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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 18398
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
I think Tiger's schedule has opened up a bit since he may have realised that he's a has-been on the PGA circuit. Now he'll have more time to promote
some projects. |
looking forward to hookers and night clubs at punta banda -- would a tiger development have anything less?
denny, i wonder if you retirees will be able to handle the new club scene coming to your neighborhood?
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Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
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Commute? Pish-Tosh
| Quote: | Originally posted by Woooosh
Even if the course is great, the commute will kill you. Isn't this course intentionally isolated? Without the residential component I don't see why
build it unless you can golf free when your buy a $Million house site in advance. Then again, the rich are getting richer in this screwed up economy
and a lot of them can fly their jets in for a round. |
The plans call for being helicoptered in from the new airport at el Tigre up on the mesa. Saw the plans for that, too. 
Everything was in place then it all turned to $**t.
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chippy
Super Nomad
Posts: 1722
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"Once the world economy shakes out" hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
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Woooosh
Banned
Posts: 5240
Registered: 1-28-2007
Location: Rosarito Beach
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If the rich are just as rich as when this project was planned- what's their problem? It's not economics to these people- they make money no matter
what the economy does it seems. Are the uber rich now Mexi-shy or is owning property in Mexico too great a social stigma at the Polo Clubs?
\"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\"
1961- JFK to Canadian parliament (Edmund Burke)
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mtgoat666
denny, i wonder if you retirees will be able to handle the new club scene coming to your neighborhood? |
 That
would just about do it for me. They may even change the name of the Buf road to Revo Avenue.
The one thing that's for certain out here is nobody know's what's going to happen. The expat conduit for real information is non-existant and the
unsubstantiated rumors fly around just like basic training and some, if not most, of the suppositions are worse than absurd.
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bajabound2005
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 2760
Registered: 10-15-2005
Location: Punta Banda, BCN
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Mood: words cannot describe...
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For Tiger Woods, a Golf Course Design Business Is in the Rough
April 2, 2011
New York Tiimes
For Tiger Woods, a Golf Course Design Business Is in the Rough
By PAUL SULLIVAN
IN late June 2008, a week after he astonished the golf world by winning the United States Open while grimacing in pain on a torn left knee, Tiger
Woods traveled to a craggy chunk of land on the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. It was a lunarlike landscape of dirt and rock, with an inactive volcano in
the background. For several hours, he hobbled over the terrain, discussing with developers his vision for the golf course he would build there, while
waves from the Pacific crashed onto the shoreline below. His knee, said one companion, rattled like tools in a tool box.
Mr. Woods would soon undergo surgery that would shut down his season, but no matter: the Tiger legend was steaming ahead, and the fall from grace that
would follow was unthinkable then. His heroic performance in the Open had enhanced his stature as perhaps the greatest player ever. It was his 14th
major championship, putting him only four behind Jack Nicklaus’s 18, the singular goal that Mr. Woods had been pursuing since he turned pro in 1996.
His earnings from golf and endorsements had made him wealthy beyond imagination.
Now he was turning his attention to a new challenge, his course design business, one that would extend his brand, bring him untold more millions and
leave his permanent imprint on the game he seemed to have mastered so easily.
The Baja course, called Punta Brava, was Mr. Woods’s third design. With its breathtaking landscape, it was easy to envision it rivaling Pebble Beach
and establishing his legacy as an architect at age 32. At the news conference to unveil the course, in October 2008 at the Hotel Bel Air in Beverly
Hills, he looked at ease sitting next to Red McCombs, the billionaire co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, who was one of the investors.
“I can’t wait until we actually start construction, and we get to move some dirt because that’s when I can really get my hands on it and really be out
there even more than I am now,” Mr. Woods said at the time.
Now, two and a half years later, no dirt has been moved at Punta Brava and Mr. Woods has not visited in some time. His two other designs, in Dubai and
near Asheville, N.C., are also troubled; the Dubai course, according to people familiar with the project, has been shelved permanently. The desert
sands have started to reclaim the strips of green from the six holes that have been completed. The Asheville project is searching for new financing,
and construction has halted until at least this summer. In the nearly five years since Tiger Woods Design was founded, none of the courses have been
completed.
It’s a trajectory that mirrors just about every element of Mr. Woods’s life these days: As he enters the Masters tournament beginning on Thursday, his
golf game has fallen apart and he is overhauling his swing for the fourth time in his career. The string of affairs that made him tabloid fodder in
2009 and 2010 cost him his marriage, custody of his two young children and the loss of endorsement deals with Accenture, AT&T and Gatorade.
Brian Tucker, the founder and developer of Punta Brava, said the delay there had nothing to do with Mr. Woods’s personal scandal. His group had to
redo the environmental impact study, he said, and groundbreaking is set for later this year. What remains to be seen is how much the developers will
use Mr. Woods’s image to sell the course. Mr. Tucker suggested that Punta Brava would be marketed mostly on its exotic locale.
