Beau Welling

Most people who are deep into golf aren't just into golf. They have wide-ranging interests stemming from a natural curiosity. It's no surprise that golf sits at the intersection of athletes, artists, businesspeople and politicians' interests throughout the world.

Beau Welling is an example of golf's tendency to be part of a rich interdisciplinary life. Welling's first career was in finance; he worked as an investment banker before spending more than a decade helping to run Tom Fazio's golf course design firm. He has run his own company, Beau Welling Design, since 2007, and in recent years has become Tiger Woods' go-to architect for projects under the TGR Design banner.
In September, 2022, he was named president of the World Curling Federation, an honor made all the more intriguing by the fact that Welling is himself a native of South Carolina. His diverse interests beyond the game - including membership on the board of the Carolina Ballet Company - help him stand out within it.

In the decade-and-a-half in which he has operated on his own, Welling has been involved with creative new-build courses and significant renovations. Avid traveling golfers hail the expansiveness, playability and intrigue of Payne's Valley Golf Course at Big Cedar Lodge Resort, which Welling spearheaded under TGR Design. On a much smaller scale, he was involved with the overhaul of the par-3 Peter Hay course at Pebble Beach Resorts, while also crafting the 10-hole Little Sandy short course at the Omni Amelia Island Resort in northeast Florida. He is the architect of record for the West Course at Fields Ranch, the new golf complex on the campus of the PGA of America's new headquarters in Frisco, Texas. And on the west coast of Florida, his overhaul of Pelican Golf Club in the community of Belleair has helped established a home for the Pelican Women's Championship, one of the most prestigious championships in ladies' golf.