Leopard's Chase Golf Club at Ocean Ridge Plantation
Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.
7,155 yards, par 72
Green fees: $95-$195
910-287-1717, big-cats.com
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.