“This project is not about Tiger Woods,” Mr. Tucker said last month, emphasizing that the course is surrounded on three sides by the ocean and has 12
holes requiring a player to hit the ball over water.
Punta Brava’s location allows it to play down Mr. Woods’s involvement, but the two other courses he designed do not have this luxury. His allure as
one of the world’s great champions was a crucial pillar of the sales plan.
Bryon Bell, president of Tiger Wood Design, said the firm would not be looking for new partners in Dubai. “As the course designer, it is not our role
to secure financing for the projects,” he wrote in an e-mail.
When asked about the Asheville project, he said: “Our role beyond design work can vary depending on the client. Some request additional promotional or
marketing opportunities, others just ask for our patience during these economic times.”
For now, the only golf project that Tiger Woods Design has completed is behind Mr. Woods’s newly finished mansion on Jupiter Island, Fla. With four
greens, seven sand traps and different cuts of grass, the 3.5-acre pitch-and-putt course would delight any golfer.
While Mr. Woods could surprise the golf world and win this week at the Masters, it will take more than a major championship to rehabilitate his
business career. And that raises some questions: What will become of the two remaining courses that bear his name, and can Tiger Woods Design
re-emerge as a viable enterprise?
WHEN Tiger Woods started his golf design business in 2006, few doubted that he could deliver a course that everyone would want to play. That
confidence didn’t vanish when the global economy began to fracture in 2008. Real estate values — so vital to any golf development — were dropping but
were not yet considered at crisis levels. There were signs of a financial reckoning on the horizon, but not in the world inhabited by millionaire
investors looking for a spot in golf’s most exclusive clubs. The Tiger market remained bullish.
Investors had compelling reasons to hope that Mr. Woods was recession-proof. Dubai had ponied up an estimated $55 million, according to widely
circulated reports, for the privilege of owning Mr. Woods’s first-ever course design. The Asheville project, at a gated community called the Cliffs at
High Carolina, had reportedly paid him $10 million. The usual fee for course design by a top architect runs $2 million to $3 million.
It didn’t matter that Mr. Woods had never designed a course. Who more than Tiger Woods knew his way around bentgrass and bunkers? With his practical
experience, he would learn the details of the business on the job.
And so he set about to do so. “The amount of meetings I’ve been in — people would be shocked,” he said in an interview in 2008. “But that’s how you
gain experience, how you can gain knowledge, being in meetings and participating. You learn and grow.”
In the beginning, Mr. Woods was hands-on. To the delight of his backers, he visited the sites often. He reworked the layout of the courses until they
met his standards. At Punta Brava, he made 27 routing maps, when most top architects do three or four. At High Carolina, he changed the layout so that
that the ninth hole would not be northern-facing and unplayable in the winter.
He also made time for the publicity events that were part of the deal. He traveled to Dubai in December 2006 to announce that his first course design
would be built in the desert, surrounded by mansions costing tens of millions of dollars. In 2007, he strolled into a packed room at one of the
Cliffs’ other communities, in South Carolina, to unveil his plans for High Carolina, his first course in the United States.
A year later, after his victory at Torrey Pines, he made his trip to Punta Brava to approve the final layout.
Actions like this only burnished his image with investors: he was a great golfer, and also a man of his word. What was selling these projects, of
course, was Tiger Woods the champion, not Tiger Woods the course designer. Jack Nicklaus, who has operated a successful design business since 1969,
was one of the few who added a sobering voice when asked about Mr. Woods’s precociousness in course design: “Yes, but he hasn’t done any yet,” Mr.
Nicklaus said soon after the Cliffs broke ground. “He’s on his third golf-course contract.”
His comment proved prescient, though no one wanted to hear it any more than they wanted to hear that housing prices wouldn’t always go up. Mr. Woods’s
aura was evident at the gala in Beverly Hills that officially announced Punta Brava. In a scene more like a film premiere, Mr. Woods met with hundreds
of the world’s wealthiest golfers, many of whom had made their money through shrewd business dealings.
“I introduced him to every single person that night, 250 people,” said Brady Oman, who was then part of the development group but has since left. “It
went past midnight. He stayed way past the end.”
The prospect of working with Mr. Woods caused even the savviest among them to drop their normal skepticism. At the unveiling of the project in 2008,
Red McCombs, the major financial backer of Punta Brava, said that initially, “I wasn’t turned on by the whole thing. Then they said, ‘I think we can
get Tiger involved in designing this.’ I said, ‘Forget it, it’s over, I’m in.’ ”
Mr. McCombs, a lifelong real estate investor, added: “It was the idea of Tiger coming in as a partner and designing the course, not just in name but
in total involvement in the course. He has such an impeccable background and he added to the property.”
