Editors Comment

UAE Golf Online Summer update Golf 2010

The summer is well and truly here in the UAE, in Dubai, the temperature is touching 45+ in the afternoon already, so if you are playing Golf, make sure you use suncream, drink water and play early or late in the day!!

Personally, I have not had much time for golf this year as I have been very busy, but I am trying to change my schedules so I can go and play some needed golf and have some time out there on the fairways or my case probably rough, water and bunkers.

It has been a unique year for the UAE Golfing scene and the UAE Golf Online Website, since the end of last summer!

The website has moved forward massively being rebranded and with the launch of the digital magazine and course guide. There have been great strides taken in bringing you the best UAE Golf Course Guide portal online, we thank you for your support and we are going to add more features to improve the website even further, so please spread the word.

UAE Golf:
On the ground in the Golfing scene, the ‘desert swing’ expanded by another event, although a little earlier than the official ‘desert swing’, the Dubai World Championship, Race to Dubai finale was an awesome event to be part of. The event finished the European Tour season off in style with a great golfing finish.

Sandwiched in between the DWC is the annual Dubai Ladies Masters at the Emirates Golf Club, which had another great finale with some of the top female stars appearing at the event.

When it came to the established Desert Swing events, the Golfing world was treated to quality golf on all accounts.
The Abu Dhabi Golf Championship and The Dubai Desert Classic were both fantastic events with thrilling, exciting and quality golf finishes, showcasing UAE Golf to the world in a great light.

There have also been some new additions to the Golfing calendar in all levels of Golf, the International Pairs event is launching in 2010 (more on this soon) The Al Naboodah Invitational looks set to be another regular highlight in the Golfing calendar with Pros, Celebs and local players alike enjoying some great golfing fun.

UAE Golf Online cannot wait until the next season and revisiting these great events, the UAE certainly knows how to hold a good golfing spectacle and it seems the players enjoy the atmosphere, culture and hospitality of the UAE, which in turn helps some of them play great golf.

New Course Developments:
There have also been some new Golf Course developments in the UAE in the last year that are going to take the region further.
Within the last year, Jumeirah Opened their Fire and Earth Golf courses with the DWC, having played the courses, they are both worth playing on your UAE visit. The Els Club which opened last year is finally due move into there clubhouse this year also helping to improve their standing.

The Address Montgomerie is also revamping the back 9 holes in summer ’10 after the first nine last year and across the road, the Emirates Golf Club is having massive renovations to the enigmatic Majlis clubhouse for the new season.

In Abu Dhabi Golf is definitely on the rise, the new Yas Links and Saadiyat Beach openings recently have been received very well in the golfing world and local UAE golfing community winning rave reviews. A couple of other Abu Dhabi Golf Courses have also had revamps, raising their bars to compete (more on this in issue 3 of UAE Golf Online Magazine)

Amongst these new developments, there are the stories of the stalled ones, the reasons behind the non-completion of the developments are varied but mainly due to the well-publicized global downturn.

The Tiger Woods still looks like it is still going ahead at a slow pace, we are waiting for updates on the course including timeframes. The Golf City plans seem to be not moving forward at all, 5 more courses may have just overbuilt Golf in Dubai. The first Golf Course is already half built and we are waiting for news from the Golf City camp.

There was also a new course in Sharjah which was at grassing stage, being built by the Dubai based Peter Harradine Golf Architects stable. The Golf course was or seems to be scrapped even at the late stage of development that it was at already.

UAE Golf continues…

Paul Dean
UAE Golf Online

Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button