Tiger Woods is bringing his golf course design work to Long Island's Gold Coast. TGR Design, the course architecture firm Woods leads, has added a project in the Village of Brookville to its portfolio: an 18-hole private course on the grounds of a former private club and the farmland around it. The property is the old Tam O'Shanter Club site, and the project is the flagship of a company called The Armchair Collective.

The news puts the name of a 15-time major champion on a Brookville property that had gone quiet, in a stretch of the North Shore with a long history of private golf.

What TGR Design says it will build

The firm's project page lays out the plan in some detail. The course is designed to be walked, not ridden, and it is built around wide, contoured fairways that give players more than one way to play each hole. Short-cut turf will surround the greens, so a player who misses can choose between a putter, a chip or a bump-and-run rather than being forced into one shot.

The site's sandy soil is a big part of the design. TGR Design expects it to produce firm, fast conditions that reward shots played along the ground, the style of golf associated with the links courses of Scotland and Ireland. Long stretches of native fine fescue will line the corridors between holes, and the routing is meant to keep and show off the mature trees that already stand on the property.

The teeing grounds will be ribbon-style, meaning long, continuous strips of tee rather than separate boxes. That lets the club set the course up in different configurations and at different lengths from one day to the next.

A putting course, a milk barn and a place to stay

Beyond the 18 holes, the plan calls for a full practice area, short-game facilities and a Himalayas-style putting course. The name comes from the famous rolling putting green beside the Old Course at St Andrews, where players putt across humps and hollows for fun as much as for practice.

The land's history shapes the rest of the project. According to TGR Design, the property was originally part of the Linden Estate, known formally as Linden Hill and built around 1915. Its farm buildings are staying. The historic milk barn will become a comfort station overlooking the putting course and short-game area, and the existing barn will be converted into overnight accommodations for members and their guests.

Where it fits in Tiger Woods' design work

Brookville joins a TGR Design list that includes Bluejack National outside Houston, Payne's Valley in the Missouri Ozarks, Jack's Bay in the Bahamas, three courses at Diamante in Cabo San Lucas, The Hay short course at Pebble Beach and the Cobbs Creek short course in Philadelphia.

What it means for Long Islanders

The course will be private, so it is not a new place for the public to book a tee time. For Brookville and the neighboring Gold Coast villages, the change is a former club property and farm getting a new life as a working golf course again, with its 1915-era farm buildings kept rather than torn down.

TGR Design has not posted an opening date on its project page.

Follow the project

The Brookville plan is on TGR Design's Armchair Collective Project page, alongside the rest of the firm's course portfolio.

Sources