Now, two and a half years later, with the business seemingly stymied, it is hard to sort out all the contributing factors. The economic crisis was
certainly one of them. Credit dried up, and real estate prices plunged. It was a bad time for any development, and the golf industry suffered.
According to the National Golf Foundation, only 46 new courses opened in the United States in 2010, the fewest in 25 years.
There is evidence, too, that all three developments significantly overestimated the prices they could charge for surrounding real estate, with lavish
mansions in Dubai and homes at Punta Brava priced as high as $12 million.
The tarnishing of Mr. Woods’s image has presumably hurt as well. Its impact is harder to quantify, though it probably has been more of a factor for
the Cliffs, which based its initial sales pitch as much on Mr. Woods’s personality and reputation as on his athletic accomplishments. Jim Anthony, the
project’s founder, does not even play golf. He likes to fish and take long walks with his pedometer ticking off the miles. His vision of the Cliffs
was to sell the communities based on a lifestyle of health and wellness and a family-friendly image.
So when the string of affairs that ended Mr. Woods’s marriage was revealed, the Cliffs had to scramble; now, the marketing is affected by the fact
that the company doesn’t want to plaster Mr. Woods’s image over all of its promotional materials.
Mr. Anthony said he harbored no animosity toward Mr. Woods. “I don’t know of any of us who hasn’t made a mistake,” he said. “I had some conversations
with Tiger when he was here. I think he’s genuinely working hard.”
He said he does not blame Mr. Woods’s travails for the sluggish sales at High Carolina. “I think it’s very minimally Tiger,” he said.
Regardless, Mr. Woods’s work with these projects is largely done. He has been paid the bulk of his contract fees. “Traditionally, a course designer’s
job begins and ends with designing a great course,” said Mr. Bell, the head of the company.
In the meantime, there have not been any new projects announced by Tiger Woods Design. “We are evaluating opportunities from all over the world,” Mr.
Bell said. “We’re staying focused on our original mission of finding great sites, great partners, and creating spectacular designs. I’m very confident
about our future.”
FOR the investors who backed Tiger Woods’s designs, time is running short, or has run out altogether. The Dubai project appears all but dead. Mr.
Woods’s Web site says completion of the course is pending and that he might revive it. But an official at Golf in Dubai, which promotes the sport in
the emirate said the project was “as good as dead and buried.” He said the chief executive had left and that the second in command was back in Canada.
“Basically it was an exorbitant project,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid contradicting his organization’s role.
“The $100 million mansions were too expensive even during the years of real estate boom in Dubai.”
Punta Brava, the hardest-to-reach of Mr. Woods’s courses, is the one in the best financial position. It, too, started with grand plans of
8,000-square-foot mansions and a gigantic clubhouse.
But as the economy cratered, the developers found themselves battling local groups over the environmental impact study it had submitted. Even after
they redid the study, they faced hurdles to getting the proper permits to build along the Pacific.
Mr. Tucker, the founder, said this delay, however frustrating, turned out to be a blessing. He was able to go back to prospective buyers who had
toured the site and ask if they were still interested.
“We said, ‘Let’s talk about prices.’ Before, we were looking at the $3 million-$12 million ranges; now based on all of this we’re looking at $800,000
to $3.9 million,” he said. “We took advantage of a difficult, stressful, frustrating situation that allowed us to refine the land plan for Punta Brava
and give not what the market wants but what our people want.”
The project has also benefited from financial backing from Mr. McCombs and Ruben Gonzalez Pena, a businessman in the Baja area, so it has not had to
rely on bank financing. They have also appealed to a crowd of wealthy golf purists who have access to the private jets they will need to land at the
local airport. (The club provides members helicopter transportation from the airport to their homes — that is, if they don’t have their own
helicopter.)
AS for the Cliffs, it seems to be caught between success and failure. It seemed to be the safest choice — a string of seven golf communities with a
proven record of success. But its ability to pay for the course, and its constant operation, was contingent on the ability to sell homes.
After the groundbreaking in November 2008, with Mr. Woods attending in specially designed Nike clothing, the Cliffs said that it had sold 40 lots at
High Carolina, starting at $500,000. That number has not changed since then.
After struggling through 2009, the Cliffs realized that it needed financial help. It borrowed $64 million from a group of residents in April 2010,
and, in January this year, a Dallas-based property developer made an investment to help restructure its debt. Mr. Anthony said that this helped reduce
the debt burden by $50 million, and that he continues to work with other lenders.
“We make no bones about it: cash flow is still tough,” he said. “We feel fortunate that our property owners are supporting us.”
Don Tucker, a lawyer who serves on the advisory board for the group that lent the club $64 million, said his group had recommended that work be halted
on the Tiger Woods course — and that other improvements at the Cliffs be postponed — so it could first finish the development’s seventh course, one
designed by Gary Player.
