Tiger's Eye

To put it simply, Tim Cate has an artists soul, and his courses reflect that sensibility. Beautiful visuals, an exquisite use of landscaping, skillful nuance, and thoughtful planning all play a major role in the portfolio of Cate’s work, and he has progressively raised that standard on all three of the courses at the Ocean Ridge Plantation in Sunset Beach, N.C., an easy drive north of the state line. It is with the Tigers Eye layout that Cate is in full creative control, able to produce a track that is at once a complex round of golf for the player who wants to attack and try to post a low score, and, at the same time, a feast for the senses for every level of golfer.
When you drive up towards the new Tigers Eye clubhouse, you are sure to be struck by the massive boulders that guide you. They are coquina boulders, mined mostly outside Wilmington, NC, and they bring the prehistoric past right into the present at Tigers Eye. Up to a million years old and once part of the ancient seabed, the boulders weigh between 4-6 tons, and are composed of fossilized stone that is full of pieces of shark’s teeth, mastodon bones, and who knows what other long-gone creatures. Spread individually around the course or as bulkheading for many of the lakes and water hazards, the rocks create a look that is truly unique, and in a land of over 100 golf courses, that is no small feat.

Cate’s landscaping ability takes what is often an afterthought, in the hands of lesser designers, and, at Tiger’s Eye, raises it to the artistic forefront. With a degree in
landscape architecture to cover the technical side, and an uncommon desire to produce a setting for every player that is as engaging as possible, he has put in the time and the effort necessary to create a literal “walk in the park.” “I like to make you aware of where you’re standing,” he says. “I think, when I’m designing a course, ‘How can that be as pretty as it can be, standing in that area,’ because I want to make the round of golf as enjoyable as it can be. All that landscaping takes a lot more work than just designing a course, but it’s definitely worth it.”

No truer words have been spoken. Though the entire course is a testament to Cate’s sense of style and color, filled most of the year with a variety of colorful shrubs and abundant wildflowers and surrounded by immaculately kept pine needles, a couple of holes really exemplify Cate’s ability. On #5, one of his favorites, you have the feeling that you are really being shown something special. At the tee on this moderate length Par-4 (only 400 yards from the Saber Tooth tee), you see more of the shrubs and flowers that you now look forward to, with added touches as you proceed down the hole. Water is now present down the entire right side, gently moving in rhythm with the waving grasses that line the shoreline. To the left, an array of live oaks and long leaf pines, mixed with wire grass. “ It’s the biggest contrast you can find in the area, with the Carolina bay edge on the right, and those trees on the left,” Cate says proudly. Mix in a number of unusual “beach bunkers” (another Cate innovation where the bunker edges actually flow right into the lagoon), both midway down the fairway and at the right side of the green, and you have a truly stunning hole.

And in terms of the visual art of designing a hole, the total package on the finishing Par-5 18th is as good as it gets. Playing 592 yards from the tips, all the way down to a very manageable 434 from the Tigress tees, the hole actually begins when you ride (or walk, thanks to a welcome “walker-friendly” policy) from the 17th green. First you hear the sound of rushing water, then realize it’s the water coming from the lake area guarding the 17th green, and being funneled into a waterfall over an outcropping of rocks to the left of the 18th tee. The water flows down the left side off the tee, and then curves back across the fairway, again framed by coquina, which leads your eye further down the fairway to the bunkers guarding the right side. A fairway bunker on the left edge of the dogleg is a good aiming point off the tee, and the hole seems to pick up even more magic as you proceed downhill from tee to green (there’s a 65’ elevation drop) from there. Once you arrive at your 2nd shot, you start to see for the first time that the fairway bunker on the right is a bit larger than you thought, and with the clubhouse now peeking through the trees on the right side, try to picture a second shot to what seems a small landing area behind that bunker. Accomplish that, and as you move on down the fairway, you now finally see that the bunker runs all the way to the green, a whopping 205 yards, as does the water from the right side of the fairway. So your 3rd shot takes it all in- a panoramic vista of the trees, the fairway, and the well-protected green, against a backdrop of a boulder-ringed lake and the clubhouse (with the 9th green to your left for good measure).



