At Cliffs' Edge: Tiger jumps into world of course design
Editor's note: This article was originally published in LINKS Magazine. Visit the magazine website here.
By Hunki Yun
Two days after winning the 2007 PGA Championship at one of golf's most venerable addresses, Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tiger Woods steps out of a black Range Rover at the Cliffs Valley in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, a small town 20 miles north of Greenville, the hometown of Jay Haas and more infamously, "Shoeless Joe" Jackson.
Following his expulsion from baseball along with seven Chicago White Sox teammates for fixing the 1919 World Series, Jackson returned to Greenville shrouded in shame. He eventually opened a liquor store, which Ty Cobb visited years later to buy a fifth of bourbon. The former baseball greats performed the transaction as if they were strangers until Cobb finally said, "Don't you know me, Joe?"
"Sure. I know you, Ty," Jackson replied. "I just didn't think anyone I used to know up there wanted to recognize me again."
Woods has no such problems. Whether he is selling watches, conducting an interview with Matt Lauer on the Today show, or making his first public appearance in upstate South Carolina, everyone wants to be associated with him. Wearing a navy suit and white shirt sans tie, Woods enters the Cliffs Valley clubhouse and walks around the crowd that has gathered, eager to catch a glimpse of sport's biggest star.
Woods strides onto the podium, sits behind a table and playfully announces, "I guess we all know why we're here."
The occasion is the announcement of his long-awaited first design project in the U.S., the Cliffs at High Carolina. (Woods' first course, Al Ruwaya in a development subtly named Tiger Woods Dubai, is so far away that it barely registers on the American golf radar.)
From an architecture perspective, the atmosphere at Cliffs Valley is similar to the sense of anticipation that surrounded Woods' first professional tournament at Milwaukee's Brown Deer Park Golf Course in 1996. And when High Carolina opens, the golf world will be expecting a debut no less spectacular than Woods' 12-stroke win in the 1997 Masters.
Seated next to Woods is Cliffs founder Jim Anthony, who is responsible for luring him to Travelers Rest. "I've been offered many times to design courses here in the States," says Woods, "but I never felt comfortable with the partnership. After meeting Jim, it was an instant 'yes.' Jim is the sole reason why I'm doing this."
The 63-year-old Anthony is known for his hard work and integrity, qualities to which Woods is drawn and evident in his choice of friends, like Michael Jordan and Roger Federer, who may be the best ever in their respective sports. But they reached their lofty positions through not wasting a single drop of their considerable talent. Woods does not put slackers on his speed dial.
Working as a telephone line repairman for 20 years while aspiring to be a developer, Anthony could have given Earl Woods two shots a side as a visionary. He bought his first parcel for $100 and eventually parlayed it into the Cliffs, which he founded in 1991 and quickly expanded into a network of private properties in the mountains of North and South Carolina. (High Carolina will be the eighth Cliffs community; five are open, with Tom Fazio and Gary Player layouts under construction.)
Later that afternoon, Anthony relaxes in the boardroom at La Bastide, a Cliffs-owned inn that looks transplanted from the French countryside, complete with vineyards. It is the end of a busy day. Prior to the press conference at Cliffs Valley, Anthony introduced Woods to more than 1,000 Cliffs employees at nearby Furman University. Afterward, they gave a presentation for more than 700 Cliffs residents at the Cliffs at Walnut Cove outside Asheville, North Carolina.
Anthony contacted Woods in February, and a major factor in Woods' decision was the Cliffs' -- and Anthony's -- emphasis on health and wellness, which mirrors Woods' values. In the spirit of fitness, Anthony and Woods originally announced that High Carolina would be walking only. But in the only misstep of the day, they later clarified that walking will be encouraged but not required.
