Photos: Bahamas home on prestigious Jack Nicklaus-designed course on sale for $1.45M

Have an extra $1.45 million lying around?

With its pristine white beaches and a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course that’s regarded as one of the best in the Caribbean, the exclusive area of Baha Mar just west of the Bahamanian capital of Nassau is a dream for visitors who grace the area.

But wouldn’t living there prove even better than sporadically stopping by?

No. 9 Lake Cunningham Estates is a golfer’s dream, backing up to the course, and getting the best of many worlds — close enough to Nassau with its dining and cultural options, yet secluded enough to enjoy peace, relaxation and a quiet 18 holes.

Here’s more from the listing at Sotheby’s:

This expansive home boasts a 5-bedroom main house, plus a 1 bedroom cottage overlooking the pool. The ground floor welcomes its owners and guests with a seamless, open floor plan featuring a generously sized kitchen adjacent to a comfortable family living room. Complementing this space are a formal living and dining area, along with a separate TV room that opens to the pool, and more.

Before Royal Blue Golf Course came into being, another golf course sat on this property, an additional chunk of bait used to lure potential travelers to this remote paradise. The 9-hole course, then known as Cable Beach Golf Club, was loosely associated with the British Colonial Hotel nearly four miles to its east, and offered Floridians (and others from the nearby Southeast United States) a slice of home — a flat, tricky run of holes with a constant threat of water. It was completely renovated and an additional nine was also added, one that works through elevation changes and rock formation.

Golfweek’s Best: Top 50 courses in Mexico, Caribbean, Atlantic islands and Central America

Here’s a look at the home, which is currently for sale at the price of $1,450,000.

[lawrence-auto-related count=4 category=451193359]

PGA Tour players and Saudi Arabia PIF boss have ‘constructive’ meeting in Bahamas

During the meeting, Yasir Al-Rumayyan talked about his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in golf.

Last week Golfweek was first to report a group of PGA Tour players were planning to meet with Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the head of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, in an effort to continue towards a deal that would seemingly reunite men’s professional golf.

While the original report stated the meeting was scheduled at a private residence in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, following the conclusion of the Players Championship at nearby TPC Sawgrass, flight tracking data showed the meeting appeared to happen in the Bahamas. After the meeting, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan sent a memo to players – first shared by Monday Q Info – to provide a brief update.

“The conversation throughout was constructive and represents an important part of our due diligence process in selecting potential investors for PGA Tour Enterprises,” Monahan said of the meeting between player directors and Al-Rumayyan. “This mirrors the approach we employed earlier this year as we evaluated an investment offer from the Strategic Sports Group.”

“During the session, Yasir had the chance to introduce himself to our Player Directors and talk through his vision, priorities and motivations for investing in professional golf,” Monahan continued. “As we continue these discussions with the PIF, we will keep you updated as much as possible, but please understand that we need to maintain our position of not conducting negotiations in public. To that end, we will provide no further comments to the media at this time.”

The message doubles down on Monahan’s comments at last week’s Players Championship and only confirms what had already been widely reported. The Tour has maintained the discussions with the PIF dating back to the June 6 framework agreement have been productive, but nine months later a deal has still yet to be reached.

During his annual State of the Tour address, Monahan confirmed he and SSG representatives met with Al-Rumayyan in Saudi Arabia in January. That same month, the SSG invested $1.5 billion into PGA Tour Enterprises, the for-profit entity that was originally supposed to include the PIF via the framework agreement.

[lawrence-auto-related count=4 category=1375]

Why Matt Fitzpatrick’s curiosity about an obscure local model rule led to Collin Morikawa’s 2-stroke penalty

“It’s nothing personal.”

NASSAU, Bahamas — Collin Morikawa got docked two strokes on Sunday morning in one of the more bizarre rulings on the PGA Tour in a long time – which is saying something.

If you’re unfamiliar with this week’s installment of “the Rules of Golf can be wacky,” you can read the backstory about why Morikawa was assessed two strokes for violating local model rule G-11, which restricts the use of green-reading material, on the fourth hole of the third round of the Hero World Challenge here. But the part of the story that couldn’t be told until players talked after the round was how the violation was reported in the first place.  And how did Morikawa and his caddie, JJ Jakovac, take the news?

In regards to the first question, chief referee Stephen Cox of the PGA Tour did confirm that Matt Fitzpatrick was responsible for bringing the subject to light. One rush to judgment was that the Englishman had ratted out Morikawa but that isn’t the case. Rather, he was simply looking for confirmation of a rule, which went into effect in 2022, when the USGA and R&A banned the green-reading books that took much of the skill out of reading a putt.

