Dusted off the clubs and played Leopards Chase a few days ago. Conditions were as follows:
Tees - Good. One or two that had some minor issues.
Fairways - Good.
Rough - Decent. A little thin in spots but overall, pretty consistent. Not very penal.
Bunkers - We've had a lot of rain lately, so a little washed out and inconsistent. That's understandable. Was best to move in the bunker, rake, and place if necessary.
Greens - OUTSTANDING. Probably around 10 to 10.5 on the Stimp and true as could be. Possibly the best greens I've seen at Leopards Chase in a loooooooong time. Low spin shots would run, high spin shots would hold.
Cart Paths - Very good to excellent (with the exception of the weird bump by the bag drop area). Not sure what happened there.
Pace of Play - Bad. 5 hours, 10 minutes. My group wasn't in a rush and it was a nice day. The Ranger was active on the course and trying to help. Nice guy. He was doing the best he could.
Many of the courses in the area are very green as we've had a wet couple of weeks. If you're looking to play Leopards Chase sometime soon, I think it's a very good bet it will be in nice shape.
Big Cats should get Tigers Eye in that type condition.
I think TE in good condition would make Big Cats more $$$, because it fits
all golfer's Hdc.
Thanks for your report!
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I'd like to see all four return to having conditions like Leopards Chase. I did play Tigers Eye, Leopards Chase, and Lions Paw last fall, and Lions Paw was in better shape than Tigers Eye, which was a surprise.
Tigers Eye is a fun place to play and I agree with you. I've shot some of my best rounds there as a mid-handicapper.
I played Leopard's Chase yesterday and was a little disappointed with the conditions after hearing good reports.
No complaints about the greens, although they weren't as good as where I played earlier in the week (Bulls Bay -- which really isn't a fair comparison -- Thistle, and Tidewater).
The bunkers were awful. There'd been a lot of rain, but they were basically like playing off concrete, with many of the bunkers having very little sand at all. Getting out and raking them wouldn't have made much of a difference because of the lack of sand.
The tees and fairways were okay, but not great (again, nowhere near as good as Thistle/Tidewater).
It was in far, far better shape than Tiger's Eye when I played there last year (I wouldn't go back to Tiger's Eye unless I knew they'd made major improvements), and I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid Leopard's Chase, but I think just in the immediate area there are several better options from a conditions standpoint.
The bunkers were inconsistent. Fortunately, I was only in two of them the day I played it. One bunker was just fine and the other was thin/wet from the storm runoff and I raked and played up. But I agree with you, they could do a better job of caring for the bunkers as a whole.
Good to hear about Thistle and Tidewater!
