Tiger Attends Opening of His First Golf Course Design


Tiger Woods was on hand for the unveiling of his first-ever completed golf design. The 79-time PGA Tour winner struck the inaugural tee shot at Tuesday's grand opening of the El Cardonal course at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Woods appeared a bit skinnier than usual as he has lost 15 pounds while suffering from a lingering respiratory infection that he first came down with in early December at the tournament he hosts, the Hero World Challenge. His drive was struck in front of 500 attendees, who walked along as he played the front nine.

After a bit of a sluggish start, owed mainly to the nation's poor economy and a general hiatus in new golf-related development, Woods's budding golf course design career has been on the upswing of late.

The day before his arrival at El Cardonal Woods stopped by the new Bluejack National near Houston, a private course he designed and which is now under construction. And last week Woods was hired to craft a new 18-hole layout in Dubai. The course will be part of the Akoya Oxygen residential project and, if all goes well, will open in 2017.

El Cardonal was slated to debut six weeks ago, but Hurricane Odile delayed its opening to Tuesday. Woods was thrilled with the unveiling of his maiden golf course design. "You always want to have a first some time," he told reporters.

Despite his course-design work outside the ropes of tournament play, Woods said his immediate focus is returning to a high competitive level, one that has earned him victories in 14 major championships and put him only three titles behind Sam Snead on the PGA Tour's all-time win list.

"The whole idea is I'm not going to be doing a lot of golf courses because I want to be able to put as much time as I can into (competition)," Woods told Houston Chronicle reporter Jenny Dial Creech on Monday. "I have always done it that way, whether in golf or other parts of my business life. I am either all in or I am not in. I work my tail off, and I am very proud of my work."

He repeated that message in Cabo San Luca. "I'm only going to do a few at a time," Woods told USA Today's Steve DiMeglio. "I'm still in the peak of my playing years and I'm still concentrating on winning golf tournaments and winning major championships. I just don't have the time, with family, to try and do all that and try and design 15 courses all around the world.

"I want to do a couple here and there and give them my entire input and time."

The developer and CEO of Diamante is happy to have Woods involved with his project, which began with 18 holes - called The Dunes Course - designed by Davis Love III. "His idea was to make it fun and make people enjoy it," Ken Jowdy told DiMeglio of El Cardonal.

"It's been great to work with him. I wondered if he was committed to being in the design business and committed to the project and the first time I met him it was clear . . . I don't think anyone else can move the needle like he has for us. For whatever reason, Tiger brings it to another level."