On the fourth green on Saturday, Fitzpatrick heard Morikawa ask his caddie about the break and witnessed Jakovac refer to his yardage book for the answer.

“I have wanted to use AimPoint earlier this year,” Fitzpatrick explained on Sunday after finishing T-4. “I spoke to my putting coach, Phil Kenyon, about it. He told me that he was pretty certain I can’t write the numbers down or use the AimPoint numbers. So, you know, I didn’t do it. And then obviously yesterday it happened and I asked Coxy just to clarify what the situation was. I asked the question and he was like, ‘Well, now you’ve asked the question, I need you to tell me what’s going on.’ That was it.

“Listen, it’s nothing personal. Whether it was Tiger or whoever, it’s just I wanted to know because I would have used it earlier this year.”

Fitzpatrick never broached the subject directly with Morikawa and, in fact, he forgot about it after the round. He didn’t text Cox until later that evening.

“It wasn’t until I was back in the house like where I was staying and someone was talking about putting or something like that. I was like, oh, [shoot], like I have that question,” Fitzpatrick recalled.

Morikawa cleared up another mystery in all of this: how could he be so sure that Jakovac only violated the rule that one time on the third hole on Saturday?

“I promise you it only did happen on the fourth hole because he read a putt wrong on the first hole with his feet and I fired him in the first round from reading my putts,” Morikawa explained.

Morikawa expressed no problem with Fitzpatrick bringing the potential violation to light, noting, “He did what any competitor should do.”

Morikawa also sided with his caddie, who he said had asked a different rules official if measuring the slope on the green with a level device was legal – which it is – but a player and/or caddie can’t write those figures down in his yardage book.

“He had asked other officials, he had asked other caddies and it sounded as if other people were doing this. And when you ask an official something, you assume it’s right,” Morikawa said. “Well, apparently if they tell you something wrong one day in a different tournament does not carry on, and I understand that, we made the mistake.”

But Morikawa wondered: “Why are there gray areas? There shouldn’t be gray areas in the rules, right? That’s what rules are for.”

Morikawa expressed some frustration at the process of how he was alerted to the possible infraction. Cox initially texted Jakovac in the morning a few hours before Morikawa’s tee time. Jakovac didn’t say anything to Morikawa at first because he didn’t want to concern him if there wasn’t any issue. Cox sent a second text with about 45 minutes left in Morikawa’s warmup calling for a meeting in the locker room.

“We go there and we’re looking for him and he’s nowhere to be found,” Morikawa said.

Cox is nothing if not punctual and was doing his due diligence to make sure he had his ducks in a row but Morikawa was equally frustrated with the process as he was with the ruling.

“Just give it to me, right?” Morikawa said. “If I broke the rules, I broke the rules and that’s on me, I have to take it.”

A two-stroke penalty turned his third-round score from 70 into a 72. Even before he teed off, his tall task at catching leader and eventual champion Scottie Scheffler grew from six back to eight back. It’s a mistake he and Jakovac likely will never make again.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1375]

Tiger Woods gives hope for 2024 after return to competition at Hero World Challenge

Woods shot an even-par 72 on Sunday to finish even for the tournament.

The first step of yet another Tiger Woods comeback has been made.

The 15-time major champion made his return to competitive play this week at the 2023 Hero World Challenge and completed 72 holes for the first time since the Genesis Invitational in February. Woods shot an even-par 72 on Sunday in the final round to finish even for the tournament. He walked off the course in 18th place in the 20-player field.

“I think I’ve come a long way from being a little bit rusty to play four days and knock off a lot of rust, which was great,” Woods said after the round. “Just the physicality of actually playing, competing again, I haven’t done this in a while so it was nice to get out there with the guys and have some fun and compete and I wish I would have played a little cleaner but there’s always next time.”

After an early double-bogey on the par-3 second hole following a flubbed chip, Woods made birdie on three of his next four holes to get under par on the round and for the tournament. Bogeys on Nos. 8 and 11, both courtesy of iffy efforts around the green, stalled his momentum until Woods went back-to-back with birdies at Nos. 14 and 15 after missed eagle attempts on both holes. Similar to Thursday, a step forward was immediately followed by a step backward as more struggles around the green led to a brutal bogey on the par-4 16th. Pars on his closing two holes sealed the deal for what was a solid week.

Woods was deliberately traversing the course in the final round and notably grimaced for the first time after his second shot from the sand on No. 10. That said, slow and steady and he was able to complete the tournament without any noticeable issues. Earlier in the week Woods had said an ideal schedule would mean one tournament a month, and his performance in the Bahamas gave hope for more to come in 2024.

