Elin's Christmas Gift...
/Thanks to reader John for this WSJ story on Tiger's new home purchase. Jupiter Island here they come.
If his latest real-estate deal goes through, Tiger Woods won't have to look far for a golfing buddy. The game's all-time money winner, 29 years old, has agreed to buy a Florida house on Jupiter Island, in the same gated community as fellow golfers Greg Norman and Jesper Parnevik, people with knowledge of the deal say.
Mr. Woods has a special history with Mr. Parnevik -- the Swedish-born star introduced the American golfer to model Elin Nordegren, whom Mr. Woods married in 2004. (Ms. Nordegren had worked as a nanny for Mr. Parnevik.) A purchase price for the house couldn't be determined, but it's listed for $18 million. Mark Steinberg, an agent for Mr. Woods at International Management Group, declined to comment. The 16,000-square-foot house has six bedrooms, and the 10-acre property includes a beach cottage and guest house and tennis and basketball courts. Jupiter Island, about 25 miles north of Palm Beach, has about 600 residents and has long attracted families from the Doubledays to the Fords and duPonts.
Mr. Woods made an earlier real-estate deal this year. In February, the three-time Masters champion bought land at a golf-club development under construction in Jackson, Wyo. The size and price couldn't be determined, but people familiar with that deal said Mr. Woods bought an "estate home" site. Such properties run from 2.5 to five acres and cost from $1.2 million to $4.5 million, according to a sales director at the development. Mr. Woods also owns a home at a private golf community in Windermere, Fla., near Orlando.
Stephen Garofalo, founder and former chief executive of fiber-optics company Metromedia Fiber Networks, agreed to sell the Jupiter property to Mr. Woods. Mr. Garofalo, who didn't return calls seeking comment, paid $12.3 million for the property in 2003, public records show. Metromedia, a onetime telecommunications highflier, filed for bankruptcy-court protection from creditors in 2002, emerged from proceedings in 2003 and took the name AboveNet.