Tiger's New Lair

By Steve Goldberg

Tiger woods sells. Shoes, clothes, clubs, razors, watches and credit cards. The man can move a Buick. The latest product to get the gifted one's endorsement will be a tony golf community called the Cliffs at High Carolina, near Asheville, N.C., where Woods will design his first golf course on American soil, his second overall.

Woods never got the chance to test his game against the legends he's chasing--Nicklaus, Palmer, Player--but he has put his name on the line against those greats in course development. Carrying the bag for Tiger Woods Design, president Bryon Bell admits the pressure is on. "Tiger does have to deliver a great product, and that's the reason we've focused so hard to find a great site and a great partner to give us the best opportunity to deliver a design that will knock it out of the park."

Even without the Tiger factor, though, the upper range of the residential golf market--with million-dollar homes and six-figure memberships--has shown a resilience, while the lower and midrange suffers with the housing market in general. "The strength of the upper end of the marketplace continues to astound everyone," exclaims Johnny Harris, president of Charlotte development company Lincoln Harris. "The supply may be overdone in the less expensive locations, but there are golf courses still being built all over this country at the absolute highest end, which is astounding to me."

Not everyone is as bullish. "Overall there has been a slowdown to golf communities," says Doug Main, director of national golf practice for Deloitte Financial Advisory Services in Atlanta. He adds that "the tide has dropped a little even in [the high-end] markets. That doesn't mean there aren't pockets and projects that are exceptions to the norm." Main says there has been a trend toward a more tranquil setting: "That's why there's a couple of clubs like [the Cliffs]--and to a different degree out in Montana and others--where it's really an experience to get away and to feel the privacy element again."

If you want tranquillity, there's no better place than standing on the cliff-top green on the par-three 13th hole of the Cliffs at Glassy and staring out for a hundred miles. Woods has a similar mountaintop meadow in which to carve his vision. At 4,000 ft., this nearly mile-high club will be built for walking, emphasizing the wellness mantra that Cliffs Communities founder Jim Anthony says defines the communities there. The properties border the Pisgah National Forest and other protected areas that promise a lifetime of trails and wilderness for the outdoorsy set.

High Carolina will be the eighth Cliffs community, all of which are nestled in the southern escarpment of the Appalachian mountain range from just north of Greenville, S.C., up to Asheville, N.C. Anthony says that having a known designer adds both value and a comfort level for buyers: "People perceive, and rightly so, that if this is a Fazio golf course, a Nicklaus golf course, that quality runs all through the community." There are two Nicklaus signature courses, two Tom Fazio layouts and one each by Ben Wright and Tom Jackson and another designed by Gary Player, currently under construction at the Cliffs at Mountain Park.

Whether Woods' skill with a mashie will translate to a drafting table is unproved, but there is no question he adds value. A price tag hasn't been put on homes in Tiger's new lair--he will have a place there but will keep his primary residence in Florida--but homes at other Cliffs communities range from $700,000 to more than $5 million, plus land costs.

Player and Nicklaus are also playing the real estate side of the fairways. Gary Player Estates is a gated enclave of 100 homes in the $4 million range within the already gated enclave of the Cliffs at Mountain Park. Nicklaus Manor at the Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Fla., will feature 33 homes, from $2 million. "There are certain people for whom money is no object," says Ken Costanzo, president of Gary Player Real Estate. "Their only concern is getting the right house in the right place." Say, Tiger's place.