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 Their names have always been marketing gold—Lion’s Paw, Panther’s Run, Tiger’s Eye, Leopard’s Chase. But telling Ocean Ridge Plantation’s “Big Cats” apart has always been a challenge, as has differentiating the golf “experience” at Ocean Ridge from the others at the top of the Myrtle Beach golf hierarchy.
That is all changing now. The Big Cats, old and new, have learned
new tricks that promise to make your next trip to Ocean Ridge far more
unforgettable, and, they hope, more likely to be repeated.
It
all starts with a new customer service team dedicated to giving you a
warmer welcome, a more family-style atmosphere—okay a fresh dose of
“Southern hospitality” that local players and repeat visitors will
notice right away. A more player-friendly atmosphere requires more than
just smiles and a little extra TLC. Ocean Ridge has taken its
reservation center away from the pro shop service desk, freeing up the
shop staff to provide more personal attention to those checking in to
play, or checking out the wide variety of merchandise in their
award-winning clubhouse. And there’s now a Tournament Director who can
customize your corporate or charity outing to meet your individual
goals. Whether you’re a resident of the Ocean Ridge Plantation,
visiting as part of one of Myrtle Beach’s famous customized packages,
or striking out on your own, the new staff of The Big Cats wants you to
know they’re truly glad you’re here.
And the golf? The roar from
these Cats has stretched the reputation for great Myrtle Beach golf
northward to Sunset Beach, NC, a quick 20 minute-drive from North
Myrtle Beach. All three of the current Cats made Golf Digest’s recent
list of the Top 50 Courses of Myrtle Beach, one of only four
multi-course combinations to get all of its courses on the list. The
fourth course, Leopard’s Chase, that’s scheduled to open in late 2006,
is being touted as the best of the breed. Though designed all or in
part by the same great designer, Tim Cate, the four cats may be from
the same species, but are as different as the colors, spots and stripes
of their namesakes.
Lion’s Paw is the oldest, and in the mind of
new Director of Golf Philippe Bureau (formerly at Sea Trail), maybe the
toughest of the three, even though its back tees are rated slightly
easier than the other two.
This collaboration of Cate and
Willard Byrd has easily the smallest greens of all the Cats and might
also be the narrowest. Bureau particularly loves the par-3s, which are
handicapped as the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 14th toughest holes on the
course, unheard of for the par-3s on any layout. Three of the four
par-3s are over 200 yards long from the tips and all bring water, sand
and/or crushed oyster shells into play. The third hole requires a
complete carry over the water from the two back tees to a green only 16
yards deep in spots with a bunker behind that. Number six requires a
tee shot over water and sand with grass bunkers guarding one side and
the rear of the green. The 11th has a deep green, but is very narrow
with bunkers on all four sides while the short 17th juts out into a
lake with the peninsular green surrounded on three sides by crushed
shells, and more water. The par-4 fifth and 10th holes tease you to
stray from the fairway to save some yardage. Bureau’s advice is to NOT
take the bait and try to cut off the dogleg over the waste bunker at #5
and to not flirt with the narrow “landing strip” that’s the straight
line from tee-to-green at #10. Solid shots, hit into fairways at both
should set you up to score well.
Panther’s Run may have the best
variety of holes at Ocean Ridge with a significant number of doglegs
right and left and surprising elevation changes for a course in this
neighborhood. Five different tees range from just over 5,000 yards to
nearly 7,100 will challenge anyone’s skill level and the 75.2/148
rating and slope from the tips might make you think of a different
breed of wild animal, a bear. Again, the par-3s are far tougher than
the norm, forcing you to conquer either encroaching water hazards or
large waste areas, but the sharpest teeth at Panther’s Run are the
par-5s. All are three-shot holes and Bureau considers the #1
handicapped ninth as likely the toughest par-5 in Myrtle Beach with its
combination of marshland, strategically-placed bunkers, elevation
changes and narrow openings for the overly aggressive player. The only
hole considered to be as tough as the par-5s is the dogleg left par-4
fourth. To succeed here, you’ve got to hit a smallish landing area to
have an open shot across the water to a wonderfully diabolical
two-tiered green that’s surrounded by mounds and bunkers. And that
landing area has trees to the left, sand to the right, and slopes
toward the aforementioned water. Good Luck!
Tiger’s Eye is the
youngest of the established trio, and also the most acclaimed. Ranked
third in the Golf Digest list of the Best of Myrtle Beach, and #41 of
ALL public courses in the USA, this $10-million masterpiece not only
offers 60-foot elevation changes on many holes and water in play on at
least 14 of the 18, but requires you negotiate enormous greens (every
one is at least 33 yards wide or deep), most of which have steep
hogback ridges running through them leaving you downhill putts from
their centers. Tough? Tee it up from the “Saber Tooth” tees and your
over-7,000-yard journey has a rating of 73.5 and a slope of 144! You’ll
also need to trust your yardages because many of the greens are
elevated leaving pins without easily-visualized backgrounds.
The
uphill second hole over water to a table-top green with severe runoffs
on three sides and two massive bunkers on the fourth is as tough a
par-3 as any in the area. Cate’s placement of large coquina boulders on
a half-dozen holes, most dramatically at the peninsular-greened par-3
11th, creates some breathtaking views. And you are much better off
getting a stroke rather than giving one at the 18th, an elongated par-5
that demands a drive over water, a second shot that threads the needle
between a large bunker left and an even larger waste area right, and an
approach to a 10,000 square-foot-plus green that slopes from back to
front over yet another of those hogback ridges that run from left to
right. Other than that, it’s an easy 3-shot-and-a-putt birdie!
The
fall of 2006 will bring the opening of Cate’s newest Cat, Leopard’s
Chase, that figures to be his crowning achievement at Ocean Ridge. The
Plantation’s largest golf project yet, the $15-million dollar design
will offer extremely generous landing areas, if you can clear the
significant off-the-tee carries required to get there. Hundreds of
yards of bridges have been built over the wetlands and lakes created by
the moving of hundreds of tons of dirt, clay and sugar sand to elevate
the tees and greens and create more mounding around this course than
the other three. Again, huge coquina boulders will provide breathtaking
visual separation between land and water.
The whole Ocean Ridge
golf “experience” is being upgraded. From a new Food and Beverage
director emphasizing improved dining services, to more meeting and
banquet space that will soon be available in the new Leopard’s Chase
clubhouse, to an upgraded dress code banning bluejeans and requiring
collared shirts, the bar has been raised at the home of the Big Cats.
In
Marketing Director Sally Counihan’s words, “Success is no longer
defined by WHAT you offer, but by HOW it is delivered.” The accentuated
customer service program at Ocean Ridge Plantation means the folks
there will be more than happy to objectively steer you to the best
off-site accommodations and amenities in the competitive and
often-confusing Myrtle Beach area. All you have to do is call them,
locally at (910) 287-1717, in South Carolina at (843) 448-5566, or toll
free at (800) 233-1801 or visit www.big-cats.com and be prepared to be
dazzled by the cool Cats at Ocean Ridge.
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