{"id":47,"date":"2009-10-11T22:08:44","date_gmt":"2009-10-12T03:08:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/golfcoursebusiness.com\/?p=47"},"modified":"2009-11-13T00:10:06","modified_gmt":"2009-11-13T05:10:06","slug":"architect-tim-cate-carolina-diamond-in-the-rough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/real-estate\/47\/architect-tim-cate-carolina-diamond-in-the-rough","title":{"rendered":"Architect Tim Cate: Carolina Diamond in the Rough"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Time_Cate\"\u00a0<\/strong>Nationally speaking, the name Tim Cate doesn\u2019t necessarily jump out in the world of golf course architecture. In fact, many people in the country probably never heard of him. In the Coastal Carolinas, though, Cate needs little introduction, especially along the Grand Strand or golf mecca of Myrtle Beach.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Basically, along this 60-mile coastal stretch that runs from Georgetown, S.C., to Calabash, N.C., Cate is one of the most successful and popular architects around \u2013 having designed numerous top-ranked courses such as Panther\u2019s Run and Tiger\u2019s Eye at Ocean Ridge Plantation, the Players Club at St. James Plantation and The Thistle Golf Club, to name a few.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nowhere is Cate\u2019s name more prevalent and appreciated than Ocean Ridge, a 1,300-acre \u00a0resort-style development where Cate got his start in1990 working under architect Willard Byrd on the community\u2019s initial \u201cBig Cats\u201d layout called Lion\u2019s Paw. Two years later, Cate, now working on his own, was picked by then-Ocean Ridge owner Ed Gore to design the second course, Panther\u2019s Run, and the Cate cat was out of the bag.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, Panther\u2019s Run proved to be so successful, Cate was asked to come back and design two more Big Cats courses: Tiger\u2019s Eye, ranked by Golf Digest as one of the \u201cBest New Courses in America\u201d when it opened in 2000, and Leopard\u2019s Chase, listed by Golf Digest as one of the top ten new public courses when it opened in Spring \u201907.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How good is Cate\u2019s course work at Ocean Ridge? It\u2019s so well received that Cate is now working on an astonishing fourth new course at the Sunset Beach, N.C., community. Known as Jaguar\u2019s Lair, this final course to the Big Cats collection will likely open sometime in 2010.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Having designed four courses at one development, and collaborated on a fifth, is a feat likely surpassed only by Jack Nicklaus, who has six private courses to his credit at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz.\u00a0 Based on the quality of Cate\u2019s work, Ocean Ridge Plantation executive Becky Noble doesn\u2019t understand why the Sunset Beach-based architect isn\u2019t as widely recognized as some of the other top-tier designers.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s a well-kept secret,\u201d says Noble, president of the Ocean Ridge golf operations. \u201cThe quality of his golf courses is just immense. I think people should seek him out more. A lot of the feedback from the visitors that come here, and we get a lot of repeat business, is the quality of his design.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0Noble can\u2019t wait for Cate\u2019s latest Myrtle Beach-area masterpiece to open. According to Noble, the back nine holes have been completed and grassed in except for the greens, but the front nine is still in its preliminary stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gets better with every golf course,\u201d Noble says. \u201cAnd it\u2019s hard to say that because each golf course is unique in its own right that he\u2019s created. We\u2019ve certainly been ecstatic about the work he\u2019s done at Ocean Ridge, especially relative to Tiger\u2019s Eye and Leopard\u2019s Chase.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the back nine he\u2019s built (at Jaguar\u2019s Lair), it\u2019s going to be another great course created by Tim Cate and we\u2019re excited about it. Our visitors have already asked about it. They\u2019re anticipating it. It seems like Tim just keeps getting better with time. It\u2019s got some unique topography and certainly a beautiful property. It\u2019s a unique project.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was time to build the fifth course at Ocean Ridge, Noble says there was never any question that the new owner, Mark Saunders and The Coastal Companies, would seek out another designer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there was any question that we would not go with Tim Cate simply because of the quality of his work, which has a track record especially with some of the top publications,\u201d Noble adds. \u201cHe has a long history with Ocean Ridge and we consider him part of the Ocean Ridge family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another new project that is sure to garner a lot of attention is Cape Fear National Country Club, an exclusive 27-hole facility scheduled to open 18 of its holes next fall in Wilmington, N.C. Located just minutes from historic Wilmington, Cape Fear National will be one of the signature amenities at Brunswick Forest, an upscale private 4,500-acre retreat backed by Lord Baltimore Capital Corporation, a private investment group with more than $2 billion in assets.<\/p>\n

