By Margaret Swaine
It’s not just Tiger Woods hitting golf balls off the heli-pad at the self proclaimed “seven star” Burj Al Arab hotel that’s drawn attention to Gulf in the Emirates. Nor long hitters Ian Poulter and Paul Casey’s attempt to break the world’s longest drive record by smacking balls from the wing of an Etihad Boeing 767 at the Abu Dhabi airport. Or even Woods’ win at the Dubai Desert Classic this year, broadcast to 500 million homes by 40 television channels. It’s that the golf experience itself is both excellent and exotic.
The excellence can be attested by the now trio of European Tour events in the Gulf States. The Dubai Desert Classic founded in 1989 and the Qatar Masters launched in 1998 have been joined by the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship staged for the first time in January 2006. The latter event, won by American Chris DiMarco had a prize fund of US$2 million. The exotic? As a start I’ll name clubhouses shaped like Arabian dhows and Bedouin tents, sand courses with browns in lieu of greens, midnight play under floodlights and the sushi bars or French classical for clubhouse dining.
Once an obscure corner of Arabia, The United Arab Emirates was formed in 1971 when seven emirates on the southern shores of The Gulf joined together. The majority of the 4 million inhabitants live in the oil-rich capital Abu Dhabi (also the largest emirate) or bustling glitzy Dubai. Once largely desert dotted with struggling fishing and pearling towns, the area has gone from rags to riches in under half a century. Oil profits, political stability and a zeal for business have led to a non-stop boom in the building of “the biggest and the best”. Golf courses included.
The Emirates Golf Club, home to the Desert Classic for all but two of its 18 years, was the first grass course in the Middle East. When it opened in 1988 it was on the edge of the desert and the flagship par 72, 7211 yard Majlis course which was sculpted around tall desert dunes still retains lots of desert shrub and waste ready to swallow up wayward drives. Dubai city however has swarmed its perimeters surrounding the meandering fairways and six lakes with skyscrapers, roads and countless construction cranes.
When I signed in at the pro shop early May, the player information card told me to expect a temperature of 35ºC. This was the easy day, by the end of my week I was playing in 40ºC and sweating it. Locals consider May quite balmy. It’s the last month of ‘winter’ rates. In summer, namely June 1st to September 30th, rates drop in half for good reason as temperatures top 50ºC and humidity climbs to over 90 per cent. Tourists are discouraged from playing in this heat though there are always some foolhardy souls who insist. And a number every year who collapse part way through their game.
The motivation for building the Emirates club was to provide a carrot to the skilled corporate foreign executives in the country to get them to stay. When it first opened it had but one Arab member. To allow enough tee time for tourists, membership is now capped at 1,500 (with a waiting list), about 100 of them Arabs. Needless to say, golf is quite new to the country’s nationals but enthusiastic ex-pats and visitors flood the courses. My playing partners throughout the week were business travellers, local members largely from India and tourists from Britain.
The Emirates course had fairly narrow fairways often flanked by desert scrub and trees. Long hitters would find plenty of hazards while others could find the slick, fast TifEagle grass greens a challenge. Hole 9 with a green skirted by water, had one of the most testing approach shots. The clubhouse designed to reflect a Bedouin village with seven white concrete and glass structures provided a magnificent backdrop for this hole and the finishing hole which shared the huge double green. The clubhouse had every amenity – showers, fancy lockers, a sports bar, terrace and several dining options including Le Classique with its French chef Francois who’s been voted the best in Dubai twice by his colleagues.
I grabbed a taxi to the Nad Al Sheba Club, my next course. Infrastructure plays a poor second fiddle to fancy buildings in Dubai. Driving is a nightmare of unskilled wanna-be Andretti’s pitted against the snarls of frequent gridlocks. Taxis on the other hand were copious and cheap. Just past the camel-racing track, we stopped near the Millennium Grandstand, home to the richest horse race in the world.
The golf course was built to beautify the race track. The first nine are played on the perimeter of the track and the back nine within the racecourse itself. The entire course is flood lit until midnight with last tee-offs for nine holes starting at ten. There’s a reason beyond escape from the sun for the lighting. During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims must fast from dawn to dusk, abstaining from food, drink and entertainment of all sorts. Ramadan occurs on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, generally around October/November, prime horse racing times. Floodlights make religion and racing compatible.
Nad Al Sheba’s a 6,630 yard, par 71 that offers immaculate greens, lots of water, some monstrous par 5s and tricky back to back par 3s on the back nine. My partners for the five pm tee-off were a university executive named Raj and Sam an architect with a firm of 45. Both were India born as is about 35 per cent of the population in the Emirates (UE nationals make up only about 20 per cent of the total). The gentlemen were walking – something they continue to do even in July. I was impressed.
My game at Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club was on Friday, the busiest day of the week, a holy day equivalent to our Sunday when most businesses are closed. Tee off was a shot gun at 8am to allow as much play before the heat of the day reached its predicted 40C. Playing time was set at just over four hours as it was at the other courses. Hot or not, the rangers made us keep up the pace.
This immaculately groomed par 71 course rolled 6,857 undulating yards in the heart of the city next to a central waterway. Opened in 1993, it boasted a new front nine re-designed by Thomas Björn. Fairways were lined with date palms and tropical shrubbery. Water played an integral role in the layout, including a tee that jutted over it on the 6th. The blockbuster finish of 17 and 18 played back towards the clubhouse which was designed in the shape of the sails of an Arabian Dhow. The salty Creek lapped just a few feet off the fairway of both.
