Five Reasons Tiger’s Eye is the Biggest Cat at Ocean Ridge Plantation

The Tim Cate design opened in 2000 and immediately took its place among the area’s most sought after tee times, even earning a spot on Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses. 

Sixteen years after its opening, Tiger’s Eye remains one of our favorite Myrtle Beach golf courses and here is why:

• The strength of Tiger’s Eye is in its quality from the first tee shot to the final putt. There is no single signature hole, a testament to the depth of the course’s offerings. 
• Tiger’s Eye doesn’t play along the water, but Cate created a course that is visually stunning through his incorporation of waste bunkers, water and locally harvested coquina boulders that ring several greens. 

• The collection of par 3s at Tiger’s Eye are among the strongest the Myrtle Beach golf scene has to offer, highlighted by No. 11, which has a peninsula green fronted by those trademark coquina boulders. The only par 3 green that isn’t largely surrounded by water is the sixth, but it has three tiers. The 17th is a potential match-deciding one-shotter. According to the scorecard it’s the easiest hole on the course, but don’t believe it. Water creeps up to the left edge of the bentgrass green and bunkers are on the right, concluding a great collection of par 3s 
• Ocean Ridge is a multi-course facility, but Tiger’s Eye is a stand-alone golf course, complete with its own clubhouse and a course with nary a home along the fairways. 
• The par 4s and 5s are no less memorable. The fourth hole, a 422-yard par 4 with a double fairway, two large waste bunkers and a lake, is emblematic of the risk-reward challenges Cate created. The adventurous can attempt to cut the dogleg left and shorten the hole, with the reward being a much better shot at par or even birdie. But you also open yourself up to the possibility of a big number. 

What do you like best about Tiger’s Eye Golf Links?