“Once a month seems reasonable and it gives me a couple of weeks to recover and weeks to tune up, maybe I can get into the rhythm and something like that,” he said. “That’s what the plan was going into next year.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=4 category=1375]

Shot-by-shot analysis: Tiger Woods shoots even-par 72 Sunday at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Woods is making his return to competitive golf for the first time since April.

Tiger Woods closed out his most recent return to competition on Sunday in paradise.

In his first competitive appearance since the Masters earlier this spring, the 15-time major champion entered the final round of the 2023 Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event that benefits his TGR Foundation, T-16 at even par in the 20-player field.

Woods was admittedly rusty in Thursday’s opening round at Albany in the Bahamas as he signed for an up-and-down 3-over 75 but got back under par both Friday (70) and Saturday (71). He walked off the course in 18th place after an even-par 72 on Sunday.

Check out his closing round with shot-by-shot updates below.

Best shots: Check out Tiger’s Hero highlights

Scottie Scheffler’s new putter is en fuego, the putting whisperer’s busy week and Tiger’s Sunday pairing among takeaways from the Hero World Challenge

Scottie Scheffler may have found a new favorite club.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Scottie Scheffler may have found a new favorite club.

The world No. 1 inserted a putter in the bag for a tryout this week at the Hero World Challenge and ranks third in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting. On Saturday, he made two eagles and four birdies and posted 7-under 65 at Albany to build a three-stroke lead over Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick.

“Nice to see some putts go in,” Scheffler said. “I’ve been rolling it pretty solid. These greens can be tough to putt at times, but like I said, I’m rolling it good.”

Indeed, he is. Scheffler is using a heel-toe weighted blade made by little-known puttermaker Olson Putter Co.

“It’s very similar to some stuff that I used in the past,” Scheffler explained. “It has a little thing on the top that helps me line the ball up more consistently in the middle of the face, and then obviously the grip is different than what I’ve used in the past, but that’s something that Phil (Kenyon) and I have worked on together.”

Scheffler’s 65 tied for the low round of the day with Fitzpatrick, and lifted him to a 54-hole total of 16-under 200.

Scheffler, who last won on the PGA Tour at the Players Championship in March, finished runner-up at the Hero World Challenge the last two years. Both times he said he needed a strong back nine to flirt with contention, but Viktor Hovland closed the deal.

“Hopefully,” Scheffler said, “I have one more good back nine in me.”

Here are four more things to know about the third round of the Hero World Challenge.

After 3 rounds at Hero, here’s the quick and dirty report card on Tiger Woods

There’s reason for optimism for Tiger Woods.

NASSAU, Bahamas — Tiger Woods had 100 yards to a pin tucked in the back right corner of the 11th green at Albany on Saturday. It was the type of shot he used to pull the string like a yo-yo, tap-in for birdie and move on to the next hole.

Woods selected a sand wedge and lofted the shot into the wind. It’s a shot he has hit hundreds of time, and perhaps for the first time in a long time he was in his own estimation 3 ½ steps too long, the ball bounding over the green. Death. He made yet another bogey on a par 5, the holes he cleaned up on during his prime.

“That was a hard shot,” Woods said. “It’s going to get stood up in the wind and I had to take off… trying to hit it right there pin high and I missed by three and a half steps.”

Still, there’s reason for optimism for Woods, and he had no trouble finding it after the round.

Tiger bounced back from a shaky bogey-bogey start with four birdies over the next seven holes. He made a birdie and two bogeys on the inward nine to shoot 1-under 71. Two days in a row in red figures isn’t too shabby after a seven-month layoff from competitive golf.

But Tiger knows that stats don’t lie – well, maybe sometimes – but not on this occasion. He has been negative Strokes Gained against the field in all three rounds in SG: Approach and SG: Putting. For the week, he ranks 20th in SG: Approach (and 19th in proximity) and 19th in SG: Putting. That doesn’t sound too bad except for the fact the Hero is a 20-man field. Dead last in approach the green for one of the best iron players of all-time is about as un-Tiger-like as it gets.

Is that just rust? Maybe. But it suggests he’s going to need more reps to get ready to play the majors in 2024. Albany is typically a birdie-fest, and he’ll need to be much sharper. His rounds have stalled on the back nine – he’s 6 under on the front and 6 over on the back, which typically is the tougher side – which suggests he may be running out of gas, understandably. The good news is that Tiger still has plenty of pop – he’s averaging 308 yards off the tee – and is encouraged by how his body is feeling and that’s a win for the week.

