ORLANDO, Fla. -- In keeping with the long-held tradition at both clubs, banners of congratulation were hung at the entrances of the city's two most exclusive golf enclaves on Monday, the country clubs at Isleworth and Lake Nona.
Tiger Woods, an Isleworth resident since 1996, won on Sunday on the PGA Tour, while Graeme McDowell, a Lake Nona homeowner, won on the European circuit. The clubs hang a sign whenever a resident or club member wins on one of the major world tours -- and it's already happened plenty of times this season.
Otherwise, it was hardly a banner day for the Tavistock Group, the private Orlando-based company that owns both clubs.
According to multiple published reports, British investor Joe Lewis, who founded the company and maintains a home at Isleworth, stands to lose somewhere in the vicinity of $1 billion in the Bear Stearns collapse, which was widely trumpeted in the major business dailies Monday.
The timing wasn't exactly ideal. The fifth Tavistock Cup matches will be held next Monday and Tuesday at Isleworth, pitting the likes of Woods, Ernie Els, Annika Sorenstam, Paula Creamer, J.B. Holmes, Daniel Chopra, Mark O'Meara and Sergio Garcia against each other in a Ryder Cup-styled team affair.
Not to worry. Lewis, who rarely does interviews, is still good for the $3.88 million purse at his ultra-high-end, backdoor event, which is broadcast annually on the Golf Channel. His net worth has been estimated at $5 billion. Well, before Monday's financial bloodletting, anyway.
If needed, maybe he can borrow a few greenbacks from Woods, whose victory on Sunday at the Arnold Palmer Invitational pushed him close to $80 million in career tour earnings alone. Woods is an investor in one of the company's real-estate dealings in the Caribbean.
