Site originally expected to host Tiger Woods first golf course design now on sale for $19M

A 550-acre property in Swannanoa that once housed the first Tiger Woods master-planned golf course in North America is on the market for $19 million. It is the second time the property has been put on the property market since plans to develop the site were abandoned in the late 2000s. The property, located 27 miles east of Asheville, has had two owners since Woods visited in 2007. The entire 800-acre property sold for $15.3 million in 2019, according to the Citizen Times. The property at 400 Spring Mountain Road is listed for $2.3 million and is currently owned by South Carolina-based New Fort LLC.

Former owner David Strauss told the Citizen Times in 2019 that the property sold for $15.3 million due to lack of value and interest in the land. “We didn’t want to acquire any more property and it was costing us a lot of money,” Straus told the Citizen Times in July 2019. It was demolished to make way for a golf course. “We tried to sell it for years because it wasn’t worth what we wanted.”

The site was previously listed for $24 million in 2016.

The property is listed as having a private 16-acre lake and deep well with a maximum elevation of 4,500 feet. The property is listed with Altamont Property Group of Asheville.

Woods has not commented on any real estate involvement in recent years, but the announcement still maintains “previous development and golf course plans.” The listing also records the presence of whitetails, turkeys, foxes and black bears, indicating that the area has “conservation value”.

Strauss financed a 2007 deal to develop The Cliffs under the deal. The Cliffs is comprised of seven private luxury communities owned by South Street Partners, a development company located in Charlotte and Charleston, South Carolina. The project has led to the development of about 1,000 new luxury houses in the development of “Rocks in Carolina”.

In 2007, Woods said he can see “as far as possible to complete the project. At the end of 2000, the project collapsed by forests that fight a number of wounds and fighting disorders. While other golf legends built courses in the area, another planned course fell through due to funding problems and criminal schemes.

Etowah’s Seven Falls course, designed by Arnold Palmer, collapsed in the late 2000s. The site’s developer, Keith Arthur Vinson, was later sentenced to 18 years in prison for conspiracy to commit bank fraud, fraud against the United States, embezzlement of bank funds, wire fraud and money laundering through a sophisticated financial scheme.

Golf course designer Tom Fazio designed the Bright Creek course in Polk and Henderson counties. A Henderson County home designed by Tom Fazio hit the market in October, listed for $7.7 million.

Since then, Woods has designed several courses, and his golf course design company, TGR Design, has announced plans to build a golf course at the Marcella Club in Park City, Utah, in 2023. It will be the first mountain design for Woods and the fourth course to bear his name, including Bluejack National in Houston, El Cardonal in Diamante, Cabo and Payne Valley in Hollister, Missouri.