Tiger Woods has teamed up with another huge name in the world of sport, MLB superstar Mike Trout, to design a course in the Los Angeles Angels player’s home state of New Jersey.
Woods will create championship course Trout National – The Reserve in the town of the 31-year-old’s birth, Vineland, with an expected opening in 2025.
Trout explained to Sports Illustrated that he could barely believe the turn of events. He said: “It’s pretty incredible having a chance to own your own golf course. Getting Tiger to design it is crazy. If you had told me before that this would happen one day, I would have said you are crazy. It’s more than I ever thought possible.”
The 10-time MLB All-Star, who still lives close to the area the course will be built, doesn’t just excel on the baseball field. He is also a keen golfer. Therefore, it’s not entirely surprising he has taken that love of the game into the partnership with Woods.
Trout, who is also a three-time American League MVP winner, explained the idea to own a golf course had been several years in the making after he first discussed it with his wife, Jessica.
He said: “We sat down and said, ‘Look, if an opportunity comes up it would be a great thing to do. I want to own a course. We were close to owning a course when Covid-19 hit. A lot of stuff wasn’t going our way, so we backed out of the deal. We just said, ‘If an opportunity comes down the road, we’ll explore it.’”
Eventually, a meeting was set up with developer and president of Northeast Precast in Vineland, John Ruga and his wife, Lorie and the project began to take shape. As to why Trout eventually approached Woods for the design, he explained he was his golfing hero as a youngster.
He said: “My favorite golfer growing up obviously was Tiger. I thought it would be pretty cool to reach out. We reached out, got a positive vibe when we mentioned it and got his team down to the site. Once Tiger’s team came down to the site, they loved it. It’s surreal. I mean, it’s friggin’ Tiger! We talk now. I’m starting to get to know him. I talk to him over the telephone. It’s pretty crazy.”
Speaking about the project via a press release, Woods said: “I’ve always watched Mike on the diamond so when an opportunity arose to work with him on Trout National – The Reserve, I couldn’t pass it up. It’s a great site for golf and our team’s looking forward to creating a special course for Mike, Jessica, John and Lorie.”
The news comes weeks after it was revealed that Woods is designing another course at Marcella Club in Utah, USA.
Meanwhile, Woods' existing courses include the spectacular Payne’s Valley at Big Cedar Lodge in the Ozarks and Jack's Bay in the Bahamas.
