for being a little highly strung. Not Darryl. He was constantly cracking jokes and laughing at himself after any errant shots. “People have that impression,” he says when I bring up the matter. “But most of the drivers are pretty relaxed guys. When we’re driving we’re focused, of course— we have to be. But you have to chill out as much as possible away from the track. That’s part of the reason why I love golf.” Darryl tasted success early on arrival in Asia. Victory at the Macau Grand Prix (his favourite track and where he currently holds the lap record) in 2005 was followed a year later by his maiden Carrera Cup Asia championship title. That success helped him become, in 2007, the first Chinese driver to make the leap to the Europe-based Porsche Supercup. “It’s another level,” admits Darryl. “The difference between qualifying in pole position and somewhere way down the field can be as little as two-tenths of a second. I’ve enjoyed it. I haven’t had the results I would have liked so far, but I’m still learning the tracks. I’m looking forward to a strong rest of the season.” After nine holes, and 57 shots, Darryl is well on course to beat his personal best. His driving (on this track at least) has been a little wayward, but he’s struck some sweet irons and his short game has been extremely solid. His swing is nice and compact and when he times it well, the ball flies vast distances. I’m no pro, but he clearly has potential by the bucketload. “I wish I could play more,” he bemoans. “I try to go to the driving range when I can, but it’s not easy during the season. I’ll really make an effort to get on the course more and take some lessons.” Unfortunately, after just a few more holes, an enormous thunderstorm descends on the course meaning a return to the clubhouse and an end to our game. On the way back I ask him how far he really wants to go with his golf. “I don’t have any expectations,” he says. “I’d like to improve, obviously, and become more consistent, but I don’t see myself becoming a really good player. I love golf, but I’m happy just playing it for fun.” I don’t believe a word of it. Fun or not, for someone as naturally competitive as Darryl, there’s no way he won’t motivate himself to improve. Single figures? Watch this space.
Having a laugh: Darryl after a less than perfect shot 36
In 2004 Darryl made the decision to move to Hong Kong where he joined Team Jebsen and began competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. The move to the SAR, says Darryl, was logical. “My family is from Guangdong; we speak Cantonese back in Canada and I love the city. I wanted to try racing in Asia and it’s worked out. Hong Kong is definitely home for me now.” To follow Darryl’s progress in the Porsche Mobile1 By anyone’s standards, Darryl is a remarkably relaxed guy. In the afternoon we spent together SuperCup and Porsche Carrera Cup Asia visit his he was charm personified and displayed none blog at www.darryloyoung.com. of the Michael Schumacherlike stroppiness that I had been What’s in Darryl’s Bag? expecting from a man in his Driver: TaylorMade r7 CGB Driver 10.5 (S Flex) profession. I wouldn’t blame him Woods: TaylorMade r7 CGB – 3 & 5 (S Flex) if he did: when you’re regularly Irons: TaylorMade Tour Burner – 4-SW (NS950; S Flex) driving bumper-to-bumper at Putter: TaylorMade Rossa Tourismo 240 km/h you can be forgiven
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City Golf
The newly-opened Els Club
Desert Miracle Tee it up in Dubai, the burgeoning mecca of Middle East golf STORY BY ALEX JENKINS
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O
ne of my earliest golfing memories was watching my father hack his way around the sand course at the Dubai Country Club. The year was 1986 and this was the extent of this tiny emirate’s golf: nine holes crudely shaped out of the desert scrub with no grass. My father had to carry around an astroturf mat to hit the ball off before sweeping the ‘browns’—a peculiar mixture of compacted sand and oil that made for greens— once he’d holed out. In those halcyon days, the club was just another expatriate hangout where mad dogs and Englishmen would play a quick round under a blazing noon day sun before retiring to the verandah for an afternoon spent in a gin and tonic-induced haze. HK GOLFER・SEPT/OCT 2008
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rounds played in the city annually. This figure is expected to rise considerably, however, with 2009 set to be the watershed year for the emirate’s golfing status. In a little over twelve months, new Greg Norman and Vijay Singh designed courses at Jumeirah Golf Estates will be ready for play, but the real excitement will come with the unveiling of Al Ruwaya, Tiger’s first design project, which is scheduled to be ready by next spring. At a cost of US$1.1 billion it is t hought to be t he most expensive golf and real estate development in history.
