Tiger Woods to design golf course in Chicago

Global Business

Tiger Woods has won 14 professional major golf championships. But one of the highest paid athletes in the world has been involved not just in playing on golf courses but also designing them. His latest project will be a golf course in the U.S. city of Chicago.

CGTN’s Roza Kazan reports. Follow Roza Kazan on Twitter @rozakazancctv

Chicago’s Jackson Park Golf Course is the site of what city officials and many residents hope will become home to Chicago’s first professional world class golf course once redesigned and combined with the nearby South Shore Golf Course. The City is bringing Tiger Woods, an American icon and one of the most successful golfers of all time, to do it.

It was said that the former U.S. President Barack Obama asked Woods to take on the project. And sports analysts said it may be a good move for the 41-year-old golfer, still trying to get his golf groove back, after battling injuries in recent years.

The $30 million Chicago project added to a short but impressive list by Tiger’s TGR Design firm that includes courses in Mexico, Dubai, and China. In Chicago, the project aims to bring much-needed development and jobs to the south side and help grow the game by adding a short course for kids.

The First Tee, a youth development non-profit that teaches golf, hopes a world-class course will open a traditionally expensive and elite sport to those from disadvantaged backgrounds. However, the project had faced criticism, some of it coming from some local residents.

Despite the criticism, backers of this project saw it as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to put Chicago on the world golf map and hope to bring a Professional Golf Association tour event as early as 2021.