Golf superstar Tiger Woods will design his first golf course in Hawaii as part of a $300 million master-planned development that aims to establish a new resort in Makaha Valley.
Woods was chosen, along with golf architect Gil Hanse, to create two new world-class golf courses described as the centerpiece of the Makaha Valley Resort, it was announced Wednesday
Woods and his TGR Design company will lead the development of the Makaha North Course, while Hanse, designer of the Olympic course in Rio de Janeiro, will develop the Mahaka South Course, according to Canadian landowner Pacific Links International.
No timeline was offered for when the courses will be opened.
Makaha Valley Resort is planned on a 644-acre property owned by Pacific Links International, a Toronto company that describes itself as providing a premium golf experience for members with a focus on Chinese golfers.
Pacific Links says it counts a network of more than 400 affiliated and reciprocal clubs in 37 countries around the world.
The West Oahu project is being touted as a master- planned destination resort community that takes up the original vision for Makaha held by local entrepreneur and businessman Chinn Ho when he opened the original Makaha Resort and Spa in 1969.
The resort was closed in 2011 for a renovation that never came about. Pacific Links purchased the adjacent golf course the same year and later acquired the entire resort property. The resort was razed in 2014.
Local real estate developer Stanford Carr has been working with Pacific Links on the new project for a couple of years. The mixed-use development will include a golf club, an arts and community center, and a health and wellness center in a first phase. A second phase will have a timeshare, golf villas and multifamily residential units.
The entire development will be on about 128 acres flanked by two golf courses to the north and south sides.
Carr said the project, first announced in early 2016, was delayed while Pacific Links International worked on other priorities. But recently schematic plans were presented to 600 Pacific Links members at the Shangri-La Hotel in Beijing.
“It was well received,” Carr said.
The project was originally touted featuring a renovation of the Makaha Golf Club West by Greg Norman Golf Course Design.
But Carr said certain factors led to that effort growing too costly. In the meantime, Pacific Links International owner and founder Du Sha developed a relationship with Woods that led to Wednesday’s announcement, he said.
The two courses will be largely within the existing footprint of the Makaha Valley Country Club East Course and West Course, which was shut down eight years ago.
Wood’s website describes his Makaha project as a “Hawaiian masterpiece” and “championship course” that can be enjoyed by players of all levels who will “meander through lush, rolling terrain where expansive ocean views contrast the strikingly powerful, emerald mountains.”
Makaha North Course, it says, will make for “a premier test of golf” that rewards “creative shot- making” and presents “strategic choices and different routes of play,” requiring golfers “to navigate a myriad of options in order to score well.”
Woods, the 14-time major winner, lists 10 golf courses, either fully built or in the design phases, on his resume. He built his first completed design, El Cardonal, at Diamante Resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, in 2014.
Two years later his Bluejack National course opened near Houston. He also became the lead on a planned restoration of a municipal golf course in Jackson Park on Chicago’s South Side after former President Barack Obama asked him to take on the project.
The Makaha course will bring Woods and veteran golf architect Hanse together for the first time. Hanse designed the Streamsong Resort Black Course in Florida and the Pinehurst Resort & Country Club No. 4 course in North Carolina, among other courses.
MAKAHA VALLEY RESORT
The project will cover about 644 acres with 128 acres housing mixed-use development that will be flanked by two golf courses to the north and south. The development will be built in two phases:
>> Phase I: Building of a golf club, arts and community center, and health and wellness center
>> Phase II: Building of a timeshare, golf villas and multifamily residential units
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