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I finally tuned in for a full day of golf, watching Tiger and Ernie lose to Henrik Stenson (with Nick Faldo’s former caddie Fannie Sunesson) in Dubai on Sunday. Good golf, and GOLF CHANNEL does a nice job of covering the Middle East South African European Tour.
Of course all was not lost for Woods, even if he didn’t win the tournament or keep his so-called “streak” alive. After all, Tiger has a job to do — turning a desert site full of hydro wires into his first golf course.
John Garrity at SI had this to say about the site of Tiger Woods Golf and Country Club:
So Al Ruwaya will be built several miles inland at Dubailand, a mammoth development that has been described as “Disney World on steroids.” I drove out to the site on Friday and got an eyeful of bumpy, yellow-sand desert with dusty-green patches of scrub and an occasional stunted tree. But then, that’s what the area around the Emirates Golf Club looked like a decade ago. If Dubailand is built out according to plan, it will have 55 hotels and an operational capacity of 200,000 visitors a day.
So the location is gigantic, but it doesn’t exactly sound compelling. For what it is worth, Tiger seems right into the project. When asked whether he was going out to walk a bunch of holes, consider natural green sites, and perhaps placement for the Nike-style Swoosh bunker on the left side of six, Woods replied:
“I’ll probably go out to the site and take a look.”
Hold that Tiger! Man he sounds excited about this project. Could thing he appointed his longtime friend, Byron Bell, who has no experience in the golf design business, to run this project.
Oh, and I missed this next bit entirely. First The Shark, Greg Norman, puts the bite of on Chris Evert, and apparently Hammerin’ Hank is well, gosh, that’s just too easy…
Anyway, Hank Kuehne is apparently dating Venus Williams, according to Golf Digest:
Hank Kuehne is dating tennis star Venus Williams. The two recently were seen having dinner together at a posh Florida resort with Kuehnes toddler”the 1998 U.S. Amateur champ went through a divorce last year shortly after the baby was born.
do we know who is actually doing the work at Tiger Woods Design? is he funnelling it through Fazio’s office? the IMG guys? or has he set up an office of his own?
RPF: Word has it that it is Fazio’s staff — but I don’t think anything has been confirmed.