On one side of Dubai there is the Persian Gulf, and on the other side lies the barren expanse of the Rub ’Al Khali desert. Temperatures in summer hover around 104 degrees during the day, and the annual rainfall averages no more than five inches. With sources of fresh water virtually non-existent, the natural conditions in the United Arab Emirates hardly lend themselves to golf — in the traditional sense — yet the emirate of Dubai is a place where visions and dreams come true, and come true quicker than anywhere else in the world.
Maybe this is because the world is coming to Dubai, for although Dubai itself has a population of 1.5 million, fewer than 20 percent of the people are native Arabs; indeed 150 nationalities make up the remaining population.
The resulting cosmopolitan culture combines with Islamic traditions to make Dubai an intriguing destination. Enriched by oil exports over the past 40 years, the UAE is perhaps the most liberal of the Islamic nations — and in Dubai, in particular, Western culture is not only tolerated, it is warmly embraced as the waning oil industry makes way for golf and tourism.
While climate-defying golf courses and opulent hotel resorts continue to transform this once dusty and nondescript terrain beyond recognition, the ruling Sheikh of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has recently underlined the region’s commitment to golf by enabling the European Tour to redefine its structure, schedule and overall identity in collaboration with Dubai.
For at least five years, starting in 2009, the European Tour’s Order of Merit will be re-branded the “Race to Dubai,” with the leading 15 earners at the end of the season rewarded with a share of a $10 million bonus pool. The Race to Dubai will culminate with the Dubai World Championship, which is set to be the game’s richest tournament when it is played for the first time in November 2009 with a prize fund of $10 million, a first prize of $1.66 million, and a limited field of only 60 golfers.
Even the Race to Dubai and the Dubai World Championship have not yet been sufficient to tempt Tiger Woods into membership of the European Tour, but as far as Dubai as a destination is concerned it does not matter. The emirate is looking forward to the world No.1’s return to the 2008 Dubai Desert Classic at the evergreen Emirates Golf Club, an event which now seems a permanent fixture on Woods’ annual tournament schedule.
Dubai will also be able to bask in the kudos of providing a home to the first ever golf course deigned by Woods himself, the 7,800-yard Al Ruwaya, which is due to open in September 2009 in the mammoth Dubailand tourism and leisure development.
“I always enjoy visiting Dubai,” says Woods, who made his fifth appearance in the Dubai Desert Classic at the end of January. “It’s an extremely hospitable place where the people and the tournament organisers treat the players so
well. Emirates is a great venue, the course is always in immaculate condition and the weather reminds me of back home in Florida.”
Emirates Golf Club remains — for the time being — Dubai’s premier club, and when its meandering Majlis Course was opened in 1988, it was the first 18 holes built in the Middle East on grass. Emirates’ excellent, slightly shorter Wadi Course opened in 1996, and both layouts now stretch to more than 7,000 yards from the back tees.
As you would expect of a Tour venue, Emirates has the facilities to match its golf, with expansive practise areas and a Peter Cowen Golf Academy. The whole impressive ensemble is topped off strikingly by the clubhouse, which resembles a cluster of Bedouin tents and is one of Dubai’s most distinctive landmarks.
Such is the nature of Dubai’s sandy terrain, that all its golf clubs have the feel of an oasis, which only heightens the appeal of playing there, but none of Dubai’s other clubs can quite match up to the lush, green, almost tropical aura of Emirates.
The other elder statesman of golf in Dubai is the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club, which opened back in the relative dark ages, in 1993. Along with a golf course that re-opened in 2006 after being extensively redesigned by Thomas Bjorn, the Ryder Cup player from Denmark, a Hyatt hotel, 92 luxury villas and a 120-berth marina have also sprung up.
“The recent development at the Creek has turned out exactly the way we wanted it to,” says Bjorn, a part-time resident of Dubai. “It was a bid to make the golf course very playable for members and hotel guests and we have achieved something that we find very refreshing. It’s one of those golf courses that you will certainly remember once you have played it, and the four or five holes that are on the creek are very special. With a great hotel going up, the Creek has become a whole destination in itself.”
In Dubai, you can also play in the cooler evenings or nights as floodlit golf can be enjoyed in at the Nad Al Sheba Golf and Racing Club, and since the turn of the Millennium Dubai’s golf portfolio has been boosted by the addition of The Montgomerie (designed by the eight-times European No.1 himself in collaboration with Desmond Muirhead), the Desert Course at Arabian Ranches (an extremely long Ian Baker-Finch design), and most recently the Al Badia course on the banks of Dubai Creek, which was designed by Robert Trent Jones and forms part of the new Dubai Festival City.
But what could turn out to be Dubai’s most impressive development of all is Dubailand, a holiday destination of astonishing dimensions that incorporates a chain of resorts, communities and golf courses. Planned for development over the next 15 years, Dubailand will cover an area of land measuring three billion square feet, and will incorporate themed “worlds” varying from “Sports and Outdoor” and “Eco-Tourism” to “Downtown, Retail and Entertainment.”
The Sports and Outdoor World will have five sections of its own: Dubai Autodrome, Dubai Sports City, Extreme Sports World, Dubai Golf City, and the Plantation Equestrian and Polo Club. When completed, the $2 billion Dubai Sports City will be the world’s biggest purpose-built sports community and consist of a series of sports stadiums and academies built around a luxury, gated community that will feature The Dunes course designed by twice U.S. Open champion Ernie Els.
“Dubai is growing so fast it is hard to believe,” says the 38-year-old South African, whose layout is scheduled to open for play during the first half of 2008. “I have been coming here since 1993 and there are new developments every time I return. There is nothing else like Dubai Sports City in the world, but having said that, there is no other place in the world like Dubai.”
It could be said that from its sandy beginnings all that Dubai needs now to cement its place in golf’s kingdom is a course designed by The King himself.
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