Tiger Woods Forms Golf Course Design Firm

WINDERMERE, Fla. — Tiger Woods said Monday he is forming golf course design firm Tiger Woods Design, and will serve as chairman of the company.

"My goal is to provide a unique collection of amazing courses all over the world that represent what I love about golf," Woods said. "I'm very excited to announce the formation of this company and get to work on finding the right projects for my first few courses."

Woods said the firm's global strategy will appeal to all skill levels, and will seek unique properties for course development. The company is currently reviewing projects and bids for their design services.

"There are golfers everywhere that may never get a chance to play a links course in Scotland, a tree-lined course in America or the sand belts of Australia," Woods said. "Hopefully I can bring some of those elements into their backyards."

"Friends like Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio have been a tremendous help by sharing their support and advice on this new venture. I hope I can bring as much to this industry as they have over the years," he added.

Currently ranked as the No. 1 player in the world, Woods has won 72 tournaments, 54 of those on the PGA Tour, including four Masters Tournaments, three PGA Championships, two U.S. Open Championships, and three British Open Championships.

TWD

Why not...his name is gold. People will pay through the nose to associate his name to their courses. I bet his typical course will have no fairways, long rough and instead of golf carts you use private leer jets to fly you hole to hole.

-Steve

Agreed Steve...LOL

I think he can add an intriguing aspect of design that's only his own. I would love to see his interpretation of what a GC should look like. Will he be as good as Jack? Thats just a matter of preference that will vary widely.

The question is: why is he doing this so early?

Doesn't he have records to break? It's my assumption that GC architecture is not like dot-to-dot.

I think he will be succesful at this for two main reasons. First and foremost he is very marketable as we have seen and people will flock to his designed courses as it was stated above. Number two you need money to make money and as we all know he has plenty of it so in turn he should make plenty more back.

These two things are what will make him succesful at this venture. I am sure people said the same things about Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman before they started the same thing.

Let's remember that Jack almost bankrupted himself when he redid St Andrews GC in New York early in his career, and Norman's Doonbeg has been changed multiple times on a piece of land that most would kill for.

How much more would this pay to play a Tiger Woods design?

Where are the Brand name architects at Bandon Resort? How well know is Ben Crenshaw known at this point to the average golfer?

I think he will be a great course designer. Hopefully he doesn't have too many holes that you need his ability to make par. I am assuming he does see a course different than most people, but I am sure he will have plenty of consultants and do a great job.

I think he will do a great job. Can't wait to see his first one Can you imagine what the greens fees are going to be like. LOL

-CHRIS-

This is some pretty big news just announced on FOX sports!

http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/614393...T=HCP>1=8807

I would love to play a course that Tiger designs. Financing should not be a problem for him and I am sure with his popularity he will be able to get some prime pieces of property.

Anybody else think he will design some nice courses?

very big news indeed.

just another source of revenue for the big guy......as if he needs it.

Glad to hear the poor guys got something going on... I was starting to worry he wouldn't have enough money...



...to fill the pacific ocean!



It will be interesting to see what character his courses have.

hmmm!!

i can't wait!!!

Good for him!

Can't wait to see what the first course looks like, and where it's going to be.

It would be nice if his first one was in the US, but the article expects otherwise.

Let's be honest...who didn't see this coming?!?
I would certainly like to play it though

I believe his courses, will be successful at first from name alone. If they stand the test of time will depend on the people who he surrounds himself with. The courses will be his concept, but the heavy lifting will be done by others. Who, I believe will make the courses playable by all.

World's first 10,000 yard course?

Even if Tiger wasn't going to get in the design business the march to 10,000 yd courses is underway.

Tiger is wisely planning for his future....obviously it isn't for the money - more to keep the juices flowing
after he retires from playing.This way he keeps his fingers involved in the sport he's helped reinvent & rejuvinate....

I hope he actually gets involved with the design. Some of the big name golfers that became architects barely get involved in the design; just lend their name to a project.
Palmer was good, he would want to get right in there, visit the site regularly during construction and he knew all about different types of grasses etc. Some other big names only visit once and for a million bucks will play it after its done.

dell

Please name the person and course who got paid $1.0 million to do this.

What should we do with the 15,000 + courses that can't be stretched to 10,000 yards?

Wise business move on Tiger's part. Instead of getting name licensing royalties, he owns the design firm and will command some nice consulting fees, unless the firm purchases land and develops courses. While I don't expect Tiger to slide up the CAD machine and start laying out holes, I would expect him to have a lot of creative input. It will be interesting to see the types of challenges he presents on the course. I wouldn't expect courses of an unrational length...golf courses still need to make money so that means they have to be enjoyable to the average player.

Please name the person and course who got paid $1.0 million to do this.


Nicklaus, Bear North Kelowna Canada.....

A Jack Nicklaus Signature Design goes for $1.0 mm, and Jack is contractually obligated to make at least two site visits plus opening day. The other designers in his firm get less.

Try again.

A Jack Nicklaus Signature Design goes for $1.0 mm, and Jack is contractually obligated to make at least two site visits plus opening day. The other designers in his firm get less.

Try again

Building a course for two years and he visits twice. How involved is that?

Springfield, Hua Hin Thailand, Visited the site once for less than a half day.... They didn't pay the extra to have him come play.
Don't get me wrong, I love Nicklaus courses but I don't believe the big names get involved in the details of the design.

The Ten courses built at Mission Hills China are terrific but extremely simmilar but have 10 big names listed as the "designers". Should I beleive that Annika, David Duval, Leadbetter and Olazabal all decided by coincidence on the same bunker styles?
Again nice courses, loved them all but they were built by the same people with a little input from the famous people above.

Are you saying that Annika got paid $1.0 mm. I would be very surprised if she or any of the others did. If you believe every Press Release, I guess you believe it when Playboy says XYZ got paid $1.0 mm to take their clothes off too.

Please don't compare Jack Nicklaus with these other names. I do not seek out his courses, but he is a legit architect. He takes on too many projects, but that does not mean he is not involved. Besides he has to feed all those grandkids.

Dude! That mountain range course is gorgeous! We were talking about El Tigre in the gym this morning. We'd all go play it, just to see what it turned out to be. I've played Player courses that are some of the most sadistic out there. A course needs to be a challenge, but playable. No one will want to go out and test it if it's not playable.

I hope he does some great affordable public courses. We need some more Beth Page Black around here if you ask me. If I know Tiger he will make sure the people who don't normally get to play great tracks now will be able to. That would be really cool.

I'll bet he keeps the holes long and the rough short.

Even before Tiger officially announced his plans to extend into course design there were rumors about his involvement in designing a course for the new Dubai Golf City project. (Check here for details)

First, he likes the Dubai area and has played there numerous times.
Second, he allegedly is good friends with one or more of the sheikhs there.
Third, his management firm IMG is the heavily involved in that project.
Fourth, they will have 5 courses when finished, right now there are 4 courses in the pipeline and one fifth course where details will be revealed in the future and "will be the first of its kind." If that's not a dead giveaway, I don't know.