ABU DHABI // With only weeks until the first blades of grass are due to appear on Saadiyat Island's new championship golfing venue, the 18-time major winner Gary Player stopped by to give his latest creation a thorough once-over.
Player, who is 73 and has been dubbed Mr Fitness for his daily routine of 1,000 sit-ups, paced around the 18 sets of tees, fairways and greens that fringe the island's northern coast.
The South African drew up the original blueprints for the Saadiyat Beach Golf Course, the first ocean-side course in the Arabian Gulf, owned by the Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC). He came to make some last-minute design tweaks, ensuring that the holes will be suitable for players of all abilities.
"We're at the stage now where in the next month they'll start planting the grass," Player said. "So now we have to give the final OK before we go ahead and grass it.
"I changed little things today that, had I not changed, would have taken off a point out of 10. We'll continuously come back and do these site visits."
The alterations included deepening some bunkers or changing their positions, evening out the undulation of some greens and adjusting the placement of tees.
"I've got to look at the course from several points of view, from the hackers' point of view, the beginner, the intermediate and from a champion," Player said. "I've got to go there and put myself in all those positions."
Only after the layout and contours of the holes are approved will the irrigation systems be installed and the grass planted. A grow-in phase is scheduled for January, ahead of the full opening in September next year.
So far, five holes have been approved with several more set to get the nod after yesterday's inspection.
DJ Flanders, the general manager of the TDIC-Troon Golf alliance overseeing the development of all TDIC's golfing assets, including the Gary Player and neighbouring Saadiyat Reserve course, said in many cases an architect would complete a design and then allow the operator to take over. The operator could then make alterations resulting in the original vision being lost.
He says Troon Golf tries to maintain the original concept of a course after the designer leaves, "so if he comes back 20 years later, he recognises what he did".
"We're not the artists," he said. "We're the people who protect the painting."
According to Player, one of the biggest challenges facing the course's progress is the removal of the soil covering the site for use on Saadiyat's other developments and its replacement with soil and sand from the seabed.
"It's not as though you're just shaping sand dunes. It's twice the amount of work."
Once the Gary Player course is complete, it will be considered as a venue for the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, a European Golf Tour event that has been held at the Abu Dhabi Golf Club.
The course was designed to meet the requirements of a major tournament, including parking, elevated spectator areas and space for hospitality tents.
"It has been talked about as a good place that it could relocate to, but that's still up in the air," Mr Flanders said.
Saadiyat Island is a natural land mass spanning 27 square kilometres that will be home to 160,000 people when it is completed in 2018.
The Saadiyat Reserve course, which was designed by Robert Trent Jones II, will be built in an area of wetlands dominated by mangroves and tidal flats. As the tide changes during the day, large expanses of water will give way to muddy flats and exposed mangroves.
The Gary Player course, in comparison, will be notable for its vivid blend of colours.
"We'll have massive white bunkers and dark green fairways and the colour of the ocean," Player said. "We're creating multiple contrasts."
Although Player has designed more than 250 courses throughout the world, the Saadiyat Beach Golf Course is his first in the Gulf region. With the development of golf at such an early stage in Abu Dhabi, he said it is vital to make a bold statement.
"It's going to be some special golf course," he said.
"When you go into a country and it's the birth of golf there, it's imperative that you do something of real quality. We are making a very special effort and when you see it next September, it will be an eye-opener."
rditcham@thenational.ae
OTHER IPL BOWLING RECORDS
Best bowling figures: 6-14 – Sohail Tanvir (for Rajasthan Royals against Chennai Super Kings in 2008)
Best average: 16.36 – Andrew Tye
Best economy rate: 6.53 – Sunil Narine
Best strike-rate: 12.83 – Andrew Tye
Best strike-rate in an innings: 1.50 – Suresh Raina (for Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals in 2011)
Most runs conceded in an innings: 70 – Basil Thampi (for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2018)
Most hat-tricks: 3 – Amit Mishra
Most dot-balls: 1,128 – Harbhajan Singh
Most maiden overs bowled: 14 – Praveen Kumar
Most four-wicket hauls: 6 – Sunil Narine
Results
5pm: Wadi Nagab – Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,200m; Winner: Al Falaq, Antonio Fresu (jockey), Ahmed Al Shemaili (trainer)
5.30pm: Wadi Sidr – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m; Winner: AF Majalis, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
6pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: AF Fakhama, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash
6.30pm: Wadi Shees – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m; Winner: Mutaqadim, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 – Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Bahar Muscat, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm: Wadi Tayyibah – Maiden (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Poster Paint, Patrick Cosgrave, Bhupat Seemar
HOW DO SIM CARD SCAMS WORK?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards, often by claiming their phone has been lost or stolen
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
More on Quran memorisation:
Titanium Escrow profile
Started: December 2016
Founder: Ibrahim Kamalmaz
Based: UAE
Sector: Finance / legal
Size: 3 employees, pre-revenue
Stage: Early stage
Investors: Founder's friends and Family
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Five%20calorie-packed%20Ramadan%20drinks
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Rocketman
Director: Dexter Fletcher
Starring: Taron Egerton, Richard Madden, Jamie Bell
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Prop idols
Girls full-contact rugby may be in its infancy in the Middle East, but there are already a number of role models for players to look up to.
Sophie Shams (Dubai Exiles mini, England sevens international)
An Emirati student who is blazing a trail in rugby. She first learnt the game at Dubai Exiles and captained her JESS Primary school team. After going to study geophysics at university in the UK, she scored a sensational try in a cup final at Twickenham. She has played for England sevens, and is now contracted to top Premiership club Saracens.
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Seren Gough-Walters (Sharjah Wanderers mini, Wales rugby league international)
Few players anywhere will have taken a more circuitous route to playing rugby on Sky Sports. Gough-Walters was born in Al Wasl Hospital in Dubai, raised in Sharjah, did not take up rugby seriously till she was 15, has a master’s in global governance and ethics, and once worked as an immigration officer at the British Embassy in Abu Dhabi. In the summer of 2021 she played for Wales against England in rugby league, in a match that was broadcast live on TV.
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Erin King (Dubai Hurricanes mini, Ireland sevens international)
Aged five, Australia-born King went to Dubai Hurricanes training at The Sevens with her brothers. She immediately struck up a deep affection for rugby. She returned to the city at the end of last year to play at the Dubai Rugby Sevens in the colours of Ireland in the Women’s World Series tournament on Pitch 1.
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Sweet%20Tooth
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
