Taming the tiger

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Apart from the golf course, Tiger Woods Dubai will also feature 197 signature villas, mansions and palaces. (Valeriano Handumon/ITP)

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The 18-hole Tiger Woods Dubai layout promises to be a one-of-a-kind in the region. (Valeriano Handumon/ITP)

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Abdullah Al Gurg, project director, the Tiger Woods Dubai, aims to test golfers of all abilities with a punishing layout. (Valeriano Handumon/ITP)

They're even importing the sand for the Tiger Woods Dubai golf course project but it's teeing up to meet its late 2009 deadline.

Driving from the Dubailand office to the Tiger Woods Dubai site for a visit comfortably tucked into the back seat of an air-conditioned shiny black Cadillac Escalade seemed like a perfect way to spend a weekday morning.

But that was until we reached our destination.

Like at any other construction zone in the Dubai summer, the heat and the dust was to be expected. Nonetheless, it was hard to reconcile the miles of desolate dunes stretching ahead with the pretty pictures of the completed golf course in the glossy brochures.

But, Abdullah Al Gurg, project manager of Tiger Woods Dubai, assures us that the arid landscape is temporary. By the end of the year, the greens for nine holes of the 18-hole course will be laid out.

Tatweer's ambitious project - Tiger Woods Dubai - is slated for completion in late 2009 and will comprise Al Ruwaya, a signature golf course designed by ace golfer Tiger Woods, an Elie Saab branded 33.4m² hotel, a high-end spa, 22 palaces, 75 mansions and 100 luxury villas.

Al Ruwaya once complete will be a 7,132m, par 72, 18-hole championship course with dramatic elevation changes, lush landscaping, extensive water features and an overall design that will challenge golfers of all playing abilities.

On the day of our visit, construction was underway at the clubhouse with about 150 to 180 men working, and some of them gladly took a break to hand us our hard hats and bottles of water.

"The clubhouse is just coming off the ground and will be spread over 13.47m². The main building will be star-shaped with changing rooms, a members-only snooker lounge and gym, restaurant, ballroom, two guest suites and the management offices. Adjacent to the clubhouse will be a golf academy with a gym, a refreshment station, with full training and practice facilities and cameras set up to analyse swings," says Al Gurg.

The nursery at Tiger Woods Dubai is the site's baby - literally and figuratively. Rows of trees, shrubs and grass are thriving in the 800,000m² nursery, which Tatweer claims is the largest in Dubai, lovingly being tended by an army of gardeners. No surprise here, these claims fall in line with the fact that everything in Dubai is the tallest, the biggest and the largest in the world - even the trees.

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