As tadalafil without prescriptions more & more people turn to the internet for information on a wide range of topics it seems that medical & health information is a popular search topic. Your oxytocin, or the love hormone, level peaks at orgasm.This is what builds trust & closeness between viagra generic cialis http://appalachianmagazine.com/2017/02/20/breaking-wvu-basketball-coach-bob-huggins-has-health-scare-during-game-blames-defibrillator/ partners.Resolution. These cialis viagra online soft forms of the sildenafil tablet have the unique specifications. It helps the men to get longer sildenafil free shipping erection throughout the love making session to provide fully satisfied sexual act. This was my favourite course at that point. However one of my playing partners had a membership at The Montgomerie (notable for its enormous 13th green in the shape of the UAE) which he rated better. However when he heard I was next playing the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, he exclaimed it was the best of all.
Abu Dhabi Golf Club had several years to mature its immaculate fairways and greens before it was opened to play. Some told me it was because the falcon shaped clubhouse had to be torn down and rebuilt so players on 9 and 18 would finish towards the face of the bird and not its backside. Others suggested it was a dispute among the sheiks as to who would run it. Meanwhile the Bermuda 419 grass course soaked up over two million gallons of water a day as it grew thick.
Designed by Peter Harradine with a make over in the run-up to the inaugural Abu Dhabi Golf Championship to toughen it up (33 new bunkers and six new tees), it was a beauty. Pacey greens, carpet smooth fairways with great definition at the first cut of rough, gorgeous tropical flowers, mature trees and shrubs and nary a divot in site. The 7,334 yard, par 72 National Course also had two daily winds – a challenge to any golfer.
There are four sand courses in the Emirates and the Al Ghazal is considered the best. Owned and managed by the Abu Dhabi Airport Duty Free, it’s about 400 metres from the runways. Naturally I had to play on the morning before my Etihad flight took off back to Toronto. It was a 6,487 yard par 71 with plenty of natural water and 5,000 trees to add to the challenge. The front nine were based around an ancient archaeological site, while the back nine had been constructed on flatter reclaimed land.
It was a solid test of golf but it was weird. There were no spikes allowed. They’d mess up the ‘browns’, the compacted oil treated sand that creates an extremely true putting surface. The path of the ball left a line on the browns and apparently pros in need of a tune up will come here to putt. (You broom the surface when you finish putting.) Stability was a problem on the sand fairways and the punishment severe for any hit not within the fairway stakes. On the fairway the reward was the use of a plastic grass hitting mat (carried along in the golf cart) but in the waste there was no option but to whack into the crusty sand. It seemed a touch of irony but there were bunkers guarding the ‘browns’.
Al Ghazal also featured an Academy with highly advanced teaching technology including Durnian frames to guide a golfer’s clubs and a video system which captured the players swing from three different angles. Golf Club Manager and head pro Dayle Kelly seemed determined that people will leave with an improved game after his Academy lessons. As for me, I was just glad there were top-notch shower facilities in the club. Hot and dusty with sand, I had a plane to catch.
I knew there was so much I’d not yet experienced. The Ian Baker-Finch and Nicklaus Design Desert Course at Arabian Ranches, the Dubai Festival City Al Badia Golf Resort by Robert Trent Jones II and the Tower Links at Ras Al Khaimah with its location around a mangrove reserve were some. In the near future an Ernie Els and several Greg Norman courses are set to be built along with Dubai Golf City, on of the largest golf course developments in the world with five golf courses, a ‘six star’ hotel and thousands of golf chalets. And Tiger Woods has signed up for the 2007 Dubai Desert Classic. Perhaps it’s only a matter of time before there’s an air conditioned 18 hole indoor golf course. After all an indoor snow-skiing hill was built last year at the Mall of the Emirates. Maybe it’s surreal but golf in the Gulf is here to stay and play.
Travel Details
No fear of being rained out ever, but you should avoid July and August when temperatures can top 50 Celsius. The best time for golfers to visit is between October and April when the temperatures are in the more moderate 20’s.
Etihad Airways flies three times a week direct from Toronto to Abu Dhabi via Brussels. www.etihadairways.com 1-416-221-4744 or 1-866-9-etihad (toll free)
Etihad Holidays packages golf, hotels and transport in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. www.etihadairways.com
The Burj Al Arab hotel is Dubai’s over-the-top statement of splashy opulence and a lunch at the Al Muntaha poised 200 meters above sea level is worth the cost to see dramatic views of manmade islands; one shaped like a palm tree and the other “The World”. It’s also an entrance to the peacock hued awe-inspiring interior of the hotel, strictly restricted to guests and visitors with advance dining reservations. The rival to the Burj is The Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi. Originally built as a palace and conference center for the annual gathering of the Gulf state sheiks it’s a vast expanse of Arabic architecture in glittering gold and marble located on a 1.3 kilometre stretch of sandy beach.
The nearest hotel to the Abu Dhabi Club is the Al Raha Beach Hotel, a lovely spot on the water less than ten minutes away.
The most golf friendly hotel in Dubai is the Park Hyatt, the centrepiece of the Dubai Golf and Yacht Club resort.