Tiger Woods-designed private golf course proposed on site of former Tam O'Shanter club in Brookville
The former Tam O'Shanter Country Club in Brookville, the site of a proposed Tiger Woods-designed golf course. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
A mulligan — or, in non-golf parlance, a do-over — is en route for the site of the long-abandoned Tam O'Shanter Golf Course, after developers announced Tiger Woods and his TGR Design team will design a new course at the proposed private club.
The announcement comes seven years after plans by a prior group to build luxury estates on the site fell through — a finding of arsenic in the topsoil derailing those plans.
Brookville Mayor Daniel H. Serota said Monday "They have a lot of investors behind them, notable PGA golfers involved, and they have Tiger Woods on board," when asked about the announcement from the new ownership group, The Armchair Collective. He added: "That's a win-win for residents and the Village of Brookville."
The Scottsdale, Arizona-based Armchair Collective purchased the 148-acre site in September.
The Tam O'Shanter Club, which opened in the 1960s, has been closed since 2021 — Serota saying the property has "gone to geese" in the years since.
Following the discovery of arsenic at the site, Serota said the Nassau County Department of Health had mandated that development of the property for something other than a golf course would need total remediation — including removal of 1 1/2 feet of topsoil, as well as most old-growth trees.
"What we were looking at," Serota said, "was 11,000 empty dump trucks in, 11,000 filled dump trucks out, cutting down a majority of the trees on the property ... The developer didn't know what to do, ultimately, facing that — and so let all agreements lapse."
The village last year agreed to rezone the property from not-for-profit use to allow a for-profit golf club to open on the site. That led to the proposal from The Armchair Collective.
In a statement Monday, The Armchair Collective described itself as "a national private golf club platform connecting architecturally exceptional courses in iconic destinations" — and said its goal is to create a national private club membership "available by nomination only."
Serota said Monday The Armchair Collective still needs to file all the appropriate permits to proceed with the development.
The redevelopment of Tam O'Shanter will mark the first course to be run by Armchair. Records show that the property was sold for $19.75 million to Armchair New York LLC, whose principal is Timothy Ummel. The company could not be reached for comment.
The Jupiter, Florida-based TGR Design, said the new club name — and, conceptual renderings of the new course, which will include a new clubhouse — will be released "in early 2027."
"The comprehensive redevelopment will reimagine a property with more than six decades of golf history, pairing a completely redesigned course with extensive practice facilities, an indoor / outdoor golf performance center, a new clubhouse and member cottages," TGR Design said in a statement Monday.
The statement added: "Architecture inspired by the surrounding country houses, estates and farms will connect the club to its setting."
In a statement, Woods, whose connection to Long Island includes victory at the 2002 U.S. Open at the Bethpage Black golf course, said: "The opportunity to create a new golf experience in the heart of Long Island's Gold Coast, a region steeped in rich history, is tremendously exciting for our team. I have great memories of competing on Long Island, especially at Bethpage. This region has an extraordinary golf course architecture tradition, and we look forward to contributing to that legacy with a course that players can enjoy for generations."
Newsday's Matthew Chayes contributed to this story.
John Valenti, a Newsday reporter since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press, Society of the Silurians and National Headliner Awards for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing. He is the author of “Swee'pea,” about New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. His debut crime novel, “For Nothing Is Hidden,” rooted in 1950s Long Island, was released in October 2025.
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