‘The Shark’ takes Jumeirah Golf to new heights

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The Greg Norman-designed villas.

The fortunes of a luxury residential golf development - Jumeirah Golf Estates - have been given a turbo-charged boost by the announcement of a tie-up with the European Tour.

Touring golf pros along with amateur golfers have already shown great interest in the development fronted by golf legend Greg Norman who has designed two of the complex's four golf courses, called Fire, Earth, Wind and Water.

Now, the announcement that the European Tour is to establish an international headquarters and a purpose-built ‘centre of excellence' has added to the appeal of the Leisurecorp development. In addition, a season-long tournament - The Race for Dubai - carrying a prize fund of US$10m will attract the world's top golfers to the emirate from the end of 2009.

Greg Norman was in town himself to lend his support to the development where he is building his own US$3m bolt-hole. Anyone buying one of the luxury golf villas will also get an exclusive limited edition Great White Shark-branded Range Rover Sport.

"Wealthy people want something unique, something that they can't get anywhere else in the world," he said. The first phase, incorporating the Norman designed Fire and Earth courses and 13 residential communities across 330 of the total 1,119 hectares, are scheduled for handover in the first quarter of 2009.

The partnership between the groups will run initially for five years and will include the creation of a global property company to develop new tournament venues around the world, including established golf markets such as Portugal as well as Morocco and various African countries.

As well as the Norman-designed Fire and Earth courses - Water and Wind are being designed in collaboration with, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Peter Dye. All of the courses will provide unique challenges to golfers but the accent is also on ecology with state-of-the-art technology being implemented to conserve water and provide a habitat for native flora and fauna.

Norman is one of several top golfers to make Dubai their second home, which is one of the reasons the European Tour chose the city for their international headquarters. His villa is being built in the Fireside complex along with 65 others with between 10,000 and 12,000 sq ft of living space.

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