OUR STORY
Long Cove Club: A Cherished Way of Life
The Early Years
January 29, 2024: Presentation by David Ames and Bob Patton
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The developers of the Club, David Ames (left), Joseph Webster and Wes Wilhelm (not pictured), inspect Phase 1 progress.
Since its inception in the early 1980’s, Long Cove Club has been recognized as the standard by which single-family, private, secure residential communities are measured. Small by design with just over 600 acres, the incomparable natural beauty and casual elegance of our community reflects our relaxed and unpretentious lifestyle, as well as our commitment to excellence in all aspects of our operation.
Long Cove Club is considered one of the island’s best-kept secrets. Our members have quietly been enjoying the good life here for over three decades. Our Pete Dye golf course, ranked in the Top 100 for nearly thirty years, sets the tone for the community as it graciously sweeps the salt marsh, lagoons, pine and live oak forests that surround it.
Our community is an extraordinary way of life for those who live here, from the first class tennis facility to the breathtaking marina, members here enjoy all the activity they could hope for or all the solitude they could want.
In the beginning…
A group of early residents strolling down one of the first dirt roads in Long Cove Club.
In the early 1970's, three young men — David Ames, Joseph Webster III and Weston “Wes” Wilhelm — honed their skills and development philosophies working for the Sea Pines Company on Hilton Head. In 1976, the trio ventured out on its own and created Development Associates Inc., in the process turning its focus to developing a cutting-edge community all its own.
During that time Sea Pines, Port Royal, Shipyard and Palmetto Dunes stood as gated resort and residential communities on Hilton Head, yet most of the golf courses on the island were open to the public.
All of that changed when the trio discovered that the perfect piece of ground for their dream development was sitting right under their noses.
The vision of Long Cove is born…
The developers knew they had found the perfect piece of land to build a community that returned to the simple and exclusive principles of private, single-family residential living, removed from the hubbub created by island tourists.
Long Cove Club's Inaugural event began by selling home lots on August 11, 1980. Long Cove welcomed the first 100 Members soon thereafter. The back nine opened in November 1981 with the honor of Mr. Louis and Mrs. LaJunta Stovall hitting the first shots.
The front nine opened in the Spring of 1982. In 1985, Long Cove Club was ranked by Golf Digest as one of the Top 20 Golf Courses in the United States. When Long Cove Club was unveiled it lured to the island a bevy of selective golfers seeking world-class golf with a Pete Dye masterpiece as its crowning jewel.
The Sea Fan
Long Cove Club is a uniquely close and interactive community. This concept of connection is represented as a visual metaphor by our sea fan logo.
The depicted Gorgonian sea fan is found throughout our corner of the Atlantic Ocean in large numbers right off our coast. Each fan is a brightly colored undersea coral colony comprised of many individual organisms thriving and growing together. Like the varied interests and lifestyles of our members, the branches spread out in many directions but all our bound by the same connected root.
It's this sense of connection that is at the heart of what makes Long Cove Club so special.