		Tiger's Eye Golf Links by Mitch Laurance To put it simply, Tim Cate has an artists soul, and his courses reflect that sensibility. Beautiful visuals, an exquisite use of landscaping, skillful nuance, and thoughtful planning all play a major role in the portfolio of Cate’s work, and he has progressively raised that standard on all three of the courses at the Ocean Ridge Plantation in Sunset Beach, N.C., an easy drive north of the state line. It is with the Tigers Eye layout that Cate is in full creative control, able to produce a track that is at once a complex round of golf for the player who wants to attack and try to post a low score, and, at the same time, a feast for the senses for every level of golfer. When you drive up towards the new Tigers Eye clubhouse, you are sure to be struck by the massive boulders that guide you. They are coquina boulders, mined mostly outside Wilmington, NC, and they bring the prehistoric past right into the present at Tigers Eye. Up to a million years old and once part of the ancient seabed, the boulders weigh between 4-6 tons, and are composed of fossilized stone that is full of pieces of shark’s teeth, mastodon bones, and who knows what other long-gone creatures. Spread individually around the course or as bulkheading for many of the lakes and water hazards, the rocks create a look that is truly unique, and in a land of over 100 golf courses, that is no small feat. Cate’s landscaping ability takes what is often an afterthought, in the hands of lesser designers, and, at Tiger’s Eye, raises it to the artistic forefront. With a degree in landscape architecture to cover the technical side, and an uncommon desire to produce a setting for every player that is as engaging as possible, he has put in the time and the effort necessary to create a literal “walk in the park.” “I like to make you aware of where you’re standing,” he says. “I think, when I’m designing a course, ‘How can that be as pretty as it can be, standing in that area,’ because I want to make the round of golf as enjoyable as it can be. All that landscaping takes a lot more work than just designing a course, but it’s definitely worth it.” No truer words have been spoken. Though the entire course is a testament to Cate’s sense of style and color, filled most of the year with a variety of colorful shrubs and abundant wildflowers and surrounded by immaculately kept pine needles, a couple of holes really exemplify Cate’s ability. On #5, one of his favorites, you have the feeling that you are really being shown something special. At the tee on this moderate length Par-4 (only 400 yards from the Saber Tooth tee), you see more of the shrubs and flowers that you now look forward to, with added touches as you proceed down the hole. Water is now present down the entire right side, gently moving in rhythm with the waving grasses that line the shoreline. To the left, an array of live oaks and long leaf pines, mixed with wire grass. “ It’s the biggest contrast you can find in the area, with the Carolina bay edge on the right, and those trees on the left,” Cate says proudly. Mix in a number of unusual “beach bunkers” (another Cate innovation where the bunker edges actually flow right into the lagoon), both midway down the fairway and at the right side of the green, and you have a truly stunning hole. And in terms of the visual art of designing a hole, the total package on the finishing Par-5 18th is as good as it gets. Playing 592 yards from the tips, all the way down to a very manageable 434 from the Tigress tees, the hole actually begins when you ride (or walk, thanks to a welcome “walker-friendly” policy) from the 17th green. First you hear the sound of rushing water, then realize it’s the water coming from the lake area guarding the 17th green, and being funneled into a waterfall over an outcropping of rocks to the left of the 18th tee. The water flows down the left side off the tee, and then curves back across the fairway, again framed by coquina, which leads your eye further down the fairway to the bunkers guarding the right side. A fairway bunker on the left edge of the dogleg is a good aiming point off the tee, and the hole seems to pick up even more magic as you proceed downhill from tee to green (there’s a 65’ elevation drop) from there. Once you arrive at your 2nd shot, you start to see for the first time that the fairway bunker on the right is a bit larger than you thought, and with the clubhouse now peeking through the trees on the right side, try to picture a second shot to what seems a small landing area behind that bunker. Accomplish that, and as you move on down the fairway, you now finally see that the bunker runs all the way to the green, a whopping 205 yards, as does the water from the right side of the fairway. So your 3rd shot takes it all in- a panoramic vista of the trees, the fairway, and the well-protected green, against a backdrop of a boulder-ringed lake and the clubhouse (with the 9th green to your left for good measure).