Tiger Woods Breaks Ground On What Could Be His First Completed Golf Course Project

Tiger Woods has “begun construction on what appears certain to be his first ever completed golf course at Diamante, a high-end real estate enclave in the Mexican resort town of Cabo San Lucas,” according to Eamon Lynch of GOLF magazine. Ground was “broken on the course -- to be called ‘El Cardonal,’ the original name of the former ranch on which it sits -- last month and it is expected to open in the spring of 2014.” The team at Tiger Woods Design recently “made a scouting trip to some courses in Southern California, including Riviera and Los Angeles Country Club.” Woods has said that those “classics will influence his work at Diamante.” Diamante CEO Ken Jowdy declined to reveal the financial terms of Woods's deal, but said that they are “partially based on sales of the real estate component around the course.” Woods had previously signed “three highly publicized course design contracts, but all of those projects ran aground during the global economic collapse.” His first U.S. design was “planned at The Cliffs at High Carolina," near Asheville, N.C. That development was announced in ‘07, but Cliffs Communities “went bankrupt and now lists liabilities of up to $500 million.” Woods in '08 also was involved in a golf course project in Dubai. His most recent project was “slated for a spectacular oceanfront site at Punta Brava, near Ensenada in northwest Mexico.” That was announced after the ‘08 U.S. Open, but Lehman Brothers three months later “filed for bankruptcy and sank much of the golf real estate industry with it.” The Punta Brava project “has been stalled ever since” (GOLF.com, 10/21).

NOT GIVING UP THE GOODS: Woods on Friday appeared via satellite on CNBC’s “Closing Bell With Maria Bartiromo” with Fuse Science CEO Brian Tuffin, which Bartiromo noted “is a company Tiger has partnered with.” Bartiromo asked, “What are your financial interests in the company?” Woods: “You always want to partner up with innovative companies and Fuse is certainly doing that. What they've done with sublingual drops, which I use, and electro Fuse and now what we're coming out with is just absolutely amazing, and it does help. Just being part of such an innovative company is very exciting.” Bartiromo again asked, “Do you have an ownership in this company?” Woods: “I'm not going to talk about my financial stake in that. But I'm just very excited to be a part of a great company like this” ("Closing Bell With Maria Bartiromo,” CNBC, 10/19).