ORIENTATION
Desert Chic (clockwise from top): Sheik Zayed Road; the Wadi and Majlis courses at Emirates Golf Club. 38
The Dubai Country Club is no more, which is probably just as well. The novelty of playing sand golf soon wears thin, and the reflection of the sun’s rays off what is essentially one enormous bunker makes playing sand courses downright unbearable. Give me Carnoustie in December—with its artic winds, driving sleet and frozen putting surfaces—anytime. But even before its demise, very few travellers made their way to Dubai Country Club because the city has evolved into the golf capital of the Middle East, and tourists are now spoiled with choices of first-class courses to play. Dubai’s golf boom is a direct result of the city reinventing itself. Unlike Abu Dhabi down the highway to the south, Dubai isn’t the glitzy, skyscraper crammed metropolis it is today solely because of oil. Dubai’s reserves of ‘black gold’, while significant, are set to run out soon and over the past twenty years the city’s rulers—the race horse loving Al-Maktoum family—have had the foresight to turn this former insignificant trading port into a commercial, tourism and aviation hub. It was a risky endeavor and the critics doubted whether the Al-Maktoum’s enormous investment would work. They had a point. After all, who would want to spend their vacation on a desert coastline, where the summer heat reaches an unbearable 120 degrees? But, much like that other wacky desert town in Nevada, it did work and now Dubai is the world’s fastest growing city, attracting eight million tourists a year—a number that is set to triple by 2012. Golf will certainly continue to prosper. The Dubai Desert Classic has become one of the European Tour’s most popular events—helped significantly by the regular appearance of Tiger Woods—and there are well over 300,000
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Cathay Pacific and Emirates, Dubai’s rapidly expanding and award winning airline, fly direct daily between Hong Kong and Dubai (approximately eight and a half hours). While it’s possible to hire a car, the more convenient (and cheaper) way to get to Dubai’s courses is by taxi. The emirate is so small it can be traversed in a little over an hour, and the drivers all speak English. The best time to visit is October through April, when the weather is coolest. Otherwise you’ll be sprinting from one air-conditioned environment to another. The currency, the dirham, is pegged to the U.S. dollar and fluctuates little month to month. Although Dubai is the most multicultural and tolerant of the United Arab Emirates, the nation is still a Muslim state. The faithful congregate five times a day to pray, and you will hear the call to prayer being sung from mosques all over the city. Tourists need to be extra sensitive if they are visiting during Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast during daylight hours to fulfill the fourth pillar of Islam; it is, therefore, inappropriate to eat, drink or smoke in public during the day. This year Ramadan runs from September 1 through September 28.
WHERE TO PLAY
Emirates Golf Club HHHHH Ho m e t o t wo o f t h e r e g io n's m o s t outstanding tracks, the club was hailed the Desert Miracle when it first opened almost twenty years ago. The Majlis Course here is a personal favorite of Ernie Els and it’s easy to see why. It winds majestically around dunes and man-made lakes, and the holes are distinguished by a number of blind tee shots and lengthy par fours. A mammoth double green, shared by the ninth and eighteenth holes, sits in front of a stunning clubhouse modeled on a bedouin WWW.HKGA.COM
camp. The Majlis hosts the Dubai Desert Classic every January. The second course, called the Wadi, went under the creative knife of Faldo Design a couple of years back and has emerged as an excellent strategic test. +971 4 399 5060, dubaigolf.com Yardage: 7,185. Par: 72. Architect: Karl Litten (Majlis Course), Nick Faldo (Wadi Course) Greens Fee: US$200 Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club HHHHH Superbly sited on the banks of Dubai’s famous waterway, the Creek Golf Club is a palm fringed, water-strewn course that has recently been toughened up by European Ryder Cupper, and long time Dubai resident, Thomas Bjorn. Despite being the centrepiece of an exclusive property development (there is also a 225-room Park Hyatt and marina onsite), the course retains the feeling of seclusion and is home to one of the world’s best short par fours: the mischievous seventeenth, where the Creek impinges on the left side of the fairway. The clubhouse, resembling the sails of an Arab dhow, is one of Dubai’s most recognizable buildings. A beautifully manicured nine-hole par-three course, floodlit for night golf, makes for an ideal warm-up. +971 4 295 6000, dubaigolf.com Yardage: 6,857. Par: 71. Architect: Karl Litten. (Redesigned by European Golf Design/Thomas Bjorn) Greens Fee: US$143-US$170 WWW.HKGA.COM
Arabian Ranches Golf Club HHHHH Despite not containing a single water hazard, this is the unquestionably the toughest track in the emirate and really shouldn’t be tackled by beginners or high handicappers. The layout, billed as the only true desert course in Dubai (until the recent opening of the Els Club), is characterized by narrow, rippling landing areas flanked on all sides by an unforgiving wasteland, which invariably comes into play for all but the straightest hitters. The well-bunkered greens complexes here offer another form of defence, featuring huge swales and run-off areas. Then there is the wind; depending on the time of year, a northwesterly Shamal or a southeasterly Sharki whips off the desert creating havoc among Dubai’s golfing populous. It is both brutal and magnificent, but better players will relish the challenge. +971 4 366 3000, arabianranchesgolfdubai.com Yardage: 7,691. Par: 72. Architect: Ian Baker-Finch & Nicklaus Design Greens Fee: US$104-US$125 HK GOLFER・SEPT/OCT 2008
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Verre, celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey’s first restaurant outside the U.K.
