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Tiger Beach Golf Links is slowly becoming famous around the world as a links course attractive to such golfers who appreciate such famed layouts as St Andrews, Troon, Carnoustie and Turnberry, to name but a few.

¡Parallelwithdesigners from Japan and Korea

Recently, Korean newspaper Leisure News selected Beta Soong, president of the Silport Group, as the best designer representing China for his work on Tiger Beach. Also chosen were Kim Myong-gil from Korea and Japanese Shunsuke Kato.

Kim, a prominent Korean designer, participated in the construction of more than 60 courses while Shunsuke Kato has created over 70 courses with his design firm Kato Company.

Soong, who unlike the other two is not a professional designer nor trained in basic design skills, said he was honored to be chosen with the two eminent designers. “I am not professional, so this reward comes to me as a big surprise,” he said.

The winners were selected by the media from both at home and abroad.

Accolades for Tiger Beach have not been restricted just to the media. In 2003, Beta received an e-mail from Paul Burley, the golf superintendent from the famed British Open host venue Turnberry. He offered a high praise to Tiger Beach: “ I was shocked when I saw your wonderful artwork. It is very great design. Congratulations.” Furthermore, the Robert Trent Jones Company, an authority in golf design, was complimentary about the quality and design of the layout.

With his Tiger Beach layout, Beta Soong had established himself in the world of golf design.

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡Realising A Dream



In 1997, Beta accidentally found a deserted piece of ground that he said was perfect to realize his links golf dream in Haiyang, Shandong Province. The terraine, the climate and the latitude of the virginal land was very similar to Scotland. He instantly sought to purchase this wonderful piece of ground without hesitation. Once it was acquired, he started to pour all his energy into building the links layout on the large 1,500 acre plot. The process of the construction was accurately carried out under Beta’s own blueprint.

In order to integrate with nature, most of the workers employed were not professional. It took Beta three years to complete his dream links with much revision along the way.

After the course was opened in mid-2000, word quickly spread in the global golf community of its quality and reputation. In June 2002, Carnoustie Golf Links, a British Open rota venue, signed a sister links agreement with Tiger Beach. It was the first time that the famed Scottish club had signed with anybody in its more than 300 years history.

Beta compared designing golf links to creating a piece of art. Fairways, positioning, gradients, bunkers, water hazards and the trees had to be laid strategically and scientifically. Finally, all holes were set in stone like carved statues.

However, in Beta’s eyes, he does not think Tiger Beach is perfect. He said: “Each time I return to Tiger Beach, I have to revise it to pursue perfection.” With such dedication to achieving perfection, not surprisingly, most guests leave Tiger Beach with a good impression.

From Golf Magazine China
June 2004