How Did a Golf Course in Dubai Get So Lush? Let Us Explain.
For the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, it took planning and water. “The desert golf courses are actually the most efficient users of water out of necessity,” a U.S.G.A. official said.Up close, Rory McIlroy teeing off at the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, the host of this week’s DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, looks no different than it would anywhere else in the world.His swing is balanced, fluid and powerful, and his ball flies far and straight, landing on a lush green fairway. There’s water around, some rocks and sand. The skyscrapers surrounding the course present a nice contrast to an always blue sky. But overall, the course looks like another pristine tournament venue for elite professional golfers.Yet what happened to get the Earth Course ready to host the best players on the DP World Tour, let alone to create it out of the desert when Greg Norman built it in 2009, is vastly different to how other top venues on the DP World Tour are prepared.Dubai receives only about four inches of rain a year. Summer temperatures can surpass 120 degrees Fahrenheit (49 degrees Celsius). The sun is so extreme that working outdoors from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the peak summer months in the United Arab Emirates is strictly prohibited.So how does an area so inhospitable to being outdoors, let alone playing golf, have such a premier facility that serves as the venue for the culmination of the tour’s season?The answer is very carefully and very deliberately.Matt Fitzpatrick and his caddie at the Earth Course during the 2023 DP World Tour. The course uses Bermuda grass, a popular warm-weather grass.Andrew Redington/Getty ImagesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
