Golf balls fly farther at higher elevations, and Tiger Woods is well aware of that fact. He was clearly able to account for it as a championship golfer, and the knowledge will now benefit his more recent ventures as a golf course designer in Utah.
Woods’ design firm, TGR Design, has already built nearly a dozen courses throughout the world. Now, they will add to their portfolio a new 18-hole course in Wasatch County, between downtown Heber City and the Jordanelle Reservoir. At 8,000 feet long—the longest in Utah—the new course will be part of a master-planned community and ski-golf club, Marcella Club.
The course has 360-degree views, including the Uinta Mountains, Jordanelle Reservoir, Deer Valley Resort and the Heber Valley with Mount Timpanogos in the distance. Woods said in a company announcement that this is one of the most dramatic canvases he’s ever worked with. “It has ridgelines with some of the most stunning views in the world, valleys with amazing contours and topography, and groves of trees that allow me to use creativity to bring to life a golf experience that’s something special,” he said.
Want a glimpse into Woods’ vision? The course will emphasize playability and provide “a multitude of options for players of all abilities but also [test] experienced players by emphasizing shot values,” the company said.
Longtime golf pro Ryan Kartchner, managing director of golf development at Reef Capital Partners, says he helped recruit Woods. “When we put the opportunity in front of him, he jumped all over it. He was really excited about it.”
Kartchner says he and Woods will soon walk the golf course property to sketch out design ideas. “Tiger is going to be very hands-on with this one,” he says. “We’ll just work on each hole individually as we go through.”
The course is expected to be ready for use in 2025 and is the first in a set of two 18-hole courses to be built at Marcella, a collaboration between Reef Capital Partners, Raintree Investment Corporation and Cross Lake Partners.
Thomas Wright, CEO of Sotheby’s International Realty, says Marcella homes will also be available in two development sites: Jordanelle Ridge, anchored by the Tiger Woods golf course, and Marcella Mountain, adjacent to the new Mayflower Ski Resort, to open in 2024, also affiliated with the massive project.
Currently, 141 ski-in, ski-out lots are up for sale at Marcella Mountain, ranging from $2.4 to $4.5 million, Wright says, whose company is the property’s exclusive realtor.
Park City has always drawn snowbirds and Sundance film festival goers, but Wright says he is noting even more interest since the pandemic. He says the Marcella Mountain properties are selling fast and to more high-end luxury buyers.
“Park City has really been discovered,” Wright says, who added that buyers are coming from the Wasatch Front, California, Texas, Arizona, Mexico City and Southeast Asia. “We’re also seeing people in Park City that are deciding that this is a better option for them than the places where they’ve been,” he says.
Another draw may be the membership opportunity with Marcella Club, the only private ski community with access to a golf membership in the Park City area, Wright notes.The developers announced that only buyers within the two Marcella communities will be offered the opportunity to purchase a membership to the Marcella Club’s all-season amenities.The Club’s exclusive membership will provide access to three exclusive amenity locations in the Park City area: Marcella Mountain, Marcella at Jordanelle Ridge and Marcella on Main, a facility in downtown Park City.
Marcella offers some of the highest-end real estate on the Wasatch Back, Wright says. “You’re talking about a golf community that has ski access, and that’s not something that we’ve seen in the Park City market. We’ve seen golf courses and gated golf communities off-mountain that try to access [ski resorts] through shuttle services and clubs, but now you have Marcella Mountain with an Olson Kundig-designed ski lodge and a golf course. You have the most amenity-rich club in the Park City area.”
According to Cody Winterton, division president at Raintree, the builder, Lennar, has begun construction close to Heber City in the Jordanelle Ridge community, with townhomes already selling at half a million dollars and single-family homes in the $800,000 range.
“Jordanelle Ridge will just continue to grow and expand and have a number of neighborhoods and home buying opportunities, [beginning with the townhomes] all the way up to a custom home site where you could build a 10,000 square foot, $10 million custom dream home—and everything in between,” Winterton says.
Eventually, 6,000 homes will be built over 20 years on the development’s 8,000 acres. “It’s a very, very large project,” Winterton says. “And so the way I would describe it is there will be a neighborhood, literally, to suit everybody.”
Winterton has observed that more and more people in Utah are looking to the Wasatch Back as an accessible option, with just a 45-minute commute to work in Salt Lake City or Provo. As Salt Lake City continues to sprawl, commutes are extending to the 45-minute range in the valley, causing many to consider a commute from the mountains for the same amount of time, but with a “more outdoor lifestyle.”
“I also think we’re going to attract a lot of people from out of state that have fallen in love with the mountains of Utah and will be moving or wanting a second home in Utah,” Winterton says.
Skiing and golfing aside, another big draw to the development is the availability of 28 miles of groomed biking trails and other hiking trails. “It’s really an area where people are able to enjoy year-round activities. And so the summers can be just as special as the winters,” Winterton adds.
When it’s all said and done, one of the things that excites Winterton most about the project is its link to the Sorenson Legacy Foundation, a non-profit corporation established by the late biotechnology pioneer and entrepreneur James LeVoy Sorenson and his wife, education philanthropist Beverley Taylor Sorenson. The foundation supports charitable, artistic, religious, educational, literary and scientific endeavors throughout the state.
The Sorensons have owned the Jordanelle Ridge property since the 1980s, Winterton says. But now they have chosen Raintree to partner with them in its development. As the land is systematically developed and houses are built and sold over the next 20 years, the foundation will benefit financially as the property values go up—and so will Utah charities.
“This project is connected to so many things in Utah that so many people are benefiting from,” Winterton says. “It’s not just your typical ad hoc development where the developers take the money and run. It’s actually going into a really good place, and the money is being used to do so much good.”