Cover Story – Beau Welling
Beau Welling could easily be described as the most interesting man in golf course design. His love for golf began as a child and developed as he made his way through Brown University as a member of its golf team. After a brief stint in the financial world, his longtime dream of golf course design began to take shape under the tutelage of the great Tom Fazio, and eventually led to Beau Welling Design, which has propelled this renaissance man into one of the busiest architects in the business.
Welling is probably best known to Texans for his collaboration with Tiger Woods on Bluejack National near Houston and his work on the Fields Ranch West Course (ranked No. 1 public course by AVIDGOLFER in 2024) at the PGA Frisco development. But, to those who follow course architecture, Welling has become one of the most intriguing designers of the last decade, with his hands on numerous other projects nationwide as well as here in the Lone Star State. Under Fazio, Welling had his fingerprints on courses like Dallas National, Vaquero and Escondido, and now as the lead architect of his own firm, is working on new Texas projects like Freestone Club, Travis Club, and a new putting course at Cowboys Golf Club, which is expected in the coming months.
This South Carolina resident admits he has a bit of a “Forrest Gump” type story that includes course design, land planning and, yes, curling. AVIDGOLFER spoke to Welling about his projects in Texas, his relationship with Tiger and his obsession with a sport that most people only see every four years.
AVIDGOLFER: You are somewhat of a renaissance man. You have a physics degree from Brown, you worked in finance, you’re a poetry lover and have even served on the board of a ballet theatre. How did all that somehow parlay into a career in golf course design?
Beau Welling: I grew up a golfer. I have photos of myself at age 2 with sawed-off clubs my father made for me. So, I have been playing this game for 52 years now. But I was the kind of kid that would doodle golf holes, and the first time I remember discovering golf design was a thing was as a child. My family had friends that were members at Augusta National and Cypress Point, and to be able to see these cathedrals of golf and then to learn they were designed by the same man, Dr. Alister MacKenzie, was fascinating to me.
AG: How did you continue to work to develop that love of course design and broaden your knowledge of MacKenzie’s work?
BW: Well, as a teenager, I went and tried to find every book I could about Dr. MacKenzie. There was no Amazon back then, so at the time it was quite the task, but I found as much as I could. I was really interested in learning about him, not because I wanted to be a course designer, but because I was kind of a nerdy teenager and wanted to know more.
AG: You ended up at Brown University. At what point while at Brown did you choose this path?
BW: I ended up going to play golf at Brown. Brown is kind of a wacky place where there isn’t really a curriculum and students are empowered to find their own course of study. Basically, anything is on the table, and I was debating as to whether to do something around physics, science, or maybe art. One day, I woke up with this epiphany that golf course design is a combination of artistic, creative, but also integrates some engineering and technical aspects I enjoy. Across the street from Brown was the Rhode Island School of Design, which, as Brown students, we had the ability to take classes there. They offered a course in landscape architecture, so I started taking some classes.
AG: You eventually began working alongside Tom Fazio. How did that happen?
BW: Mr. Fazio was building a course in Greenville, South Carolina, and my father was on the development team for that project. I started calling Tom and picking his brain about how to become a course designer, and since my father was a client, he felt obligated to answer my calls. Ultimately, that led me to work around Tom for several summers while I was in college. Although I ended up getting my degree in physics, but I never really intended to do anything with physics since my interest was still in course design. Once I graduated, it was during the recession after the first Gulf War, and Tom wanted to hire me. But he was a bit worried about the immediate future of course design and the golf industry, so I went back and got a business degree from the University of South Carolina’s international business program, and that led me into my first real job in finance.
AG: So, when exactly did you begin pursuing course design full time?
BW: I always stayed in touch with Tom, and one day out of the blue he called me up and coaxed me to come back and work for his company, and I spent about a decade learning from him. That’s when it really took on a life of its own.
AG: Obviously, you draw inspiration from Tom, and you mentioned Alister MacKenzie. Are there any other architects that have inspired you over the years?
BW: Those two are at the top of the list, and in some ways, Tom took inspiration from Dr. MacKenzie. But my favorite quote in golf design is a MacKenzie quote, and I am paraphrasing a bit, but it is something along the lines of “the greatest golf course is surely the one that provides the greatest amount of pleasure to the greatest number of people.” So, that’s what we really aim to do is deliver a playing experience that is valued by as many people as possible. We try to process a lot of things from a lot of different people and try to make it into our own.
AG: How do you manage that when designing a course? Making it a challenge but also making it enjoyable for the causal weekend player.
BW: A good player wants to be challenged and tested. They want it to be hard. A not-so-good player wants to have a chance. That’s high up on my priority list. Tom would be in that same universe of playable golf. Coming from a playing background and appreciating links golf as I do, being able to play golf shots on the ground is important, so there is a links golf inspiration there, as well.
AG: You have done and are working on some real heavy-hitter projects around Texas. Escondido, Bluejack, Fields Ranch West. What are some of the advantages and drawbacks to working in the state of Texas?
BW: I love working in the state of Texas. And I think first and foremost the best thing about working in Texas is the mentality of the people. You know they want everything bigger and better in Texas. The aspirations are big, and there is a real ethos of wanting to do awesome, cool stuff and wanting to make that possible for designers to do. Right now, we have a project under construction an hour and a half south of Dallas called Freestone Club, and it’s spectacular. It’s a lakeside setting, and you can see water on almost every hole. We are also working on Travis Club outside of Austin, which is classic Hill Country, and we’re trying to tame that rock and topography. Fields Ranch West, even though it’s in North Texas, has lots of topography on certain holes, but other holes are down in a flood plain, so we have to try to maintain our philosophy based on what we’re given. At the end of the day, there are lots of possibilities in Texas.
