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Tiger's design will join Colin Montgomerie's (above)
as another tour-player designed track in Dubai.
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Tiger Woods has upped his involvement in golf course development from financier to course designer, announcing this week that his first design will take shape in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
Details are scant for the scheduled 2009 opening, but the course will be a long one, nearly 8,000 yards, and will be complemented by a huge clubhouse, a golf school, more than 300 upscale villas and a small, luxury hotel.
Dubai is no stranger to golf courses, tournaments or celebrity architects. The city, site of the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic and Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, already has ten 18-hole courses (and two nine-hole courses) designed (or being redesigned) by the likes of Nick Faldo, Colin Montgomerie, Ian Baker-Finch, Thomas Bjorn and Robert Trent Jones, Jr.
Dubai, specifically, Dubailand, is part of burgeoning, state-sponsored tourist destination project and Woods was quoted as saying he, “wanted to be a part of this amazing vision.” With what seems like unlimited amounts of capital, developers have been transforming pockets of this dry, desert region into lush, five-star resorts, making it one of the world's golf destinations to watch.
The UAE (in green) is not included on the U.S. government’s list of countries Americans should avoid, though it is surrounded by many countries that are, such as Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. The most up to date safety information can be found here, on the list of Travel Warnings.
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