Dubai
A feature from the IAGTO Directory
2018
Dubai
Dubai An extraordinary golf destination marking four decades of excellence Dubai’s achievements in golf over the past 30 years have been nothing short of astonishing. The emirate has transformed from a golfing curiosity to a bucket list destination with 11 golf courses that contribute around 30 per cent of sport’s direct economic impact on Dubai, according to a 2015 Deloitte report. The emirate has pioneered the expansion of the European Tour, staging the tour’s season-ending flagship championship, the DP World Tour Championship, the culmination of the season-long Race to Dubai. Dubai and its golf clubs bring a quality of experience and a diversity that is irresistible to all who experience them. It is a city capable of competing with entire countries as a golf destination that offers everything a visitor could possibly want. Underlining that, Dubai was crowned Africa, Indian and Gulf States Golf Destination of the Year in the 2018 IAGTO Awards – the third time it has won the honour within the last 10 years in the prestigious annual golf industry accolades. The growth of golf in Dubai has mirrored the rise of the city itself. When Dubai opened its first golf course in 1988, it was dubbed the “Desert Miracle”. Emirates Golf Club was a postage stamp of vivid green in an otherwise flat expanse of sandy coastline and the tented Majlis clubhouse was the only building for miles around. Just one year later, the Dubai Desert Classic was born – a tournament that would transform both the European Tour and Dubai itself. The golf tournament helped put the emirate on the sporting map. The enormous success of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic paved the way for many more tournaments to be staged, and gave rise to the Race to Dubai, launched by Nakheel and Jumeirah Golf Estates in 2007. The DP World Tour Championship has evolved into one of the most prestigious events outside of the four Majors and has an enviable list of champions that includes double winners Rory McIlroy and Henrik Stenson, and Lee Westwood.
Faldo Course, Emirates Golf Club
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Dubai
Dubai’s golf courses Few cities on the planet can claim to offer a better collection of golf courses than Dubai. The emirate has invested heavily since it entered the golf market in 1988 with the opening of Emirates Golf Club.
The Els Club Dubai
Some of the biggest names in the sport have put their own unique stamp on the golfing landscape. Among them are Nick Faldo (Emirates Golf Club’s Faldo course), Greg Norman (the Earth and Fire courses at Jumeirah Golf Estates), Ernie Els (The Els Club in Dubai Sports City), eight-time European Tour Order of Merit champion Colin Montgomerie (Address Montgomerie), Thomas Bjorn (revamped Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, originally designed by Karl Litten), Peter Harradine (Jebel Ali Golf Resort) and 2016 Rio Olympics golf course designer Gil Hanse (Trump International Golf Club Dubai, opened in early 2017). Tiger Woods will join the list when his Trump World Golf Club Dubai layout, a Damac Properties project, opens in 2019. Dubai’s courses are renowned for their excellent year-round playing conditions – true, carpet-like greens and firm, fast fairways. The courses are in peak condition during the winter months, from late Trump International Golf Club Dubai November to early March, when you can usually rely on cool mornings and warm afternoons with temperatures peaking around 27˚C. Temperatures range between 26˚C and 35˚C over the shoulder months (March, April, May and October) and above 40˚C is the norm during July, August and September, when paspallum grasses thrive.
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Dubai
Address Montgomerie
Location, location Dubai’s 11 golf courses are clustered together in three groups all close to one another, the exception being the JA Jebel Ali Golf Resort, which is 30km (20 minutes by car) from Dubai Marina. In the older part of town lies the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. The nine-hole Meydan Golf facility is just minutes from Downtown Dubai and the Burj Khalifa area. Three courses are located just off Dubai’s main city highway, Sheikh Zayed Road – two at Emirates Golf Club and Emaar’s Address Montgomerie Golf Resort & Spa, set within the city’s most opulent real estate development, Emirates Hills. The third group of clubs is located close together in residential communities off Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Road, with Arabian Ranches, The Els Club Dubai, the 36-hole Jumeirah Golf Estates and the new the Trump International Golf Club Dubai all within 15 minutes’ drive of one another. Another Emaar development, Dubai Hills, surrounds an 18-hole championship course that is nearing completion. Getting around by taxi or hire car is straightforward in Dubai, and it’s easy to plan an itinerary with 36 holes a day given the proximity of the courses. Rental clubs feature a range of shaft flex options to suit all levels of player and the latest product lines from brands like TaylorMade, Callaway and Ping.
