Cabo San Lucas, Mexico — Over the last several years, Tiger Woods' once unstoppable golf career has often been in the rough, both on and off the course. But his first course design effort, El Cardonal at Diamante, in this golf-rich portion of the country, is a solid initial effort.

Woods and his boyhood golfing idol, Jack Nicklaus, both opened Mexico courses within miles of each other late last fall. Both succeed, but in different ways.

Nicklaus, Cabo's most prolific architect with six courses in the area, designed a classic, stunningly scenic oceanside layout at Quivira Golf Club.

For Woods, it was his first course opening after a couple of false starts in the United States and the Middle East. His first U.S. design at Bluejack National Golf Club outside Houston will be open later this fall.

If it's anything like El Cardonal at Diamante, which is open to timeshare guests, golfers on both sides of the border are in for a treat.

Working with former Tom Fazio associate Beau Welling, Woods did a very nicely routed and prepared par 72 layout at Diamante, with large, claw-shaped bunkers that enrich the overall course design and add to the toughness from the fairways and around the greens. Several of the bunkers, starting at the par 5, 541-yard first hole, are actually false fronts with room between the bunkers and the putting surfaces.

Another feature not common to many of the courses in the area is the extensive use of chipping areas around several of the greens, giving players many ways to play approach shots and allowing them to tackle the same hole in different ways depending on conditions.

"El Cardonal is going to remind people of old-style California courses," said Woods, a native of Cypress, California. "It's the type of course I enjoy playing the best."

The salt-tolerant paspalum grass looks great on the fairways for a course this new and also produces top putting surfaces for the greens, which survived the fall hurricane nicely. They're excellent to putt on, with a consistent level on the speed meter. Many of the greens are large enough to have up to eight pin locations.

The Pacific Ocean or the mountains are always in the background of the Woods course, making it a very playable and constantly enjoyable layout to challenge on a regular basis.

Desert arroyos frame many of the holes, with a large, deep bunker right in the middle of the green of the par 5 sixth hole, much like the famed War Bunker at Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles. Not surprisingly, the modern pro shop carries only Tiger Woods Nike designs and has plenty of photos of both Woods the player and Woods the designer, who is off to a promising start.