Nick Faldo has announced that his course design company, Faldo Design, will renovate both nines of the Emirates Golf Club’s Wadi Course. Work will start in the next few months on a project that promises to build something very special in the sands of the Dubai Gulf.
The Emirates golf club was dubbed as the desert miracle when it became the first all-grass championship golf course in the region. Opened in 1988, the club became home to the European Tour’s Dubai Classic in 1989 and has played host to some of the greatest players in the game, from Tiger Woods to Nick Faldo himself. Voted as the European Tour players‘ favourite club of the year in 1995, the Emirates Golf Club extended its interests and one year later, a further eighteen luscious fairways sprouted from the sands of the desert and the Wadi Course was born.
“I‘ve been to Dubai many times and have always enjoyed playing in the Dubai Desert Classic, so this is a very exciting prospect for me,” said Nick. “The Wadi Course has some great corridors, excellent vegetation, a unique wadi theme and perhaps most importantly, an owner who wants nothing but the best. We have identified a number of excellent opportunities that will make for 18 challenging golf holes. I‘m delighted that Faldo Design has been appointed to renovate this course and I can‘t wait to get on site, get some sand in my shoes and to create something that will hopefully be very special.”
Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman of Dubai Golf, is committed to taking the Wadi Course and all of the practice facilities at the club to a much higher level..
“We have been considering for some time the idea of consolidating the aesthetics and playability of both nines on the Wadi Course and to integrate a new residential golf development as part of the program,” commented Rodney Bogg, managing director of Dubai Golf, the management company that owns and operates Emirates Golf Club. “We have a splendid plan in place, and we look forward to starting construction in the next few months with a view to having what will essentially be a new golf course ready for play in the fall of 2006.”
Faldo Design is a leading international golf course architectural practice that has completed projects in 12 different countries and is currently working in North America, Europe, Australasia, the Caribbean and Asia-Pacific.
Nick and the Faldo Design team work to a very specific design philosophy: ‘strategy and memorability‘ is the company’s mantra. As a player, Nick Faldo is defined by his ability to dissect golf courses. He studies them and works out how to unravel their puzzles. Nick adopts a similarly strategic and ‘thinking man’s approach‘ to the courses he designs. As for ‘memorability‘, Nick believes that golf courses should be visually very strong with striking features – ones that will inspire golfers and ensure that they never tire of playing the course.
Faldo Design www.nickfaldo.com
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