Earl Woods It was not just to set up a killer on the course.
As a former green bench, he adopted an approach of prisoners without prison for parents, introducing his son’s unwavering belief that life, like golf, must be fully followed. Go big or go home. Otherwise, why worry? The implied point was that one should always try to hit the other boy’s butt, whether in ping-pong, playstation or PGA Tour.
This competitive view found expression in Earl’s superiority for bold proclamation. (Remember that about Tiger Woods Doing more than any person to form the course of human history?) He also came to private conversations, including exchanges like what he had with architect Beau Welling more than 20 years ago.
“He would say things like, when (the tiger) start designing courses, you better care,” we remembered Welling in a last episode of The Golf Podcast destination.
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At that time, Welling worked for Tom Fazio, and he would recognize as Earl and Tiger through the involvement of Fazio with the TGR Foundation and his children’s educational programs. Welling enjoyed his relationship with Elder Woods, who, like his son, had a skill for glowing conversations, scattered with a smile. When Woods told Welling that he “better take care” because Tiger would soon be a competitor, he was joking. Kind.
Welling, in turn, would fall back.
“I would say, well. He can charge much more than I can, so it’s good for me,” Welling said.
As it turned out, Tiger Woods and Welling would become not so many competitors but collaborators, joining the models stretching from Bluejack National at Houston to El Cardinal in Cabo San Lucas and beyond. Their partnership, born in 2007, endures today. Each man also has his own design firm, and these are days loaded for both.
At Destination Golf Podcast, Welling discussed some of his latest projects, including his Oak Marsh, a restoration Pete Design on the island of Omni Amelia in Florida, and the Chanticleer course on Greenville Country Club in Greenville, the latter has a personal connection to Welling. Chanticleer was his home course when he was a child.
Although he played well enough to compete in college in the Golf Powerhouse of Brown University, Welling never had illusions about his course skills. Golf design was the most natural way, a satisfying way to stay related to the game that married his interest in art and science. But few knew Welling how far that way would take it. In Podcast, Welling described the many forks he followed in his career, starting from his work with Tiger to his prominent place – and impossible – in another sport of Scottish extraction that he fell in love as an adult.
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