Call him El Tigre

LOS ANGELES — As the press conference closed, or the moderator tried to end it, a woman raised her hand to ask Tiger Woods a question about his decision to design a new golf course.

She sat close enough to ask one of the world’s most recognizable athletes without the need of a microphone Tuesday.

“Why Mexico?” she said of the location.

“Why?” Woods responded with a surprised look on his face. “Have you seen the site?”

A “Hello!” or “¡Hola!” would’ve worked at Hotel Bel-Air.

Welcome to Tiger Woods’ world.

The top golfer on the planet is not even playing golf due to undergoing reconstructive left knee surgery on the anterior cruciate ligament in June.

Woods, who owns a home in Corona del Mar, has said he won’t be 100% until 2010.

But during a time of global economic unrest, Woods is still pumping his fist. The 32-year-old is designing his first oceanfront golf course called “Punta Brava.”

English translation: Wild Point.

How wild is the move at a time when retirement plans and stocks are dropping faster than you’d like your golf score? You would think almost as rocky as the coastline of where this private 18-hole, 6,853-yard, par-70 course and ocean club with 40 estate lots, 80 villa homes and a hotel will be located.

Punta Brava will be 65 miles south of San Diego, on the tip of a secluded peninsula just south of Ensenada, Mexico.

Not south enough for the pockets of one of the men backing the project, which construction is scheduled to begin next year and open in 2011.

Red McCombs, co-founder of Clear Channel Communications and former owner of three professional championship-less franchises, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and Minnesota Vikings, during his time, is one of the investors.

The chairman of the real estate firm developing the project sees this as a winner.

“We understand the economic environment,” said Brady Oman, the chairman of the Flagship Group. “We believe Punta Brava is an extraordinary opportunity because it is Tiger’s first oceanfront course, because Red McCombs is providing the capital.

“This is the one project I know I would want to be a part of at any point and time.”

The half-hour press conference felt more like being pitched a timeshare.

How much the project will cost hasn’t been determined because Oman said it’s still in the design phase. Oman said a project like this has a price tag of more than $100 million.

With Woods standing and pointing a stick at an artist’s rendering of the place, Punta Brava couldn’t have asked for a better spokesperson.

“As you can see in the [video], pretty amazing site,” said Woods, dressed in a grey suit and black collared shirt with no tie. “Every single hole on this golf course, whether on the tee, the fairway, or the green, you can see the ocean.”

Woods said Punta Brava will be unlike other courses, even the other two he’s designed, the Cliffs at High Carolina in the U.S. and the Al Ruwaya Golf Course in Dubai.

Woods has seen all the beautiful courses, from Pebble Beach to Augusta National to St. Andrews in Scotland. Played on them. Conquered them.

“I wanted to make sure I played on every continent before I got involved,” said Woods of starting Tiger Woods Design, a firm, in 2006. “There’s only one continent I haven’t played. It’s Antarctica.”

Tiger Woods Design has better weather to work with in North America than in Antarctica.

Still, designing Punta Brava proved challenging because of the topography.

“First of all, the ocean is on three different sides, and the big mountain on top,” said Woods, whose won 14 major tournaments. “One of the challenges that we’ve tried to face … is trying to incorporate the ocean as much as you possibly can because it’s so scenic and it’s so breathtaking.”

At first, Woods wasn’t blown away with the site. Neither was McCombs until he found out Woods might design it.

This is before Woods’ remarkable effort in winning the 108th U.S. Open in a 19-hole playoff at Torrey Pines on June 16, a week before his surgery.

Woods was scheduled to visit the Punta Brava site on a Monday, the day of the playoff with Rocco Mediate, but joked, “I was busy.”

Woods had his doubts before designing the course that has eight shots golfers must aim over water.

“[I said], ‘OK, well, I can kind of see it, but I really don’t appreciate it,’ ” Woods said of the layout. “I always go into [making decisions], I guess leery, questioning. I always try to do things right in my life. This is no exception.

“As soon as I got on the site, I was in.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.