LEADING up to the 25th anniversary celebrations of the iconic Emirates Golf Club, home to the World Top 100 Majlis Course, the UAE venue underwent a series of refurbishment and renovations over two years.
Club manager Andrew Whitelaw says: “We will continue to keep improving and investing to offer the very best to our members. We have one of the largest club memberships in Dubai, in golfing terms.”
The club is now geared to welcome a busy season of golfing, as members continue to enjoy the recent changes. The Le Classique French restaurant underwent a makeover including expanding its kitchen to cater to high demand, and recently opened its latest offering, the Mediterranean casual dining - M’s restaurant.
The Emirates Golf Club has also upgraded its irrigation systems, installing a state-of-the-art, environment-friendly technology.
The new system, using over 8,800 m of mainline piping and 33,500 m of lateral piping, delivers water savings by ensuring increased distribution efficiency throughout the golf course. A new state-of-the-art pump station allows up to 6,500 gallons of treated sewage effluent (TFE) water per minute to travel through the network, significantly reducing the course’s water consumption.
Whitelaw adds: “The new system has been helping us save a lot of water, something that is very important in this part of the world. It also gives a much better playing surface. We also do a lot of recycling of our plastics at the Club.”
The club, which opened its doors in 1988, is a pioneer for golf in the Middle East and home to the region’s first all-grass 18-hole course, the Majlis championship course. It also features the the recently redesigned Faldo Course, which is also the only 18-hole course in the region to offer night golf. “Our night golf gives us great advantage. People can play from 6.30 pm until midnight. This is a great addition to the Club, especially in the summers when it gets too hot to play in the daytime,” explains Whitelaw.
He added that the club was set to welcome its busiest season of the year starting this month until May. “Junior golf is really strong, and so is the Ladies Beginner golf. We will have close to 300 students when we start the Junior Golf programme at the end of September and will also start classes for the Ladies Golf.”
The club is set to also celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in January 2014, welcoming back some of the most known names of the golfing industry including Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Many of the world’s top players have competed and won in the European Tour sanctioned Omega Dubai Desert Classic include Ernie Els, Tiger Woods, Severiano Ballesteros, Fred Couples, Rory McIlroy and Colin Montgomerie.
The club is also gearing up to host the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters season finale of the European tour in December.