Bold courses, modest maker: Quietly, Tim Cate has designed some great layouts in the Grand Strand

By Shane Sharp, Contributor

SUNSET BEACH, N.C. - Getting Tim Cate to talk about Tim Cateis about as easy conquering one of his "Big Cat" courses at Ocean RidgePlantation. You know the ones - Tiger'sEye and Panther's Run. Oh, and bythe way, TheThistle Golf Club and The Players Club at St. James Plantation;Tim Cate designs, one and all.

Since 1993, Cate has meticulously constructed some of the GrandStrand'smost decorated courses. Nevertheless, the question remains. Who is this guy?

"I am a registered landscape architect and a land planner," Cate says,eschewing his golf course architect title. "I went to school for landscapearchitecture and eventually got interested in golf course design."

The Grand Strand is overflowing with courses designed by the big names:Nicklaus, Fazio,Dye, Byrd, Palmer, andStrantz.None of these heavyweightshas been more prolific than Cate over the past decade. When his latest laborof love, Leopard's Chase, opens sometime in 2005, Cate will have 108 golfholes to his name.

"It will take what I did at Tiger's Eye to the next level," Cate says aboutOcean Ridge's fourth and final course.

But will it take Cate's career to the next level? The question rolls off ofthe Atlanta native like hard putt on a slick green. With a successfullocal practice and two daughters, Cate isn't interested in floating his namearound the country for new projects. Nor does he seem to care about beingperceived as one of the industry's "hot" names.

Still, a man's got to make a living.

"I have some remodeling projects, and I just did a nine-hole addition to acourse in Atlanta," Cate says. "I did the new nine on the Members Course atSt. James and I am bidding on a project in Virginia. But I don't likehanging around in airports and flying in planes. I did that with Willard andI don't want to do it again."

Willard would be Willard Byrd, one of the Southeast's most prolific golfcourse architects. Cate took a job in Byrd's Hilton Head office aftergraduating from the University of Georgia and a brief stint in a landscapearchitecture firm. In 1993, he opened a satellite office for Byrd in LittleRiver. Two and a half years later, at the urging of some friends, Cate hunghis own shingle.

"It was tough, because when you work for Willard, you are his enemy and whenyou leave him you are even more of an enemy," Cate says.

Shortly after he left Byrd's fold, Cate says the diminutive designercornered him in a parking lot at Ocean Ridge.

"He pulled up and got out of the car with some thick file," Cate says with achuckle. "He is a little, little man. And he starts pounding this filesaying, 'boy, I got a file on you.' I have no idea what he was talkingabout."

Unlike former Byrd protégé Clyde Johnston, Cate says he and "Willard" gotalong well enough to get by. Mentor and student even shared the occasionalglass of wine. Not exactly greeting card material except Byrd, a deeplyreligious man, was known as a tee-totaler.

"He even bought me a truck to get around in," Cate says.

When it came to golf course design, though, the two were often at odds.

"He liked to design these really municipal looking courses, and I didn'twant to go that route," Cate says. "I thought there was more to it (golfcourse design) than that."

For Cate, the essence of the craft is routing holes and attention to detail.

"Once you learn the mechanics, it comes down to how well you can look at apiece of property and route a golf course through it," he says. "The routingplan is the most important part of the end product. But the golfers aregoing to notice the details."

Those details are on full display at Tiger's Eye. Cate's elaborate bunkers,massive coquina boulders and uncanny ability to frame green complexes playeda large part in the course being named to Golf Digest's 2003-04ranking of America's Top 100 Public Courses. At Panther's Run and thePlayer's Club, where he wasn't afforded as generous a budget, Cate'sroutings takefull advantage of naturally occurring wetlands and elevation changes.

While it's not mentioned in the same breath as Tiger's Eye, The Thistle GolfClub may be one of the truest testaments to Cate's talents. Tiger's Eye sitson one of the choicest tracts in the county, with 60-plus feet of elevationchanges, pristine lakes and thick strands of pine trees. The Thistle's 27linksy holes, however, are routed through a pancake flat site with onlysmall patches of trees. The strength of Cate's design holds strong, despitethe lack of natural beauty.

"There is a blend between the traditional Scottish experience and Tim'sunderstanding of the natural features of this area that makes this coursewhat it is," says Thistle golf director Dan Oschmann.

Developers and golf course owners also catch a break with Cate. Because ofhis relative obscurity outside of the Grand Strand, and because he worksprimarily alone, Cate maintains reasonable design fees.

"I am not at the million dollar a golf course guy, but I feel like I candeliver just as good of a product," Cate says. "Look at Tiger's Eye. I thinkthat is as good of a course as you'll find around here. My golf courses arepopular and staying full during these down times in this ultra competitivemarket."

Cate should know. He's been known to hang around the 18th greens and 19thholes of his courses listening for player comments as they walk off thecourse or settle in for a post round cold one. Not that any golfer couldpick him out of a lineup.

Cate - a forty-something - is a mere babe in golf architecture years. Withmore designs like Tiger's Eye and the Thistle, he won't be just another facein the design crowd for long.

June 19, 2003