Woods’ public course to honor Stewart
Standing a few feet away from Tracey Stewart, the widow of the late Springfield, Mo., native and World Golf Hall of Famer Payne Stewart, Tiger Woods said Tuesday he has a simple job ahead of him.
“I have to make sure I don’t screw this up,” Woods said in announcing Payne’s Valley, a new 18-hole course adjacent to the Buffalo Ridge site and the newest part of the Big Cedar Lodge stable of courses south of Branson.
Woods, who made the trip to the Ozarks on Tuesday to make the announcement, was joined by Bass Pro Shops founder and CEO Johnny Morris and a group of big names in the world of golf, tourism and the state of Missouri.
Woods said it was an easy sell to get him involved in this project.
“Yeah, I have opportunities to do things on a global level,” Woods said. “I’ve traveled all around the world and played all around the world, but when it comes down to it, it’s about working with the people you want to work with.
“Johnny and I go way back. I like spending time around people I like spending time with.”
The 14-time major champion’s design firm, TGR Design, is handling the course, which will be public and is scheduled to open in 2019. It is the first public course that TGR Design has handled.
Morris said greens fees for the new course had not been determined but added, “For the quality of the course we’re providing, we will certainly want it to be a good value.”
Morris said Woods has been a hands-on partner in the project, joking, “It seems like he’s driving his guys nuts, I know that. … I think he feels very strongly about the beauty of the land he has to work with here.”
Woods also will design a par-3 course at nearby Big Cedar Lodge, with a similar goal of getting families together to enjoy nature and golf together.
“This is a place where families can come out here, one with nature, with different options,” Woods said.
The course honors Stewart, Springfield’s beloved son who was raised here and won three majors on the PGA Tour. He died at 42 in a 1999 plane accident.
Payne’s Valley is at the former site of the Murder Rock Golf Club, a John Daly course that has been closed since it was purchased by Morris in October 2013.
Woods shared a long embrace and chat with Tracey Stewart before the announcement and spoke of how much having Stewart’s name on the course means to him. “It’s an honor,” Woods said. Woods and Morris have had a relationship since shortly after Woods won the 1997 Masters, when the 21-year-old used some of his winnings to invest in a Bass Tracker boat from Bass Pro Shops.
Morris, along with his son and a friend of his son’s, personally delivered the boat. That led to a fishing trip and a relationship that has endured.
Woods, 41, has won 79 PGA Tour events (second all time). He has won four Masters, three U.S. Opens, three British Opens and four PGA Championships.
The 14 major titles are second to the 18 won by Jack Nicklaus, who coincidentally is in the area for this week’s Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf at Big Cedar Lodge.
Woods hasn’t won since the Bridgestone Invitational in August 2013, and injuries have limited him in recent years.
He has been more active in other endeavors under his TGR Ventures umbrella. That includes the Tiger Woods Foundation, an upscale restaurant in Jupiter, Fla., and TGR Design.
The header photo on his official Twitter account shows Woods not on a golf course with a club in hand but sitting at a table and looking over designs for a golf course.
The TGR Design firm has four courses open worldwide: Bluejack National in Montgomery, Texas; El Cardonal at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; The Oasis Short Course in Cabo San Lucas, and Jack’s Bay in Rock Sound, Bahamas. All are private courses.
Courses in various stages of construction are The Oasis Course, a third offering in Cabo San Lucas; Trump World Golf Club in Dubai; Pacific Links National Golf Club in Beijing, and the restoration of two courses in Chicago — the South Shore Golf Course and Jackson Park Golf Course.