Since it first opened in 1961, Barbados' luxurious Sandy Lane has played host to a never-ending stream of royalty, socialites and movie stars. Arguably the Caribbean's plushest resort, Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas, David Niven, Jackie Kennedy, Frank Sinatra and Queen Elizabeth all took sojourns there in years past, while the list of current habitués is no less impressive, including Tiger Woods who tied the knot there in 2004.

The ne plus ultra in exclusivity, luxury, privacy and white glove service is embodied by the palatial neo-Palladian-style main building of cream coral stone set in a grove of mahogany trees on a beautiful stretch of beach in the middle of Barbados' "platinum coast." A chauffered limousine (a Bentley for high-rollers) picks you up at the airport and you're greeted at the front desk with cold towels and fruit punch, a preview of coming attractions, so to speak.

Sandy Lane was rebuilt in 2001, and it's currently in the midst of a multimillion dollar makeover including upgrades to rooms, the spa, restaurants and public spaces. When it re-opens on October 3, in addition to 16,000-sq.-ft. of new marble, one of the biggest improvements will be an open plan, multi-cultural, all-day dining facility featuring a residential-style kitchen in the manner of a Caribbean Palladian conservatory, with a wine store, beach bar, sushi bar, lobster and live seafood tank, a fresh herb garden and a wood burning oven.



The resort's 112 rooms average 900 square feet and feature marble floors and bathrooms, mahogany plantation furniture, private verandahs, plasma TVs and all the bells and whistles. The property features two Tom Fazio-designed 18-hole golf courses, nine championship tennis courts, a 47,000 square foot spa, a John Frieda salon, shops galore (Joan Collins still owes money in one of them) and seven bars and restaurants to choose from. On the beach, attendants will fetch you drinks, clean your sunglasses and even spritz you with Evian water should you so desire.

In addition to the main accommodations, there's also a five bedroom villa that sleeps 14 with a private pool, butler, housekeeper, chef and 24-hr. security guard for $25,000 a night during the holiday season. But if you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.

Golf legend Tiger Woods is on track to become the world's first billionaire athlete, a goal he should reach in a few short years at his current rate of income. Woods' career earnings will hit the $1 billion mark by 2010, Forbes reports, but given the taxes and management fees he has to pay, it will take another year for his net worth to catch up.

In 2007 alone, the mag estimates Woods earned $115 million, $65 million more than the second highest paid athlete, David Beckham. While several billionaires over the years have been world-class athletes, none has ever earned their fortune solely from a career playing sports before Woods. Of course, most of his wealth comes from endorsement deals as prize money accounts for only one-tenth of his earnings.

Tiger Woods may be taking some time off the PGA circuit but he's certainly not taking it easy, like other golfers before him such as Greg Norman and Jack Nicklaus, he's working on his golf course empire. We've already profiled his Dubai plans but he is also hard at work on his first golf course in the United States. His course will be located at The Cliffs at High Carolina, which is part of The Cliffs' collection of eight private residential developments in the Carolina Preserve, each with their own golf course. The area features 14 state parks, three national forests and one national park and very scenic land with views out over the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Tiger's got some great land for his course, he is planning a walking golf course at elevations up to 4,000 feet which will have 50 miles of views. The Cliffs at High Carolina also offers easy access the the charming city of Asheville, North Carolina, a place which seems to consistently end up on lists of top places to live and retire in. The development features a village area that will be home to a spa, inn, fitness center, cafe and market. The course clubhouse will also include a restaurant. The Cliffs offers home sites from $300,000 to over $3,000,000 and custom homes from $700,000 to over $5,000,000. For The Cliffs at High Carolina homesites begin in the $500,000s and range to over $2 million. The sales office recently opened for The Cliffs at High Carolina and groundbreaking is scheduled for this fall. There will be 50 to 60 homesites in the first release. Membership is not included in the home price. There is an initiation fee of $150,000 plus $650 in monthly dues but this entitles you to a variety of features detailed after the jump.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--NY Mets pitcher Johan Santana has gone to contract for just over $3 million on a three-bedroom, 3½-bath apartment at 170 East End Ave. but has also been spotted checking out a $17.5 million penthouse several floors above.
--Ben Stiller has been townhouse shopping in the West Village.
--Raffaello Follieri, the check-bouncing boyfriend of Anne Hathaway, reportedly kept one broker in limbo for almost six weeks regarding a $15.9 million West Village townhouse that the couple had checked out. There was an accepted offer but the $1.5 million deposit never arrived.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Ricky Kenig, a beauty and costume shop kingpin, is putting his Park Slope brownstone on the market for $3.2 million. He bought the home for $1,375,000 two years ago and gut-renovated it with details such as a three-story magnetized wall along the stairwell, a video monitor system, those cute little Kohler Hatbox toilets and a custom Philippe Starck shower.
--S. Christopher Meigher III, the chairman and CEO of society magazine Quest, and his wife withheld a few mortgage payments because they disagreed with their bank over a refi and nearly ended up having their two-unit apartment auctioned off. The Meighers got the refinancing rate they wanted and have settled the issue.
--Investor and environmental philanthropist. Dan Lufkin, has put his five-bedroom spread at 455 Central Park West on the market this week for $17.5 million which is around three times what he paid three years ago.The apartment, shown above, is a converted 19th-century chapel which has been beautifully restored, saving the antique French oak floors, arched windows, gold-leafed walls, stone columns, Gothic fireplace and, especially a 28-foot-high vaulted living room. More gorgeousness at the listing here.
Dora the Explorer co-creator Eric Weiner and wife Cherie Vogelstein, a playwright, have bought a high-floor, seven-room condo at Ariel West for $4.395 million.
--Leighton Candler, a Corcoran senior vice president, has been chosen to sell Brooke Astor's apartment. The listing for the $46 million apartment hasn't hit the internet yet.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Actor Channing Tatum has bought a Laurel Canyon property that was listed at $3.4 million for $2,595,000. Big Time Listings led us to the property website here.
--A home on Mulholland Drive that belonged to writers Aldous and Laura Huxley has hit the market for $1.95 million.
--Hollywood agent Toni Howard and her husband, producer David Yarnell, have purchased an 18th-floor junior penthouse in a luxury Westwood condominium building for $3.3 million.
--Karen Pankow, the ex-wife of Chicago trombone player James Pankow, has listed her Malibu home for $4.5 million. The listing for the contemporary home is here.
--Google's board chairman and chief executive, Eric Schmidt is the owner of Ellen DeGeneres's former Montecito estate. It was our estate of the day a year ago.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Former "Grey's Anatomy" actor Isaiah Washington has sold his four-bedroom condo in Hancock Park for $1.5 million.
--Dido has sold her three-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills for an undisclosed price after it had been on the market for $4.6 million.
--Sting picked up a 16th- and 17th-floor duplex unit in 15 Central Park West in New York City for $26.5 million.
--via the Palm Beach Post, movie producer and Jones Apparel Group founder Sidney Kimmel has sold his mansion in Palm Beach, Fla. for its $81,500,000 list price!

