Tiger Woods designs golf course for Arab sheiks

The project chief for the first golf course designed by Tiger Woods says the initial phase of the project is "on track" for completion in the last three months of 2009.

Abdulla Al Gurg told The Associated Press in an interview on Monday that the government-owned developer Tatweer is spending 4 billion dirhams - about $1.09 billion - to build the course and the surrounding housing development on the outskirts of the Middle Eastern desert city of Dubai.

He wouldn't say how much Woods was being paid.

The plan's first phase includes an 18-hole course, a golf academy and a driving range. Gurg says a hotel and high-end housing community flanking the area should be finished by the second or third quarter of 2010.