RIDGEDALE, Mo. — Tiger Woods’ playing career may have crawled to a halt, but his design career continues to gather steam.
TGR Design announced Tuesday that it has inked a deal to build its first public-access course, called Payne’s Valley, for the Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Mo., just south of Branson on the Arkansas border.
Woods now has his name attached to 10 different design projects in varying stages of development, ranging from championship courses to a restoration to a practice facility. He has completed two courses: Diamante’s El Cardonal in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and Bluejack National outside of Houston.
Woods previewed the Big Cedar announcement with a tweet last Wednesday, saying “I’ve always wanted to design a public course and I’m very happy that my TGR Design company will make a big announcement next week.”
Woods’ client is Johnny Morris, owner of the resort property and the founder of Bass Pro Shops. Big Cedar Lodge is the home to this week’s Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf event on the PGA Tour Champions circuit and is already a beehive of new golf activity.
The Champions tour will play the Tom Fazio-designed Buffalo Ridge Springs course, as well as the Jack Nicklaus-designed Top of the Rock, a splashy par-3 layout. Gary Player, who will team with Nicklaus this week, is opening another short course here this month, and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw are busy working on a second championship course for Big Cedar Lodge, set to open in 2018.
Even with Nicklaus, Player, Tom Watson and Lee Trevino set to compete this week, Woods took center stage Tuesday.
