ALAN BLONDIN

ON GOLF

The opening of Leopard's Chase has been pushed back a couple weeks to Feb. 15.

The delay will allow the construction of a temporary triple-wide trailer clubhouse that will feature porches and a pitched roof.

Leopard's Chase will be the third Tim Cate course in the 72-hole Ocean Ridge community and the Grand Strand's first true public golf course to open in six years.

Since 2001, the only courses to open are the private Members Club at Grande Dunes and Reserve Club at St. James Plantation, which is currently public but will revert to private status this summer.

The par-72, 7,200-yard layout covers 220 acres and features TifSport Bermudagrass fairways and bentgrass greens. There are a number of elevation changes for a course on the coast, a number of holes require short carries over both water and wetlands, rock walls line many water hazards, and white-sand bunkers are placed throughout the layout.

Hilliard steps aside

At 67, George Hilliard has decided it's finally time he didn't have every responsibility under the sun.

Hilliard, who has spent the past 16 years with the dual duties of being the executive director of the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association and general manager of the Grand Strand Tee Time Network, has given up the tee time post.

Former Bay Tree general manager Tracy Conner took over the Tee Time Network's GM position this month.

Hilliard has guided the course owners for 18 years and helped start the Tee Time Network as one of their special projects in 1991. In addition to his official duties, he is also chairman of his church's finance committee, is on the board of directors of two homeowners associations, and has four children and 14 grandchildren.

"It's time to relieve myself of some of the responsibilities yet keep some others," Hilliard said. "There comes a time in one's life you need to pass some of those balls you're juggling on to someone else."

Conner had been on the Tee Time Network's board and became a business manager with the Bellamy Law Firm after Bay Tree closed in May. He now oversees a network of 88 courses and more than 100 hotels that is connected to the larger T-Links network that includes the areas of Charleston, Hilton Head, Biloxi, Miss., and Atlantic City, N.J.

"In the end I missed being a part of the golf industry, and I think the Tee Time Network is a good fit for me," Conner said.

Conner will be looking to upgrade the network's technology, with the help of a committee, by sometime in 2008. "We want to stay on top of the latest technology out there," he said.