“To be able to knock off some of the rust as I have this week and showed myself that I can recover each and every day, that was kind of an unknown as far as I’ve walked this far, I’ve done all my training, but add in playing and concentration and adrenaline and all those other factors that speed up everything, I’m very excited how the week’s turned out,” he said.

Tiger, who underwent yet another surgery in April to fuse the subtalar (joint just below the right ankle) and address arthritis caused by his previous talus (ankle) fracture, still is walking gingerly at times but this week (so far) ranks as the best he’s looked physically in a while.

“I can always hit it, I could never get from point A to point B. Once the bone on bone was relieved with the fusion, it’s felt night and day,” he said. “I don’t have mobility, but the fact that I’m able to walk and participate again without having to feel the way I felt just trying to do it again, that was frustrating. Now I’m able to do it. Now it’s just a matter of getting the reps in.”

Asked whether his back is of concern, he said, “My back hurts every day. It is what it is, that’s just life. But I can deal with that, that’s not a problem.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=1 tag=2621]

A pair of Texans lead, Tiger’s travails at 15 and Lucas Glover comes up aces among 5 things to know at Hero World Challenge

Here’s what you need to know from the second round in the Bahamas.

NASSAU, Bahamas — The world No. 1 is reminding us at the end of the year just how good he can be.

On Friday, Scottie Scheffler made eight birdies en route to shooting 6-under 66 at Albany Club to share the lead with Jordan Spieth at 9-under 135 at the halfway point of the Hero World Challenge. Brian Harman was alone in third a stroke back and Tiger Woods, who is making his first start since the Masters, roared to an opening-nine 32 before his round stalled and he settled for a 2-under 70.

There was a lot to like about Scheffler’s round —the low one of the day by the 20-man field — but when asked to name what he did best, he said, “I drove it well, gave myself a lot of chances. Yeah, that’s probably the thing I did best.”

Scheffler, who opened in 69, made birdie on three of his first seven holes before making a bogey on No. 8 after getting what he called a bad break. He heated up on the back nine with four birdies in a five-hole stretch beginning at No. 11.

“Kind of got into a nice groove there,” he said. Hit a good iron shot into 10, two good shots into 11, good iron shot on 12 and then I just hit a lot of quality shots and got some looks. That’s really just what I did best.”

Scheffler is trying to end the year on a high note. He’s a candidate for Player of the Year after notching two wins but hasn’t hoisted a trophy since the Players Championship in March.

Here are four more things to know from the second round of the Hero World Challenge.

Tiger Woods starts hot, struggles late Friday at 2023 Hero World Challenge

Woods shot 2-under 70 in the second round in the Bahamas.

Tiger Woods started brilliantly Friday, but it was once again a struggle on the way back to the clubhouse.

Woods’ second round in the 2023 Hero World Challenge at Albany in the Bahamas got off to a brilliant start, making birdies on his first two holes and sitting 4 under thru 7 and at the turn. Similar to Thursday’s opening round, he struggled as the day wore on. However, Woods was five shots better Friday, shooting 2-under 70 at the unofficial event that benefits his TGR Foundation.

“It was better than yesterday, for sure,” Woods said. “I’ve been more committed than I was yesterday. I made a few mistakes and overall the round was better, for sure. The start was better, the middle part of the round was better. I missed a couple putts there towards the end I thought would have kept the round going and unfortunately it kind of stalled out a little bit. Certainly better than it was yesterday.”

Woods made bogey after a three putt from 13 feet on the par-4 13th. Then, with only 182 yards left on his second shot into the par-5 15th, he made bogey after his birdie putt rolled back into a greenside bunker where he played his third shot from.

TIGER TRACKER: Woods’ second round with shot-by-shot analysis

Then on the par-4 16th, his approach shot came up short, and he was unable to get up and down, marking his third bogey in four holes.

He stopped the bleeding with a long birdie putt on the par-3 17th hole, salvaging the day and giving him a bit of momentum heading into the weekend.

When his second round finished, Woods ranked first in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee, but he was dead last in putting among the 20 players in the field. However, he sits at 1 over for the tourney after 36 holes in his return to action after nearly eight months.

Check the yardage book: Albany for the 2023 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas

Check out the details of the course where Tiger Woods makes his comeback to competitive golf.

The golf course at Albany in New Providence in the Bahamas – site of the 2023 Hero World Challenge – was designed by Ernie Els and opened in 2010. The layout ranks No. 25 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top courses in Mexico, the Caribbean, the Atlantic islands and Central America.

On the island of Nassau, Albany’s layout features five par 5s and five par 3s. Part of a resort community, it plays to 7,449 yards with a par of 72.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players – including Tiger Woods in his comeback to competitive golf – face this week. Check out the maps of each hole below.