WHERE TO EAT
You can find restaurants serving up dishes from all corners of the globe in Dubai, but visitors often overlook the fine cuisine of the Middle East during their stay. Layali Lubnan on Sheikh Zayed Road is an independent café that gives a rare glimpse of genuine Arabia. Here you’ll find locals and expatriate Arabs smoking shisha (flavored tobacco) while enjoying a game of backgammon. Try the falafel with hummous, washed down with a cup of strong Turkish coffee, for a tasty and invigorating lunch. Lebanese food is justifiably popular the world over, and Ayam Zaman at the Ascot Hotel in Bur Dubai offers delicious repasts at reasonable prices. The restaurant also puts on belly dancing and live music performances throughout the week.
SHOPS AND SPAS
Waterfront Marvel (clockwise from top): Dubai Creek’s iconic clubhouse; the mischievous seventeenth.
Four Seasons Golf Club (Al-Badia Course) HHHH Windswept Al-Badia is a relatively new layout (even by Dubai’s standards) and a tough addition to the city’s list. Located just 2km from the international airport, this Trent Jones II design presents plenty of risk-reward opportunities with vast lakes and enormous ‘rivers’ of sand coming into play at nearly every turn. The par threes— with their small, well guarded greens—are a particularly strong set of holes while the exciting par-five eighteenth provides a rollicking finish to what is an undeniably stern test. +971 4-601-0101, fourseasons.com/dubaigolf Yardage: 7,250. Par: 72. Architect: Robert Trent Jones II Greens Fee: US$110-$230
BEST OF THE REST
T h e Mo nt g o m e r i e D u b a i (w w w. themontgomerie.com), which Colin Montgomerie designed with the late Desmond Muirhead, is worth a visit. Its island green on the parthree thirteenth is reputedly the largest in the world. Jebel Ali Golf Resort & Spa (www. jebelali-international.com), about a forty-minute drive from the city, has nine pretty holes and for years hosted the Jebel Ali Challenge, a starstudded event that acts as the curtain raiser for the Desert Classic. Watch for peackocks that 40
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roam the fairways on the eighth and ninth holes. The newest course in Dubai is the Els Club (www.elsclubdubai.com) at Dubai Sports City. Described as a desert links, the course features five sets of tees on each hole and superfast greens and has received rave reviews since opening earlier this year.
WHERE TO STAY
There are two types of hotel in Dubai: expensive and very expensive. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to find anything decent with less than four stars so visitors tend to stick to the plethora of up market resorts and business hotels. The most famous of these is undoubtedly Burj Al-Arab (www.burj-al-arab.com), the world’s first seven star hotel. With its soaring white façade resembling a billowing sail, the hotel stands on its own island nine hundred feet offshore and serves as the architectural symbol of the city. A kaleidoscopic waterfall, mirrors on ceilings of suites, and chauffeur-driven Rolls Royces are the order of the day here. The more conventional Hilton Dubai Creek (www.hilton.com) manages to have both a boutique and business feel. As an added attraction, the hotel is home to WWW.HKGA.COM
Shopping is a major reason that tourists flock to Dubai; the city is often referred to as the Hong Kong of the Middle East. However, those looking for traditional Arabian markets are in for a disappointment. The creekside souks, which sell a range of gold, jewels and textiles, are a rather sanitized version of their exotic past and a world away from the bustling flea markets of Cairo, Damascus and Tehran. Rather, designer boutiques rule the roost in modern Dubai, and the emrirate’s touristfriendly tax-free zones ensure that bargains can be had. BurJuman (www.burjuman.com), Wafi City (www.waficity.com) and the Mall of the Emirates (www.malloftheemirates) are three of the city’s biggest malls, each of them crammed with upscale outlets. Spas have become seriously popular in Dubai as well and can be found in all of the city’s topend hotels and shopping centres. The Spa at the Shangri-La Hotel (www.shangri-la.com/dubai) is one of the most elegant retreats anywhere, while the exquisite Angsana chain (www.angsanaspa. com) has outlets at both the Arabian Ranches and Montgomerie Dubai golf clubs.
Arabian Splendour (clockwise from top): The 7-star Burj Al Arab; the clubhouse and course at Arabian Ranches. WWW.HKGA.COM
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