As yet, there remains no timeframe on Tiger Woods’ return to competitive golf – indeed, we may never see Woods back in action – but Tiger sightings have been spotted in Mexico this week where the PGA Tour pros are set to compete for the Worldwide Technologies Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante, in Cabo.
The reason? El Cardonal, which opened in 2014, is the first Woods-designed course to have reached completion, and, unsurprisingly, the first Woods course to host a PGA Tour event.
“I set up the golf strategy to make golfers think and make choices,” Woods said on the course website. “There are going to be different ways to play every hole. Angles of approach are going to be very important and will dictate the type of shots you should consider. I love this kind of golf.”
El Cardonal sits on impressive, desert landscape, peppered with cacti, palo verde trees and scrubby desert flora. Undulating terrain sees elevation changes of 240 feet on the 225-acre site which boasts panoramic views over the Pacific Ocean.
A course designed to be playable for players of all abilities with wide landing areas, with bunkers scattered in the middle of the ideal landing areas, forcing the higher standard player and tour pros in particular to favour a specific side of the fairway as the course is designed to play firm and fast with greens to match and with a tendency to have strong winds coming in from the north. If the wind changes, however, and sweeps in off the ocean or even blows from the south, the course should play markedly different and should add to the viewing spectacle if mother nature complies.
Off the championship tees, it stretches to 7,363 yards and with a par of 72, is not particularly long by Tour standards, especially for a course that is firm and the greens, averaging 8,300 square feet, are enormous. For reference, that’s 23% larger than the greens at Marco Simone, host site of the 2023 Ryder Cup.
As much as a Tiger Woods designed golf course grabs the attention, it’s primarily geared as a resort course, enjoyable for mid-to-high handicaps as well as low players, meaning that the game’s elite players are likely to feast, even if the wind blows, and a winning score of -20 or better will come as little surprise.
As the penultimate PGA Tour Fall Series event, a place in the ‘Next 10’ – the best 10 ranked players outside the top 50 in the 2023 FedEx Cup rankings – is one of the main storylines as those on the outside looking in seek to play their way into the first two ‘Signature Events’ of next season, excluding The Sentry which is limited to the top-50 and 2023 tournament winners.
Beau Hossler currently leads those rankings, with two Europeans, Stephen Jaeger and Thomas Detry, also ranked in the top 10.
Notables in the field include Ludvig Aberg, Lucas Glover and Cameron Young, while Michael Block, who shot to fame with his impressive performance as the leading club pro at the PGA Championship, qualifies by virtue of winning the California PGA Club Pro Championship.
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