Arabian Ranches
Dubai’s golf academies If Dubai’s golf courses are world class, its collection of academies may be better still. A winter base for numerous top tour professionals, from four-time Major champion Rory McIlroy to former Desert Classic winner Rafa Cabrera Bello and 2014 Ladies European Tour Rookie of the Year, Amy Boulden, Dubai’s practice facilities are served by an impressive array of state-of-the-art equipment. The emirate’s golf academies are also accessible to all. Tourists and residents can book golf lessons and use the facilities, and they receive the same treatment as tour professionals. Top golf academies include the Butch Harmon School of Golf based at The Els Club Dubai, the European Tour Performance Institute at Jumeirah Golf Estates and the Peter Cowen Academy Dubai at Majlis Course, Emirates Golf Club Emirates Golf Club, with which renowned European Tour-based coach Pete Cowen – who coached Open champions Henrik Stenson and Louis Oosthuizen as well as former world number one Lee Westwood – has long been affiliated. Many other top instructors from the tour are also regular Dubai visitors. 28
Dubai
Professional tournaments Dubai hosts three flagship golf tournaments: the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, the season-ending DP World Tour Championship and the Ladies European Tour’s finale, the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic. The Omega Dubai Desert Classic, dubbed the “Major of the Middle East” and held on the Emirates Golf Club’s Majlis course, was first played in 1989, making it the first European Tour event held outside the continent. The trophy has been hoisted by many of golf’s icons, from Tiger Woods to Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Colin Montgomerie and Rory McIlroy. November’s showpiece DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates sees the winner of the Race to Dubai crowned. It has the biggest purse for a stand-alone European Tour event. The Omega Dubai Ladies Classic is one of the most prestigious events on the Ladies European Tour outside the co-sanctioned The Els Club Dubai Major Championships and has been won three times by China’s first-ever Major champion, and 2016 Olympic Games bronze medalist, Shanshan Feng. In 2015, the Asian Tour staged the Dubai Open, its season climax event, at The Els Club Dubai. The MENA Golf Tour (set up by Golf in Dubai to help Arab talent gain a foothold in the professional game) hosts two Dubai events, at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club and The Els Club Dubai.
Dubai’s celebrity connections For many top players, Dubai is the de facto “home away from home”. Elite stars rave about the courses, but they also love the hospitality and excellent practice facilities. Rory McIlroy has a winter home there, as does Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello. Other star golfers with close ties include Henrik Stenson, Europe 2018 Ryder Cup captain Thomas Bjorn, former Europe captains Darren Clarke and Colin Montgomerie, Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Jeev Milkha Singh, Lee Westwood and Matt Fitzpatrick, winner of the 2016 DP World Tour Championship, while top women golfers with strong Dubai links include Dame Laura Davies, Shanshan Feng and Annika Sorenstam. Among current and former stars from other sports who regularly tee it up on Dubai’s fairways are cricketers Kevin Pietersen, Shane Warne and Michael Vaughan, jockey Frankie Dettori and footballers Luis Figo and Paul Ince.
JA Jebel Ali Golf Resort 29
Dubai
Facilities Dubai’s golf clubhouses are just as jaw dropping as its courses. Echoing the emirate’s maritime history, Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club’s famous sail design was recently ranked eighth on golf. com’s list of the world’s 18 most iconic clubhouses, and it remains one of only two golf clubhouses in the world to appear on a bank note besides the Royal & Ancient clubhouse at St Andrews.
Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club
From the opulent Mediterranean villa styles of The Els Club Dubai and Jumeirah Golf Estates, to the Emirates Golf Club’s traditional Bedouin tents, these buildings are as well-appointed on the inside as they are impressive externally. Restaurants like the Address Montgomerie’s Nineteen, The Els Club’s Big Easy and Emirates Golf Club’s Le Classique are among the finest eateries in the city, and are just as welcoming to visiting golfers as they are to the tour professionals.
Earth Course 17th, Jumeirah Golf Estates
Golf buggies on every course are equipped with GPS, providing overhead hole graphics and exact distances to the pin.
Floodlit desert golf There are few more dramatic settings to play golf in than under floodlights beneath the towering skyline of Dubai Marina. Night golf has been a fixture in Dubai since the days of the Nad Al Sheba club, but for many visitors, it offers a surreal and memorable alternative to regular daylight play. Floodlit facilities in the emirate include the Faldo course and ninehole par 3 layout at Emirates Golf Club, Meydan Golf and the par 3 courses at Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, the Address Montgomerie Dubai and Arabian Ranches. All of Dubai’s driving ranges are Meydan Golf also illuminated for evening practice. Although Dubai’s only sand course, the Dubai Country Club, closed in 2007, the novelty of the desert location presents interesting challenges on almost all of Dubai’s courses. The Creek has a jetty tee on the 6th hole, from which golfers face a daunting drive back over the city’s famous waterway. 30
Dubai
Faldo Course, Emirates Golf Club
Sustainability Dubai’s courses are acutely conscious of their environmental responsibilities. Recent improvements in irrigation technology and the development of grass strains have helped reduce water consumption and improve year-round playing conditions. Emirates Golf Club won the Efficient Use of Resources Award for 2015 in the IAGTO Sustainability Awards, recognising the club’s “highly focused and sustainable” approach to irrigation water technology. The early courses in Dubai are populated with palm trees and larger vegetation, while newer layouts have native areas that allow the emirate’s resident plant life to flourish. This is especially noticeable at the new Trump International Golf Club Dubai, which has incorporated winding sand barrancas and an absence of overseeded rough into its links-like design. For more information about Dubai, visit www.golfindubai.com
© Peter Ellegard
Adapted from copy supplied by Golf in Dubai
Dubai’s 2017 IGTM delegation with the 2018 Golf Destination of the Year award 31
Cover Photo: Resor t at Pelican Hill • www.pelicanhill.com
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