The battle for the Dallah Trophy between Viktor Hovland, Richard Bland and Rory McIlroy at the weekend will go down in the annals of great moments at the Dubai Desert Classic.
There have been plenty of those since Emirates Golf Club became the first in the Middle East to stage a European Tour event back in 1989.
From the region’s most historic tournament, the now-renamed DP World Tour caravan is now heading up the coast, to a venue that is ready to mint some memories all of its own.
Starting on Thursday, Al Hamra Golf Club will become the latest member of an elite club, when it makes its Tour debut by hosting the Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital.
Al Hamra will immediately achieve something unique. None of the courses in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Qatar, or Saudi Arabia — or anywhere else for that matter — staged its second tournament as soon after its first as Al Hamra will be doing.
Because of issues arising from Covid, the Qatar Masters was postponed midway through January. Having first decided back in October RAK was a worthy host for a new event, the DP World Tour this month asked if it could manage back-to-back weeks.
It met with a positive response. And so Al Hamra’s debut will be followed immediately by the Ras Al Khaimah Classic next week.
“The second week is a unique situation, purely based on what we are facing in the world,” said Craeg Deery, Al Hamra’s sales, marketing and membership manager.
“It is unfortunate for Qatar as a venue and a destination, but they are just moving that event — not cancelling it.
“What it did do is provide us with an unforeseen opportunity. It is like London buses: you wait for one to come along, then two come back to back. It is fantastic.
“We are really, really hoping this will put us on the map — or escalate what we already have.”
As Deery points out, Al Hamra and the Emirate in which it resides remain a relatively well-kept secret on the international stage. He is hopeful the arrival of golf’s elite will go some way to altering that.
“It is a phenomenal opportunity to showcase the whole destination, and what Ras Al Khaimah is about,” he said.
“Dubai and Abu Dhabi, rightly so, have a phenomenal reputation as world-class destinations for their golf course facilities.
“But we are lucky that other Emirates have that as well. We see that with the amount of guests we have coming across from Europe and the UK.
“They really enjoy playing here, despite not necessarily having heard of it before. They might have known it as somewhere just past Dubai Airport, but are not quite sure where it is. We just really hope it puts us on the map.”
Tour officials made their final inspection of the course in September, and confirmed it worthy of an event immediately.
Not everything ran smoothly thereafter, though. Within days of the Tour’s head of agronomy giving it his seal of approval, the system pumping water to the course broke down. The problem persisted for weeks.
Dindy Macatlang, Al Hamra’s course superintendent, and his team had to water the greens by hand in order for the Bermuda grass to survive, until the issue was eventually rectified. Not that even a seasoned observer would be able to tell by looking at the course now.
“At the end of the day, it is all summer grass, so drought resistant, Macatlang said.
“After 10 days, when we saw the golf course I was thinking, ‘This is really drought resistant?’ It was so brown. It was terrible. I couldn’t look at it.
“This was the first time in 25 years I’ve experienced something like this. That is why my head was really spinning, thinking, ‘How can I revive this golf course?’
“If we didn’t have a tournament, I could guarantee we could get the course back in due time. But with the tournament, the time frame is very small.
“At the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘Can we revive this?’ With proper planning, with the right amount of products we have, we have been able to do it.
“Two months from November 3 is what we had for tournament preparation. In two months, we have made a big turnaround. I am very proud of my team.”
Macatlang has a quarter of a century’s worth of experience in golf course agronomy. The fact he is not the only one in the Al Hamra management with such depth of knowledge is perhaps a clue to why the Tour deemed the place capable of hosting two $2 million tournaments.
Paul Booth, the club’s general manager, had a key role in organising the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in his previous role at the National Course.
“We had been talking to various tours about hosting an event here,” Booth said of how the Tour decided on RAK.
“To showcase the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, it has been great to get that done.”
