Club Update

DUBAI CREEK CLUB MANAGER

Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club

Hello from Dubai Creek!

It is a very welcome sight to see the usual social atmosphere return to the club as everyone filtered back from their travels. September and October have been particularly been busy not just with club life and the tournament calendar but also with several projects being completed or drawing to a close.

Our Academy restaurant has been upgraded to a fully fledged Jones the Grocer, complete with a new menu and wine list. Work is very nearly complete in Onze, a new Japanese/Peruvian restaurant that will occupy the space that used to host the Legends Steak House. This space has always had one of the best views in Dubai and now we will once again have a restaurant to do it justice. Work has also started to overhaul the Barhut at hole 14 and once complete it will facilitate live cooking for fresh menu items.

Congratulations to our Lady Captain, Beatrice Galleppini, on successfully hosting our Pink Day. The efforts of Bea, Shiba and Joy were only out shone by the outfits and decorations on display. Well done Ladies!

Congratulations also to John Fellingham who very commendably shot his age in October, 70 at the age of 70. Murmurs of worthy praise have followed him around the club. Very well done John that is no small achievement around the Creek.

Our Scratch League and ICC teams are back under way with the former putting in a dominant performance in a 3-1 win at Dubai Hills at the start of October. We are fortunate to have some very historically successful Men’s and Women’s Scratch Teams and if you are able to, I know they would very much appreciate your support if you are able to join and cheer them on in either their home or away fixtures. Please speak to the Golf Operations team for further details.

Greenkeepers love and hate summer in equal measure! On the one hand it is the time of year we get to make the most progress, on the other hand it involves long days in the Dubai summer!

Our goal was for the golf course to play as frim and as fast as possible this high season. To achieve this, it was a case of out with the old and in with the new. On greens we aggressively removed a lot of old plant material and soil and replaced it with clean sand. Part of this process is called ‘scalp mowing’. This works in a similar way to hard pruning a hedge or tree. By removing the established older parts of the plant it encourages younger more vigorous growth.

A similar process was conducted on all surrounds and fairways. This has allowed us to expand our runoff areas and maintain the grass at a shorter height. As temperatures cool, we will be able to irrigate less frequently and the golf course will play firmer and faster than we have in previous years.

Summer Maintenance Tee Construction

Fraze Mowing

In conjunction with the scalp mowing and topdressing on surrounds, we also reshaped our collars using a method called fraze mowing. This involves shaving off the grass and soil in small layers without removing all the roots. Once finished it can look quite alarming but the grass quickly regenerates from the remaining roots. Over the years sand has built up in our collars and that had created ‘dams’ which stopped the water draining efficiently off the greens. In winter these areas often sat wet and became quite thin. This year the greens will dry evenly and we should not see the same pattern of algae appearing in the edges of the greens.

Tee Construction

In 2021 we completed a major overhaul of all our tees, significantly expanding them to cope with the demands of peak winter play levels. To facilitate that our ladies kindly lent their Tee Boxes for everyone else to use whilst the Men’s Tees were rebuilt. In the summer of 2022 we have completed the reconstruction of all the Ladies Tees.

Members End

We have closed out the year by reinstating a bunker at the Members practice area. The previous bunker was lost when we expanded the range tee. Complete with 3 new target greens, the new bunker will provide members with the ability to practice the entire range of bunker shots from long irons to short ‘splashouts’.