Shanghai: Silport was well-represented in the July issue of Boss magazine as the Suzhou business and lifestyle publication dedicated a four-page article to the golf philosophies of club owner Beta Soong and a further four pages on instruction with head professional Michael Dickie.

In the article entitled “Beta Soong: A passion for life, a passion for golf,” the Taiwanese industrialist spoke of how he came to Shanghai 20 years ago for business and recognized the potential for a world-class golf club. At the time, the city was still undeveloped and he was confident that Silport, the second course built locally, would be a bridge to the future.

Upon the completion of Silport in 1995, the recognition for the club’s beautiful setting, perfect fairways and challenging greens came quickly. The club became a perennial among the top-10 ranked clubs in China, the Center Course No. 8 hole was ranked among the top-18 best in the country and its greatest honor came when it had the privilege of hosting the Volvo China Open, the country’s national championship, on six consecutive occasions between 1999 and 2004.

While Silport has received many honors over its 10-year history, Soong said he preferred Scottish links as his favorite style of course. It was this passion for Scotland that drove him to create his own links-style venue, Tiger Beach Golf Links, in China’s northern Shandong province.

“I was fortunate in that I found a piece of land in Shandong which had similar weather and terrain to Scotland,” Soong told the magazine. “I decided that I wanted to build this course myself and to prepare I visited Scotland several times in order to experience the distillation of the links courses.”

“Three years later, Tiger Beach was finished and now it has drawn wide attention from the whole country and become a world famous links course. We also hosted the Shandong leg of the China Tour this year. This was an important step as the Chinese pros are going to have become proficient on links-style courses if they are going to be competitive on the world stage.”

Soong went on to tell how in recent years he has devoted his life to golf. He said money is only a basic thing but to create a course, you needed to devote your whole heart to the endeavor. “You should take care of everything. If you can achieve this, even the trees will grow better.”

Despite his success in the information technology and electrical product sectors, the Taipei native said he was equally happy tending to his golf courses. Every morning he would walk around the course, looking for areas he could continue to perfect.

Soong called golf a bridge for himself to communicate with his club members. He said the sport had brought him many friendships among golf professionals and with those working in the industry. One of his biggest honors was in 2002 when Tiger Beach signed a sister-links agreement the famed Scottish club Carnoustie. To his great pleasure, he was recognized as the only honorary member of the club from Asia.

He called golf a lifestyle, a sport that could be enjoyed by people of any age, and an individual activity where the only competition is themselves. “It can advance living, calm the heart and give you a healthy life.”

The article closed with Soong’s thoughts on the Volvo China Open which the club will host for a record seventh year in April next year. He said in hosting the championship on six previous occasions, this had given the club’s staff confidence to successfully carry out such an event. In addition, a great club had both a good layout and perfect service.

“The most important thing is to set up its historical position. It must make a great contribution to the development of golf,” Soong said. “The history of golf in (modern) China is 21 years but the development of professional golf is only 11 years. Right now, the development of golf is in a fast-developing period.

“I hope that Silport can develop in its own way in China and devote its whole attention to the development of golf in China. This is also the reason why it is the only course in Shanghai which is not distracted by the selling of real estate.”