Desert course attracts stars

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 36

Desert course attracts stars

NZPA-Reuter Dibao Shimmering in the desert like a mirage, a bright green jewel amid yellow sands, the course of the Emirates Golf Club is set to tee off into the big time with its first major tournament.

The British Ryder Cup captain, Tony Jacklin, will be among 120 Professional Golf Association (P.G.A.) European circuit players at the $U5450,000 ($NZ737,704) event this week on a course built for summers that can almost fry an egg. Sam Torrance, Howard Clark, the European Open Champion, lan Woosnam, and the Spanish Open winner,

Mark James, will be in the battle for Ryder Cup points and the $U573,320 ($NZ120,196) first prize. Younger, eager players such as Peter Baker, Ronan Rafferty and Roger Chapman will also be fighting for a place in Jacklin’s European Ryder Cup team that will take on the Americans at the Belfry in England in September.

The Ryder Cup itself will be on show at the tournament starting on March 2, the second P.G.A. event of the year after Tenerife. But among the stars of the 1989 Karl Litten Overseas Desert Classic will be the course itself, set among sway-

ing palm trees and elegant lakes. Carved out of the desert, it was finished in June 1987 at a cost of SUS2 million dollars

(SNZ3.2 million), said Larry Trenary, who designed the crucial irrigation system. The greens lap up 750,000 gallons of water a day from underground pipes fed by a desalination plant nearby on the Gulf coast of the United Arab Emirates.

There was only one tiny tree on the site — and of course the bunkers — before the course was built. Now there are 2000 trees, many of them palms, and hardy desert grasses which block out sometimes harsh

winds and sandstorms. The design team class the 7100-yard par-74 championship course as a relatively hard one.

“We are betting the winner of the tournament will not be much better than four to eight under par over 72 holes,” said Trenary. Hole number eight, the highest on the course and surrounded by some difficult desert growth, may be one to

watch. The players, however, will be in no danger of being fried. The temperature in March is cool — relatively. The midday figure is unlikely to rise above 30 degrees Centigrade (86 Fahrenheit).