AG: When you first take on a project, what are your first priorities after you maybe do a site visit?
BW: It really starts with some initial concept planning. It usually starts with a topographic map. We look at site boundaries and constraints. I am not one of those people who shows up to a site and immediately sees how it should ultimately look. I start with multiple concepts and figuring out the land. From there, you form opinions about where certain components might go, and that begets different options and opportunities. After that, you focus on a variety of holes that work right to left and left to right, uphill, downhill, solar orientation and, in Texas, certainly wind orientation. Then you have the geometry of golf you want to solve, and then you want to make sure that the course caters to the high swing speed players but also provides a good experience for slower swing speed players. So, it’s not unusual for us to have 20 or 30 iterations of plans before we choose the direction we want to go. There is some analytics and geometry and logic you start with and, ultimately, the artistic part starts to feed in and, hopefully, you end up with something special.
AG: You are working on a putting course at Cowboys Golf Club. Is it fun to step outside the box a bit and work on something a little different like a short course or putting course?
BW: We love being in a more innovative space. We’re big-picture thinkers. The rise of all this alternative golf to me is meeting the demand of what people want to do and, increasingly, people want experiences that are different from the traditional 18 holes of golf. There are a lot of factors. One, I think time is a factor. Take The Swing at Fields Ranch. You can play those holes in an hour or so, where the big courses will take four or five hours. Short courses and putting courses fit into that. Second, there is accessibility. I can take one of my non-golfing friends out to the Dancefloor at Fields Ranch, and that is an experience they can have. Whereas if they aren’t a golfer, they can’t get out on the big golf course and have an enjoyable time. Some of these alternative experiences are much more flexible. We are really excited about the putting course at Cowboys, and it will be different, innovative and unique and lean into the fun factor they have there with their branding they have there. AG: As you were developing relationships and a portfolio, did you ever imagine you would have the opportunity to work with someone like Tiger Woods or Mike Trout? How much fun has that been to get to collaborate with very recognizable figures like those guys?
BW: It’s great. My relationship with Tiger goes back to my Fazio days. We helped the Tiger Woods Foundation with the golf elements of his learning center in Anaheim. When he started thinking about his first design effort, he reached out to me and others, asking our opinion on how to move forward. We ultimately developed a relationship, and I have been helping him and his design company since 2006. And every project he’s done to date, we’ve been involved in, and it’s been awesome to see the game of golf through the eyes of the greatest ever. He’s so passionate about golf and he has a very analytical mind, so watching him operate is great. But, at the same time, he is a client, so I am still hyper-focused on helping him achieve his goals when we work together. I guess to circle back to your original question, when I was studying landscape architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design, I never dreamed of doing things like that. But I guess the Lord works in mysterious ways.
AG: Okay. I wouldn’t be telling your whole story if we didn’t get into some curling. How did your love of curling begin?
BW: I first discovered curling when I was 18 years old, and it became a demonstration sport in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. I was a senior in high school here in South Carolina and a sports fanatic, and suddenly here’s this sport I had never heard of. I went out of my way to learn a bit more about it and remember thinking how crazy it was. Fast forward 14 years later, and I saw it again in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics. I remember watching it and becoming totally fascinated by it. I was working with Fazio at the time, and I remember talking about it in the office. There was another guy in the office named Andy Banfield who had grown up in Ontario and had grown up curling. He was able to explain it to me, and my fascination grew. It’s a very strategic game, and that fits my mind, as I think of myself as a strategic thinker.
AG: Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t curling originate in Scotland?
BW: Yes. Like golf, it started in northern Scotland about the same time as golf did. To me, it’s very obvious golf and curling come from the same Scottish ethos. Angles are important in both sports, they both have weird terminology and jargon, both are camaraderie-based, both are values based … you call your own fouls in both sports. Arguably, you could say both are great excuses to drink scotch, so they are very similar.
AG: So, it’s fair to say you developed a little bit of an obsession with it?
BW: 2006 rolled around and there was a lot more Olympic coverage. I almost stopped working for two weeks because I was glued to my television watching it. I noticed that all the U.S. athletes were from Bemidji, Minnesota, and that struck me as odd. I went online and learned that Bemidji is this town that is super into curling and, lo and behold, they were hosting the U.S. National Championships two weeks after the Turin Olympics. Here I am in South Carolina watching these guys in Italy and in a couple weeks they were going to be back in Minnesota, so I just decided to go. Everyone up there was so shocked this redneck from South Carolina made the trip to Minnesota to watch curling, they kind of took me in. I ultimately got asked to be on the board of U.S. Curling, started a curling club in South Carolina, and from there I got invited to the Vancouver Winter Olympics. And from there, I got involved with the World Curling Federation on behalf of the United States, ended up on the board of World Curling, and then in 2022 was elected President of World Curling. So, I came a long way from my couch in 2006 to now; basically, another full-time job to fit in my ample schedule.
AG: Beau, thanks for the time. And we really look forward to all of your projects here in Texas.
BW: Thanks. We can’t wait for you to see them.