Miguel Ángel Jiménez, the cigar-smoking, Rioja-swilling Spaniard who wears his red-brown hair in a ponytail and engages in pre-round warm-up routines that have him gyrating like an exotic dancer, is often referred to as the most interesting man in golf. But the winner of 41 professional tournaments and member of four Ryder Cup teams has nothing on course architect Beau Welling, who has run his own firm since 2007 and also serves as the senior design consultant to Tiger Woods.
Start with Welling’s work, whether renovating an esteemed layout such as Ocean Forest on Sea Island or crafting his own course, dubbed Fields Ranch West, at Omni PGA Frisco north of Dallas while also overseeing the planning of a project that includes a hotel, a short course and lighted putting green, a Lounge by Topgolf, 13 restaurants and 10 “ranch house residences.”
Oh, and Welling helped Woods create Payne’s Valley at Big Cedar Lodge in the Ozark Mountains of southwest Missouri and Bluejack National outside Houston, among other courses, clubs and golf communities.
Then, there is Welling’s educational background. He has a physics degree from Brown University and an international business degree from the University of South Carolina. He also studied landscape architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design and Irish drama and literature at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
CLICK HERE TO READ THIS STORY AT GGP+ AND TO SIGN UP FOR FREE GGP SUBSCRIPTIONS