Tiger Beach Golf Links has been called an “Asian miracle” in Korea, Europe and Scotland. Its inexperienced designer, club owner Beta Soong, has sacrificed much energy in the construction of Tiger Beach that has now become known as a golfer’s paradise.

The Secret Behind The Garden?

I had heard of Tiger Beach for a long time but I knew little about it. In addition, Tiger Beach is also known by its Chinese name as “Haiyang Silport Golf Links.” The pronunciation “hai” is the same as “ocean” while “yang” translates into “sunshine.” I mistakenly called it “Ocean Silport” as it runs along the coast. In addition, its sister course is Shanghai Silport Golf Club.

It was a surprise to hear that the designer of Tiger Beach is Beta Soong -- the president of Silport Group. So why did a successful entrepreneur choose to enter the golf world? Was there a secret behind this beautiful seaside garden? These questions hovered around my head during my travel to Tiger Beach.

The Desolate Land

On one of his trips to Shandong, Beta happened to come across a grand piece of ground that he visualized would be perfect for creating a golf links in Haiyang. Beta said that at the time, it was barren land and very inconvenient to travel to -- about two and half hours from Qingdao Airport. In the early days of construction, life was hard for everyone. For example, the washroom was far away from the staff dormitories. Ladies from the city who were afraid of the dark had to refrain from drinking water to prevent going to the washroom.

According to Beta, as the area’s climate and terrain were similar to Scotland he decided to buy the land to realize his Scottish golf links dream. He was eager to build a simple, spontaneous links course that was integrated with nature. On trips to Scotland and the country’s famed St Andrews Golf Links, he had been impressed by its wideness and natural beauty. Pursuing the Scottish golf links spirit was becoming a very important part of his life.

Blooming Inside and Fragrant Outside

Following its completion in July 2000, Tiger Beach attracted many international designers. In 2001, the famous Japanese designer Shunsuke Kato visited the course and described it as a fantastic golf links.

The following year, on June 29th, 2002, Tiger Beach signed a sister-links agreement with Scotland’s Carnoustie Golf Links. It is the first time that the Scottish club had signed with anybody in its more than 300 years history. So the reputation of Tiger Beach was spreading quickly around the world.

Paul Burley, the golf superintendent at Scotland’s Turnberry Golf Course, a 36-hole layout ranked among the top-10 courses in the world, wrote to Beta that the “photos from your course were awe inspiring. I am wondering how you could create such a course. It looks great! Congratulations.”

Jhon Straun, the chief designer from the Robert Jones Company and an authority in the golf design field, was also impressed with what had been created at Tiger Beach.

In addition to the heavy coverage from the Western media, Tiger Beach also caught the attention of a prestigious Korean newspaper---- Leisure News. In March 2004, It chose the three best designers representing China, Korea and Japan. Beta was lucky to be selected as the China representative along with Syunyuke Kato (creator of Tomson Pudong Shanghai Golf Club) from Japan and Kim Myong Gil from Korea.

While Tiger Beach Golf Links has been admired by many professionals abroad, it is still little known among native Chinese. It sits silently in lonely Haiyang with honor. Therefore, Tiger Beach is like a flower blooming inside but fragrant outside.

Too High to be Popular?
Beta believes “a professional course depends mostly on heart and energy but not on capital and facilities.” Compared with prominent international designers who visit a building site several times a year, Beta tried his best to design his course through a lot of time and consideration. He sees Tiger Beach as his own baby.

Brad Chi, Tiger Beach’s vice general manager, has been at the 18-hole course for the entire construction process. He says in the mornings Beta could never be found for breakfast because he had been on the course from 5am. If he came across something that was imperfect, he would stop for the whole day to think about what improvements could be made and could not be found until it was time for supper.

Unbalanced Fairways
Beta sacrificed all his energy to build the Tiger Beach. If the finished holes that did not compare with what he had imagined, he would flatten it and rebuild. When the whole links course was first completed, he found that the inward nine holes did not match the outward nine.

He decided to rebuild it again as his purpose was to design a links where the holes varied naturally. As an avid collector of antiques, Beta created Tiger Beach almost as if it was a piece of art. The long rough and changing winds dominate the canvas-like layout. There is no fixed tragedy for each hole. Creativeness and flexibility are necessary for hitters to fight against the stiff wind and deep bunkers. For serious golfers, the spirit of such a links course has to be experienced for its sheer charm.

From Golf Magazine China
June 2004