Leopard’s Chase Earns Top Newcomer Accolades from Golf Magazine & Golf Digest
http://img.timeinc.net/golf/i/courses/2008/01/LeopardChase_600x450.jpgA quarter century after Oyster Bay Golf Links ushered in Golf Digest’s first-ever ranking of the nation’s best new courses, another Grand Strand course has made the cut.
Leopard’s Chase Golf Club at Ocean Ridge Plantation capped its memorable debut season with two prestigious honors – being named as one of Golf Digest’s “Best New Public Golf Courses $75 and Over” for 2007, as well as one of Golf Magazine’s “10 Best New Public Golf Courses in the United States.”
Golf Digest ranks Leopard’s Chase at No. 10 on its list, while Golf Magazine was particularly effusive in its praise:
“Architect Tim Cate has toiled on all four courses at Ocean Ridge, and has improved on every one. Leopard's Chase might just launch him to a national audience. This big cat stalks you with a daunting 140 slope, due primarily to the enormous, heaving, speedy greens and a back nine that bares its fangs at the 11th and never lets up. The front nine sports the prettiest hole—the island-green par-3 4th, quickly followed by the intriguing par-4 5th, its green completely encircled by sand—but it's the (par 37) back nine that can shred your scorecard. The 439-yard finishing hole has ponds bracketing the fairway, a gigantic waste bunker up the right side, a waterfall left of the green and a prevailing left-to-right breeze. All that makes for one of the most memorable closers on the Grand Strand.”
Leopard’s Chase becomes the 13th Myrtle Beach-area course in the past 25 years to earn Golf Digest’s “Best New” status. The all-time list includes:
- 1983 Best New Resort Course – Oyster Bay G.Links, Sunset Beach, N.C., Dan Maples
- 1987 Best New Public Courses – 1. Heather Glen G. Links, Little River, Willard Byrd (Now Heather Glen's 1st & 2nd 9s)
- 1990 Best New Public Courses – 1. Tidewater G.Links, North Myrtle Beach, Ken Tomlinson (using a Rees Jones routing)
- 1991 Best New Public Courses – 5. The Legends G.C. (Moorland Cse.), Myrtle Beach, P.B. Dye
- 1994 Best New Public Courses – 5. Caledonia Golf & Fishing C., Pawleys Island, Mike Strantz
- 1994 Best New Resort Courses – 10. Wild Wing Plantation G.C. (Avocet Cse.), Myrtle Beach, Jeff Brauer & Larry Nelson
- 1997 Best New Upscale Public Courses – 10. King's North at Myrtle Beach National, Myrtle Beach, Arnold Palmer, Ed Seay & Vicki Martz
- 1998 Best New Upscale Public Courses – 4. True Blue G.C., Pawleys Island, Mike Strantz
- 1999 Best New Upscale Courses – 9. TPC at Myrtle Beach, Murrells Inlet, Tom Fazio & Lanny Wadkins
- 1999 Best New Private Courses – 7. The Reserve G.C., Pawleys Island, Greg Norman
- 2000 Best New Upscale Public Courses – 6. Barefoot Resort (Love Cse.), North Myrtle Beach, Davis Love III; 7. Rivers Edge G.C., Shallotte, N.C., Arnold Palmer, Ed Seay & Erik Larsen
- 2007 Best New Public: Over $75 – 10. Leopard’s Chase G.C., Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., Tim Cate
You had better know where it’s going or take plenty of balls and a calculator to add up your score. The course is beuatifula and will only get better but it is one of the most dificult I have ever played.