Northern Ireland’s first links course to be created in over 100 years has already generated significant excitement, but its designer will likely cause it to turn even more heads across the world.
Fifteen-times Major champion Tiger Woods has reportedly been signed up to sculpt the new £30million project, which will be situated in Bellarena between Coleraine and Limavady.
The legendary golfer is considered not just one of the best players in his sport but one of the greatest athletes of all time, leading the PGA Tour in wins and is second only to Jack Nicklaus in Majors.
And now he is set to bring his course design skills to Northern Ireland, with Coleraine Now reporting that the 50-year-old will head up the design of the new north coast links course.
Plans for the project were unveiled last year by the Galgorm Collection, which operates Galgorm Golf Club near Ballymena and the Roe Park Resort in Limavady.
And according to a Causeway Coast and Glens councillor, it will be Woods who will be tasked with drawing up the layout of the links course, which is intended to be championship quality.
“We received a briefing and it was confirmed to us that Tiger Woods has been signed up to design the course at Bellarena,” they told Coleraine Now.
Woods has not yet taken on a design project in Ireland, however he has worked on some of the world’s top golf courses in the past, such as El Cardonal at Diamante in Mexico, Bluejack National in Texas and Payne’s Valley in Missouri.
Woods’ attachment to the project is further confirmation that it will be getting the go-ahead, particularly after a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) was submitted for it in August.
In the PAN, the plans detail a ‘new championship standard, 18-hole, links golf course’, while other amenities are set to include a clubhouse with bar and restaurant areas, practice areas, short course, driving range, putting greens and eight ‘golf lodges’.
The news comes just days after Royal County Down submitted a “major application” for a “significant upgrade” to several of its holes and facilities, amid reports it could see the famous links host The Open.
The club is working with Mackenzie and Ebert, the same course designers that worked to improve Royal Portrush ahead of The Open returning there for the first time in 68 years in 2019.