LOS CABOS, Mexico — Tiger Woods doesn’t do many firsts these days in professional golf but he has this week as this marks the first time that a PGA Tour event will be held on one of Woods’ designs (with senior design associate Beau Welling).
With dramatic views of the Pacific Ocean and natural arroyos, mature vegetation and native dunes, El Cardonal at Diamante, which ranks T-33 on Golfweek’s Best Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic Islands and Central America list and hosts this week’s World Wide Technology Championship, is a par-72 course measuring 7,363 yards and will rank as one of the tougher walks on Tour.
The wind is the course’s main defense. Tiger emphasized shot-making and strategic decision-making. The course’s variety of hole angles, including the par-5 14th, which offers the rare alternate fairway, challenging green complexes and diverse shot values provide a testing ground that requires players to think critically about their approach. It’s a course that invites players to showcase their versatility and creativity, in line with Tiger’s approach to the game and what made him one of the best to ever peg it up.
“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.”
The course boasts a magnificent panorama of dunes, fairways, and ocean views that blend with the surrounding natural vegetation. Here’s what the pros have to say about Tiger’s first completed design and first course to host the PGA Tour.
Thoughts on TW design course El Cardonal at Diamanté:
-I’m not a massive course design junkie like Zac Blair and others so this is a pretty basic breakdown lol.
-I always find it funny that famous players that became course designers end up designing courses that fit their… pic.twitter.com/GKpm09c5Pa— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) November 1, 2023
CABO SAN LUCAS, MEXICO – NOVEMBER 02: Zac Blair of the United States plays his shot from the first tee during the first round of the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante on November 02, 2023 in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
It’s fine. It’s not built to walk, that’s for sure. There’s some cool stuff and some resort-y stuff. It’s solid. It’s a pretty severe piece of property.
You can tell he’s trying to have some fun spots to be creative, lots of quadrants on the green where if you hit it right you can take advantage of backboards and slopes and if you miss you get really penalized. It’s got width off the tee and has some pretty cool holes and then some that are pretty average.
It’s a weird mix where you can get to most of the par 5s and then a bunch of wedges and a couple of holes like 8, which is a bear up the hill.
Sahith Theegala plays his shot from the 4th tee 7th prior to the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante on November 01, 2023, in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
“The first thing I think of when it’s a Tiger Woods design is that you kind of know that the fairways are going to be wide, which I love. Driving accuracy, I think it’s been well documented, is the worst stat of my game, so having open fairways is really nice for me. I can kind of use my creativity to shape it into the holes and stuff.
“But my first impression of the golf course is I really like it. It’s very hilly, no flat lies, a bunch of slopes that you can use to funnel into the greens. Anywhere from wedges on the par 4s to I hit a couple 4-irons today. The wind was a little opposite in the morning today and there were some really tough par 4s on the front, specifically 4 and 8 I think were playing really long.
“But there’s plenty of scoring holes as well. I think Tiger was talking about how he just likes to make people think on the golf course and the back nine out here is just all strategy. There’s very few drivers, a lot of placement. You need to have good angles or else these little cacti come into play and the way the arroyos and the desert is around the greens. It’s a nice blend of kind of tactical, strategic golf and then also just putting yourself in the right spots, because I think there’s going to be some really low scores out here.”
Keith Mitchell of United States plays his shot from the 1st tee prior to the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante on November 01, 2023, in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
“We all know we can judge him on his golf, the best if not the best ever to play golf. So we’re going to see if his golf course architecture can hold up as well.
“There’s a lot of options. I know Tiger likes options. It gives you a lot to think about going into greens, whether if you want to use the slope or go straight at the hole, whether you want to play conservative and have an easy up-and-down or try to push it to the back of a green or to a tough flag and try to make birdie … So excited to see how it plays out coming down the stretch with some pressure and some tough pins.”
Matt Kuchar of the United States plays a shot on the third hole during the first round of the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante on November 02, 2023, in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
“Well, let me preface by saying, El Camaleon, (where the Tour played this event from 2007-2022) was right up my alley.
“This, by comparison, is very friendly off the tee … I think it’s kind of a second-shot golf course, back nine even more so than the front nine. Back nine feels like they have a lot of rejection greens, the front nine are more collection greens.
“But for being a challenge for the Tour pros and playable for the everyday guy, he’s got a good thing here. This will be a good test for everyone this week and you can still host the pro-am and get around.”
Brian Gay plays from a bunker on the fifth hole during the second round of the 2022 Charles Schwab Cup Championship at Phoenix Country Club. (Photo: Rob Schumacher-USA TODAY Sports)
“Interesting. I’d never seen a Tiger course so I didn’t know what it would be but it’s not what I thought he’d build. It wasn’t built for the PGA Tour so I’m sure that’s why the fairways are so wide. It’s very forgiving off the tee but if you miss the short grass you’re dead in the junk. The greens have a lot of slope, a lot of false fronts and back slopes. You can’t go long on those. Keep it in play and you’ll be fine and a lot of things will feed to the flag depending on the hole locations.
“I’ve been (to Diamante) in May and the wind blows 30. This place can be a beast but I’m not expecting it to blow that hard this week.”
Maverick McNealy of the United States plays a shot on the first hole during the first round of the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante on November 02, 2023, in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
“It’s just not really a closest-to-the-pin contest. You think about where you’re aiming, where you’re trying to leave the ball.
“My first impression is that it’s not very tight off the tee, it’s very wide, but if you miss, it’s a severe penalty. You don’t need to murder the ball. Playing it 290 off the tee, 300 off the tee is going to be just fine. And then you really have to think about where you leave the ball into the greens. There’s one side that’s obviously not OK.
“You kind of see a lot of parallels between the way Tiger plays golf and the way he designed this golf course. You have to think about it, play smart. Quintessential second-shot golf course and no short-siding.”
Ludvig Aberg of Sweden prepares his shot from the 10th tee prior to the World Wide Technology Championship at El Cardonal at Diamante on November 01, 2023, in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur. (Photo by Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
“Because Tiger was so good with his irons and his approach play, I can definitely see him enjoying this kind of golf where you have to put the ball in the right tiers on the greens and place the ball, not necessarily going for the pin all the time but put yourself in a good spot. So I can definitely see that.
“I really enjoy it, I think it’s great.”
Taylor Montgomery of the United States acknowledges the gallery after holing out on the 18th green during the first round of the ZOZO Championship at Accordia Golf Narashino Country Club on October 19, 2023, in Inzai, Chiba, Japan. (Photo by Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
“You can get some easy green complexes into like some bowls and then on other holes you can get some really big fall-offs and you’re chipping 10, 15 feet above you. It’s a variety of pretty much everything.
“If there’s no wind, (the winning score is) going to be 20-something under.”
Cameron Percy of Australia lines up a putt second hole during the first round of the Mexico Open at Vidanta on April 27, 2023, in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
“It’s wide, but you notice yourself sort of getting a bit lackadaisical on a few tee shots. And there’s a few crosswinds where if you hit the wrong shot, you’re going to lose it in the rubbish. It looked wide, but you lose concentration, there’s a few holes where there’s not a lot to aim at so you’ve got to really concentrate because it’s, oh, yeah, I should be able to hit this, but then you don’t.
“It kind of makes you – it’s a second-shot course. The greens are tricky and there’s a lot of plateaus. It gives you the tee shot and then you’ve got to hit a good second shot.”
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