It has been 10 years since Tiger Woods announced that he was going in to the golf course design business.
For the longest of times, you didn’t hear much about it. President of Tiger Woods Design is Byron Bell, who didn’t have any golf course design expertise in the beginning and when the Great Scandal of 2009 surfaced, it was Bell who was rumored to be one of those around Woods who actually knew about it before anyone else.
The early days of Woods Design were marked with failures, perhaps due to the downturn in the world economy, perhaps some due to the giant hit that Woods’ reputation took on that fateful Thanksgiving night in 2009.
It has taken a while but Woods has rehabbed his reputation and now his design business is starting to gain some traction.
He was paid an enormous fee for what was supposed to be a luxury course in Dubai. Whispers had his fee at $20 million, some had it as high as $55 million for the privilege of having the first-ever Tiger Wood golf course design. That project never made it. Six holes were built and eventually they were swallowed up by the desert sands.
Same for a project called Punta Brava in Mexico. Never made it.
Woods was supposed to build a course at the Cliffs project but that would eventually fold as well.
The combination of the economy and scandal took its toll.
Woods has taken some of the time spent away from the PGA Tour the last few years to get some projects off the ground.
Bluejack National outside of Houston is a reality and Woods was more hands-on with that deal.
Same for El Cardonal at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. There are two courses there.
Woods has another one in the planning stages in China — Pacific Links National outside Bejing.
What may actually lend some humanity to Woods is that he will handle the lead design with a couple of inner-city projects in south Chicago.
Jackson Park and South Shore have been around for more than 100 years in Chicagoland but they’ve fallen into a bit of disrepair. Woods will make his mark on urban golf, finally, by helping get them back in shape with a makeover. One thing that won’t happen are huge fees, ones like he collected in the early days of Tiger Woods design when he pocketed the Dubai and High Carolina loot.
Mark Rolfing, best known as a golf commentator, is heading up the Chicago Golf Parks Alliance that will oversee the remake of the courses and install an effective youth program in the process. The program cost will be in the $30 million range with money raised outside of city funding with donations from private organizations and individuals.
It’s good to see Woods get away from the ridiculous fees that marked the early days of his design firm. Developers are more cautious now and even the best known architects prospect hard for work, a lot of it coming from outside the United States.
“I want to be a part of creating things that will be around long after I’m gone to help shape golf and influence how the game is played,” is how Woods described his motivation for getting into the design business a decade ago.
For the longest of times, his back-yard practice facility was the main staple of his resume.
Now, finally, he’s got some good things going.
