinner four, and there are no food and beverage minimums. A second renovation is under way: the first phase runs from July 2026 to February 2027 and the second from March 2027 into early 2028.

Around it, the heated saltwater pool is junior-Olympic size, with a book exchange of more than 2,000 titles beside it. There is a fenced one-acre dog park, which the club says is the only one in a private golf community on the island, an acre of community garden with irrigated raised beds and an orchard, and more than two acres of playground, picnic area and basketball court.

Every property owner is a member of the Long Cove Club Owners Association, and the membership is the club. For 2026 the annual dues are $20,867, which cover unlimited use of every amenity as well as what a property owners’ association would usually charge for the gate, roads and grounds. An initiation fee of $75,000 is due at closing on a sale, and every property has been assessed $7,866 for the clubhouse renovation. Golf carts, guest fees and meals are extra. Our Long Cove real estate page covers these costs for a buyer.

Long Cove is on the southern part of Hilton Head Island, and its entrance on Long Cove Drive is close to Sea Pines Circle. Its homes back onto the course, the lagoons or the marsh of Broad Creek, which forms its water side. The club publishes a site map of its streets and amenities on its map page.

Long Cove homes can’t be rented short-term. The community’s covenants bar renting or leasing a home for less than six consecutive months without the association’s written permission. A lease has to be for one family, filed with the association, and must forbid subletting, and the tenant gets no use of the club’s amenities. Timeshares and other shared ownership are banned outright.

So there are no Long Cove vacation rentals to book. For a stay nearby, most of the island’s rentals are in Sea Pines, Palmetto Dunes, Shipyard, Shelter Cove and around Folly Field, and our Hilton Head vacation rentals guide covers the companies that rent them.

Life in Long Cove runs through the club: men’s and ladies’ golf associations, the yacht club, a pickleball club, a cultural association with cooking, art and yoga, and book, bridge and mahjong groups. Since 2003 the members’ Long Cove Fund has given about $2 million in charitable grants. The club’s administration office is at 399 Long Cove Drive, and its rules, covenants and design guidelines are public on the club’s website.

Homes come up for sale a few at a time; the club says inventory is low. Our Long Cove real estate page has the current listings and what a buyer should know about the initiation fee, dues and the association’s right to buy a home before you do.