Scenery keeps changing but golf oasis remains at Dubai Desert Classic

Dubai Desert Classic is one of the few global tournaments that can boast so much growth in such a short span, writes Steve Elling.

An aerial view of the Majlis Course at the Emirates Golf Club in Dubai and what the club looks like today. The Dubai Desert Classic will celebrate its 25th anniversary when the first round starts Thursday. David Cannon / Getty ImagesShow less

The commissioner of the European Tour has been making trips to Dubai for a quarter-century, ever since professional golf first gained a foothold in the desolate dunes of the once-sleepy, seaside town.

Like everyone who has experienced a before-and-after glimpse of the Emirates Golf Club, the first grass course in the Middle East, George O’Grady can hardly believe the vertical walls of iron and glass that have sprung forth from a barren stretch of featureless land.

Relatively speaking, it happened overnight.

“It was a desert surrounded by sand all the way around,” O’Grady said. “There was one sort of road, almost a dirt road, and you walked across it, happily, to the Hard Rock Cafe.”

Now, only the club endures – the unique structure housing the restaurant, shaped like twin electric guitars, was torn down since the Omega Dubai Desert Classic was played last winter.

The two-lane road O’Grady once navigated with ease is now a 10-lane drag strip called Sheikh Zayed Road. The club and event rock on, however.

“Now you see the metropolis that has gone around the Emirates Golf Club, and you have to see the pictures of where you came from,” he said.

As the Desert Classic celebrates its 25th anniversary event starting today, with a field that includes all 20 surviving past champions, the temptation of reminiscence has been hard to resist. Given what transpired in the blink of an eye at Emirates, the shifting sands of the desert have nothing on the changes in the city itself.

For years, the English-speaking players referred to the course as the postage stamp, or green stamp, and old aerial view of the course make the point clear. The course looked like a green stamp on a large, brown envelope. There was nothing else for miles.

“It was the only bit of grass anywhere in so many kilometres,” said Mohamed Juma Buamaim, the tournament chief executive.

With the specific intent of putting the region on the map, the course was first played on March 8, 1988, and hosted an event the following winter. Short of a one-year hiatus during the Gulf War, it has become a cornerstone of the European schedule.

“It was a long drive from the city out here to the middle of the desert and seeing the place develop over the years has been amazing,” said Thomas Bjorn, the 1991 champion. “It was a very different place to come to.”

In fact, it is difficult to tell which contingent is most impressed when eyeing the surrounds – the veterans who have watched the city spring forth like an oasis, or the players playing the Desert Classic for the first time.

Visually, the course is similar to occasional PGA Tour venue Liberty National, which is located within view of Manhattan.

That is exactly the image that popped into the mind of Tiger Woods, who first played in Dubai in 2001. Back then, when standing on the panoramic eighth tee box, he would aim at one of two high-rise buildings in the distance. Now there are dozens of skyscrapers in view, of various sizes.

“To see it from that to where it is now and basically have three separate skylines is just phenomenal, and in such a short period of time,” Woods said. “It felt like when we first got here, we were in the infancy stages of the development of New York City, just seeing it turn from something flat to what it is now.”

Like a scene from The Wizard of Oz, Dubai abruptly jumps from the horizon like a vertical wall. Fred Couples, the 1995 champion, first played in Dubai in 1993, long before there was a yellow brick road to follow, so to speak.

“Honestly, there wasn’t a building here,” he said.

That would include hotels. Players for years commuted to the course from miles away, because it was the lone option.

Longtime running mates Mark O’Meara and Woods used to stay in Jebel Ali, a 20-minute drive these days, and run around the resort in their shorts and flip flops, with nobody blinking an eye at the American pair.

“It’s definitely been growing here, and it’s a popular place now for the tourists to come,” said Henrik Stenson, the world No 3 and a former Dubai resident.

“It has become one of the most prestigious tournaments on tour because of the history.”

The list of past winners includes some of the most impactful players of the era, including Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie – three of the biggest motive forces in European history – and Americans such as Woods, O’Meara and Couples. With those names on leaderboards over the years, viewers have tuned in around the world and seen construction cranes in the background as the tournament and town grew in synchronicity.

“A lot of people will switch to the tournament [on television] at a certain time of year because we always have good players, but they’ve always enjoyed seeing the change in Dubai,” Buamaim said.

It is only natural that when major anniversaries roll around, people hit the reset button and take stock of events over the years. Few global tournaments, if any, can boast of so much growth in such a short span – be it at the club, the tournament or the city.

This week, with the silver anniversary at hand, reflection has become a wistful exercise for those who were trailblazers in the sand.

“The tournament is huge, the purse is huge, the viewership is huge,” said Mark James, the winner at the inaugural Desert Classic in 1989. “It goes all around the world. It has just become a massive tournament.”

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