Steve DiMeglio

USA TODAY Sports

CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO -- The blueprint Tiger Woods followed en route to designing his first golf course began with a box of crayons before later expanding into numerous reconnaissance missions around the world.

Crossing the seven seas and playing golf on all but one of the seven continents, Woods gathered data that moved him from the first tee to the 18th hole.

"I always wanted to be a part of the design business, but I didn't understand it," Woods says. "I made a commitment to play on every continent before I got involved in this business. The only continent I didn't play on was Antarctica.

"I've seen all the different layouts, I've seen how golf is played differently around the world, and I wanted to understand that before I got into the business."

Thus it was on the ninth night before Christmas that Woods was in Mexico, having finally checked off of his wish list the opening of his first golf course design. Eight years after creating Tiger Woods Design and roughly six years after the global economy crashed thwarting his projects in North Carolina, Baja Mexico and Dubai, Woods launched a new phase in life as he christened El Cardonal at Diamante, a high-end private development that also features a course designed by Davis Love III.

Still under the weather and 15 pounds lighter after suffering from the flu, Woods picked up a club for the first time in nearly two weeks and opened the course shouldered by the Pacific Ocean and Sierra de la Laguna mountains by playing 18 holes at the bottom of the Baja peninsula.

Diamante's opening marked the beginning of Woods' design career that once was highlighted by disappointments but is now in full throttle.

Tiger being Tiger, after all, has its advantages in the business, says Michael Abbott, president of Beacon Land Development, builder of Bluejack National in Texas, another project by Woods.

"Tiger's name helped us do everything," Abbott says. "Tiger spoke our language. He plays fast, the ball sits up and everybody can play.

"He's been all over the world, he's seen every blade of grass, and he's seen so many courses, so he's designing golf courses for all levels of play. People should not underestimate Tiger. He's taking that great mind and putting it on paper. To work with that mind and put it to turf, there is no mind to work better with."

Business is very good as Woods begins leaving his permanent imprint on the game. He has three projects on his design platter — Bluejack National near Houston, which is set to open next fall; a collaboration with Donald Trump for an 18-hole course in Dubai; and a second course, tentatively called The Oasis, at Cabo's Diamante.

Ironically, his first course is within view of Quivira Golf Club, the latest design by the man whose records Woods has been eyeing since childhood.

Woods, the 14-time major winner, remains fixated on hunting down Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles. But Woods has no intention of chasing Nicklaus and his 380-plus courses in the design business.

Especially when his plate is full. He's raising two children who are growing fast and are always on the move; his foundation continues to grow; he's on a task force addressing the ailing U.S. Ryder Cup team. In the first quarter of next year, he will cut the ribbon on his first restaurant, The Woods Jupiter: Sports and Dining Club near West Palm Beach,Fla. Plus he's working with new clubs in his bag and on a new swing with consultant Chris Como.

With a fit back following surgery, he's eyeing a 2015 rebound following a forgettable season.

"I'm only going to do a few at a time," says Woods, who turns 39 on Dec. 30, of his design business. "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'm still playing a full schedule. I'm still committed to growing my brand and growing my golf course design business. But I want to do it correctly."

For El Cardonal — named for a former ranch that once occupied the land — Woods worked diligently as he went through 20 renditions before arriving at the finished product 27 months after ground was broken.

As the course was carved out of sand dunes, arroyos and mature native vegetation, Woods saw new avenues to take during his many visits to the site, altering his view as he considered playability and course flow.

"I don't do anything half-assed," Woods says.

Woods' lack of experience as a designer turned out to be a strength, says Bryon Bell, president of Tiger Woods Design.

"His strength is that he knows he doesn't know everything," Bell says. "He had talked to other designers and asked them what mistakes they made early on, and they all said they made their golf courses too hard. So he came in with an open mind and wanted to make sure he didn't make the same mistake."

Woods started tapping into the design side of his mind as a kid when he began drawing golf holes on paper with pencils and crayons. At 8, he entered one of his 18-hole designs for a contest conducted by a golf publication.

"I created something that was off the wall and off the charts," Woods says.

He never stopped eyeballing courses and drawing up holes, says Notah Begay, who first met Woods as a junior golfer. The two became teammates at Stanford and colleagues on the PGA Tour.

"Golf course design was always a big part of how he evaluated different layouts. Maybe not strictly from a design standpoint, but he evaluated the layouts based on the tendencies certain designers had," says Begay, an on-course commentator and analyst for Golf Channel.

"Based on those tendencies he'd make different strategic decisions on where to put the ball and how to play the hole. … As a designer, Tiger will evaluate every option, every angle, and it goes without saying he'll give every type of player the opportunity to be challenged and yet shoot the best possible score they can shoot according to their skill level. It's a reflection on his ability to see things in golf from a variety of different perspectives.

" ... He's not doing this for the money, he's not doing this for the notoriety, and he's not doing this because he has an interest in doing 1,000 golf courses. He's doing this because he loves to do it."

Woods' affection for the game soared when he started playing links golf. He loved watching Seve Ballesteros play the ball on the ground, the great Spaniard tapping into his imagination and tempering any complication due to wind. Woods adapted quickly — of his 14 majors, three are British Open titles.

"The ground should be utilized as a friend," Woods says. " ... There are very few people who can hit a high, soft 3-iron with spin and hold the green.

"You know how I love links golf, and love rolling the ball up, and the holes here, there are so many options for players."

With that in mind and taking into consideration the frequent high winds blowing in from the Pacific, Woods and his team of Bell, Beau Welling and Shane Robichaud fashioned a par-72 course that stretches out to 7,300 yards. The widths of fairways at El Cardonal are generous, the chipping options around the greens are plentiful and the forced carries are minimal.

"I want people to enjoy all 18 holes — and the 19th hole as well," Woods says.

Former major league pitcher Scott Erickson, now an accomplished golfer in retirement, played El Cardonal on opening day.

"It's a great layout. Wide open and a lot of fun to play," says Erickson, who won a World Series with the Minnesota Twins in 1991. "You can stand on the tee box and see where you want to hit the ball. That's not the case on a lot of golf courses. This one will be a lot of fun for a lot of people from every skill level."

That's exactly what Woods wants with all of his designs. While he says he will build whatever the land owner wants — "Tiger knows how to build a hard golf course," Bell says — Woods aims to give golfers of all stripes a fighting chance.

"There are so many different ways you can design," Woods says. "You look at a topo map and you say we can do this here or do it this way there ... Then you start walking the property. You still see holes, you see land forms, and you see how things shape up. Then you clear out land and you open corridors.

"It's so fun to be creative and create something from basically nothing."