To say this Baltimore, Md.-based firm could have hired anybody for their high-profile\u00a0 golf course is an understatement. When asked why Tim Cate Designs Inc., was selected, Brunswick Forest spokesman Tobin Spirer says it has to do with Cate\u2019s string of \u201clocal successes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cHe created all the Cats at Ocean Ridge, Thistle Golf Club, and just did a wonderful job with them all,\u201d says Spirer, whose golf club will be operated by KemperSports, one of the leading golf management companies in the industry.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the developers looked for a candidate, and they looked at some national names, we kept coming back to a local guy who understood the local area, understood the region and built courses that worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Plus, some of the Brunswick Forest partners had experience with Cate at Ocean Ridge, according to Spirer, and they remembered he was dependable, talented and had great attention to detail. A proud and modest man, the media-shy Cate, 54, is clearly excited about his latest creation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll blow everything out of the water up there,\u201d says Cate, who graduated from the University of Georgia in 1984 with a degree in Landscape Architecture. \u201cYou could bring that down here (to Myrtle Beach) and it would be one of those top-five, best new courses and all that stuff. Up there in Wilmington they\u2019ve never had competition like they have down here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the people that play it are going to be pretty surprised at what they see.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going to see a sophisticated, detail level of golf that they probably don\u2019t even know about. It\u2019s a very good project with very good developers. And KemperSports is top of the line.\u00a0 Everybody\u2019s just totally committed to make Cape Fear really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one trademark to Cate\u2019s world-class work, it\u2019s his sophisticated touches both on the course and amongst the course\u2019s immediate surroundings. As KemperSports regional sales and marketing director Chris Schwartz puts it, Cate\u2019s detailed overall landscape design elements are what set his courses apart.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 For example, at Cape Fear, many of the hazard areas are accented by colorful plants and native grasses. The course also features more than 1,500 linear feet of bridges, three separate waterfalls, several ponds, strategically placed rock walls, drive-through sand waste areas, and beach bunkers that run into the ponds. In the end, all of this makes for a challenging and aesthetically pleasing golf experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cMy golf courses are totally molded and marry up to whatever site they\u2019re going to be on,\u201d says Cate, who has three grown daughters. \u201cThey\u2019re all so dramatically different and really take on the character of each site. (The golf course) complements the site heavily and the site complements it. They work together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt improves that whole site wherever that may be by the way the two work together. (The golf course) really just molds into the site, enhances and uses whatever opportunity out there and builds on that to try and create the most stunning and challenging course. I like to have interest and challenge on every shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another signature of Cate\u2019s work is his tireless hands-on dedication to the job. According to Schwartz, whose company will probably make Cape Fear available to the public for a limited time once it opens, Cate is out on the Cape Fear site probably twice a week and \u201cconsistently making changes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a hole to me,\u201d says Cate, who is also working on a high-profile restoration of the Bald Head Island Club course designed by George Cobb off the coast of Southport, N.C. \u201cI\u2019m there from tee to dogleg and then dogleg to green and dogleg to dogleg on a par 5. I spend a lot of time on each hole in other words. I\u2019ve got a lot of time in my courses. \u2026 For me, it isn\u2019t over on a golf hole until grass goes on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one critic aptly described Tiger\u2019s Eye, the course has character on every hole and doesn\u2019t take a hole off. In essence, that sums up Cate\u2019s overall golf course design work, which he certainly doesn\u2019t view as a job.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me it wasn\u2019t a business,\u201d Cate says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of architects out there where it is a business. It\u2019s easy to see that in these golf courses I\u2019ve got all around. You know it\u2019s like my client at St. James said, and I won\u2019t say what other architect he was talking about up there, but he says I put more thought on one hole than the other guy did in the whole golf course.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a (Mike) Strantz course or something else. I think people will see my course and they\u2019ll know that I did it or only one or two other people did do it because there\u2019s very few people who go out and actually care about it that much to do that good of a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for a 26-year solo career that seems to have been confined along a high-profile stretch of the Carolina Coast, Cate is perfectly content about the regional nature of his profile. In fact, Cate says the long-distance travelling was one reason he left Byrd to set up his own shop.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sitting in airports till 12 o\u2019clock every night, flying around here and there, and it got to where I wasn\u2019t enjoying that at all,\u201d Cate adds. \u201cWhen I was offered (the Ocean Ridge assignment), I jumped on it in a New York minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve thought about it real hard and realized Willard has something like 30 courses in Myrtle Beach so I thought maybe there was enough for me to do. I was lucky to have what I have. And now the industry\u2019s sort of disappeared. I\u2019ve been fortunate to build a career there to where I think I\u2019ll get enough little odds and ends stuff to keep me alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, if history is any indication, there is little doubt that Cate will always be considered for work along the Carolina Coast.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Nationally speaking, the name Tim Cate doesn\u2019t necessarily jump out in the world of golf course architecture. In fact, many… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":49,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-real-estate"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2009\/10\/Cape_Fear_National_Course.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47\/revisions\/52"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/golfcoursebusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}