From the Real Estalker:
--The Real Estalker Mama takes us through the rumor mill reporting on the possible split of Dr. Phil McGraw and his wife Robin and the potential sale of their large Beverly Hills home. The latest estimates have the home hitting the market in the $16-18,000,000 range.
--Vincent Gallo may have found a buyer for the Wolff House.
--Los Angeles man about town Brent Bolthouse has put his sexy two-bedroom Lautner-designed hosue in the Hollywood Hills up for lease for $10,000 a month. The listing is here.
--Kirsten Dunst has spent around $3,000,000 for a three bedroom penthouse apartment in New York.
--Rumors continue to swirl over whether or not Tiger Woods really bought that $65 million house in Southampton.
--Another kerfuffle in Greenwich, Connecticut over a planned mega-mansion proposed for 18 Simmons Lane that would be over 30,000 square feet and include a gym, theater, wine cellar, staff quarters and 26 toilets.

From AOL Real Estate:
--Recession Proof Home Improvements

Tiger Woods is a rich man, and it's always nice to see rich people giving back (even when they name the charities after themselves...). The Tiger Woods Foundation is based on Woods' family motto of "caring and sharing," and not only having dreams but setting goals and making real plans so those dreams actually come true. Through scholarships, character development programs, grants, junior golf teams (of course), and the Tiger Woods Learning Center the foundation is helping empower youth across the country to realize their dreams. So far 10 million+ kids have benefited, and counting.

At the start of the month, the NY Post's legendary real estate columnist Braden Keil reported on a $65 million sale of an estate in the Hamptons. Now he has said that the exclusive six-acre estate on the enviable Gin Lane has been purchased by Tiger Woods and his wife Elin. The property is anchored by a 3,200-square-foot Colonial Revival main residence, a 7,500-square-foot guesthouse and a four-car garage with staff quarters. We covered the property as an estate of the day in January.

But did Tiger really buy this home? The agent for the property, Beate Moore of Sotheby's International Realty tells Newsday's Laura Mann that Tiger did not buy the property and Radar says they have talked to Tiger Woods's reps who also confirm that Tiger has not bought this property. It's no longer listed so someone did buy, we'll just have to wait for property records to solve this mystery.

Very few celebrities have only one home -- owning multiple residences in locations around the world is key to keeping any sense of normalcy and routine in their lives. But although first homes are usually in cities like New York and LA to be close to work, where do celebrities like George Clooney, Johnny Depp, and Oprah choose to buy vacation homes? Where do they go when it's entirely up to them and they want to relax?

Well for Clooney it's a waterfront villa in Lake Como, Italy, for Depp it's a 50 acre farmhouse in France, and Oprah prefers her ocean-front ranch in Santa Monica. Where would you live? Check out this list of celebrity summer homes and see who's taste is closest to your own.

Tiger Woods is clearly ready to move on to the second part of his golf career, the mogul part. Fast on the heels of the announcement of his new partnership with Ernie Els in the Bahamas, Tiger has announced that the first-ever Tiger-designed course will be the "Tiger Woods-Dubai." Tiger's company, Tiger Woods Design, is joining up with Tatweer, a member of Dubai Holding, to create an exclusive golf community that will include "Al Ruwaya, a Tiger Woods-designed Golf Course, golf academy; a 60,000-square-foot clubhouse; an 80-suite boutique hotel for VIP guests; 300 luxury villas; 20 mansions and a community retail area. The course itself will be a par 72 designed to challenge all levels of golfers. In the press release Tiger is quoted as saying that he is "excited about the challenge of transforming a desert terrain into a world-class golf course." The community should be completed in 2009 and will be located in the massive Dubailand project.