Tiger Woods Announces Plans for Golf Course in Western North Carolina

A press conference held Tuesday marks yet another milestone in the illustrious career of golfer Tiger Woods. The press conference, which began at 1:30 pm this afternoon at Cliffs Valley, in Travelers Rest, S.C., is where Woods announced his intentions to design his first golf course in the United States. The course will be located in Swannanoa, N.C., just outside of Asheville. in addition, Woods said he will be building a home in the same area and plans to relocate his family here.

Woods was asked about his plans during an interview held during the PGA Tournament last week. At that time, Woods confirmed his presence at today's press conference, yet refrained from making additional comments about the course at that time. Others close to Woods however, have confirmed the plans. They include Pete McDaniel, a writer for Gold Digest. McDaniel is also Woods' biographer,

The course is planned for an area along Patton Cove Road off Interstate 40 at the Swannanoa exit east of Asheville. It is on land owned and under development by The Cliffs Communities, a company which specializes in upscale golf communities. They have already been involved in projects that offered courses designed by other well-known names in the golf world including Jack Nicklaus, Tom Fazio , Gary Player and Arnold Palmer. The Cliffs Communities is one of several companies in the western North Carolina region that have created golf developments. All the courses and homes are located not only in Buncombe County, site of the new one planned by Woods, but also in Henderson and Polk counties.

The Cliffs at High Carolina, which Woods will design, is set to be constructed in three separate phases, according to Jim Coman, zoning administrator with the Buncombe County Planning Department. Coman said the golf course is slated to be part of Phase II, which is on the Fairview side, not the Swannanoa side of the land. Coman also mentioned that, as of this morning, no site plans had been filed with the zoning offce, nor had any building permits been issued.

Residents living near the proposed project have mixed feelings. Some believe it will disturb the natural beauty and privacy that the area presently affords homeowners. Others know that anything that Tiger Woods is connected with tends to be a blockbuster. They do, however, also remain concerned about the impact such a development would have on property taxes, though many business owners believe that tax increases would probably be offset by an increase in traffic to their businesses once the projects are completed.

This would not be the first golf design project that Tiger Woods has done. He created a company in 2006 and immediately announced plans for a course called Al Ruwaya in Dubai, U.A.E. Today's announcement marks his foray into golf course design in the U.S. and choosing the Asheville area for that course is a very exciting bit of news for local residents.