But this has created a chicken-or-egg scenario: Mr. Woods’s course can’t be completed until more homes are sold, but buyers won’t commit until the
course is finished.
“That’s the conundrum for every golf course designer,” Mr. Tucker said.
Mr. Anthony, who began his career as a telephone lineman, remains optimistic. He noted that Southwest Airlines is going to start flying into
Asheville, which he hopes will help with sales.
In many ways, living on a Tiger Woods course was always based more on allure than financial calculation — the seductive combination of natural beauty,
exclusivity and Mr. Woods’s platinum image. “I want to get to know them, and they should get to know me,” Mr. Woods said in the 2008 interview, of the
people he would work with. “It’s not just going out there and designing golf courses. I consider it a partnership. We’re in this together through
thick and thin.”
While Mr. Woods’s early forays into course design have stumbled — and have definitely come at great cost to the projects’ financial backers — no one
is accusing him of doing his job poorly or failing to keep his commitments. Like his golf game, the business is simply stuck, beyond even his power to
lift it up, bend it to his will and defy natural forces the way so many of his superhuman golf shots did when he sent them soaring.
Still, it seems likely that Mr. Woods will get the opportunity to build other courses in the future. At some point, his personal scandal will have
faded, the real estate market may pick up and he could even start winning golf tournaments again.
Until then, Mr. Woods at least has the practice course in his backyard. That is more than his partners can say.
Friends don't let friends drink white zinfandel.
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805gregg
Super Nomad
Posts: 1344
Registered: 5-21-2006
Location: Ojai, Ca
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F, Woods a flash in the pan, no longevity.
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BajaNews
Super Moderator
Posts: 1439
Registered: 12-11-2005
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Man's Quest To Build Tiger Woods Golf Course Continues
http://www.10news.com/news/27971519/detail.html
Developer Brian Tucker Says Punta Brava Project In Ensenada To Break Ground In October
May 20, 2011
SAN DIEGO -- A San Diego man who invested everything he had in a golf course project involving pro golfer Tiger Woods still believes the project will
be successful despite numerous setbacks.
There was a time when Woods could do no wrong. A week after winning the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines, he was 65 miles south of San Diego on a
little-known peninsula outside of Ensenada. It was a site considered a perfect spot for the world's next great golf course.
Woods agreed to design the course, and billionaire and former Minnesota Vikings owner Red McCombs would back it. San Diegan Brian Tucker would then be
called upon to develop "Punta Brava."
Three years later, Woods struggles to rebuild his image and career. Of his three golf course designs, one in North Carolina is struggling financially
and another in Dubai has almost failed.
But his Baja Mexico course continues with the help of Tucker, the founder and CEO of Punta Brava.
Punta Brava is years behind schedule and still months away from breaking ground. However, Tucker continues to be the glue that holds the estimated
$100 million project together.
Long before there was ever a road into the area, Tucker hiked 1,200 feet up the mountain that hides the inaccessible piece of land. On a foggy
morning, looking down the other side, he discovered his destiny.
"The wind came up, the clouds parted. I joke about the sun coming down and the angels singing. But there it was … there was Punta Brava," said Tucker.
Tucker had a vision. Where others saw thick brush and rocks he saw oceanfront fairways.
"Your ball will roll down and you'll be in a great spot for a potential birdie," said Tucker, describing one of the many Punta Brava holes requiring
golfers to hit over water.
When others said the land was too isolated to be developed, he pictured villas with spectacular views.
Working with what nature provides, there are some who say the day Punta Brava opens it will instantly be among the world's top 10 golf courses -- all
this despite Woods' very public downfall.
"The reason that people are attracted to Punta Brava wasn't because who designed it. They were attracted because of what you are looking at here,"
Tucker said of the landscape.
What makes this project even more remarkable is that Tucker gave up his job. He leveraged all his investments and rolled the dice in a down economy to
make it all come together.
"My appetite for risk, I would say, is a little bit higher than the average," said Tucker.
After years of delays, Punta Brava recently received all its permits, including a difficult to obtain environmental permit.
According to Tucker, groundbreaking for Punta Brava will take place by October.
Woods issued the following statement regarding the Punta Brava project: "Punta Brava is my first oceanfront course, and it is going to be spectacular.
The site is breathtaking, and I have created a design that takes advantage of the dramatic views. It will be an amazing place to play. I am looking
forward to the project breaking ground and spending more time on-site during construction."
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The Gull
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Posts: 2223
Registered: 8-28-2003
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The website features photos of his babes walking among the rocks on the shore. Not bad. A $12M homesite is available. Drug lords be alert, this is
your chance to get in on the ground floor since many of you missed with The Donald project.
�I won\'t insult your intelligence by suggesting that you really believe what you just said.� William F. Buckley, Jr.
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