Up the creek in Dubai

Moving around Dubai during the Emirates Sevens rugby tournament two compelling sights constantly attract your attention.

Both are awesome pieces of architectural imagination depicting the sails of boats.

One is the awesome Burj Al Arab tower, a billowing sail-shaped structure soaring 321 metres above the Arabian Gulf.

It is in fact the tallest hotel in the world, standing on a man-made island some 280 metres offshore.

The other is the clubhouse of the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club located alongside the broad seawater inlet that has shaped cosmopolitan Dubai’s trading history.

The course is virtually in the city centre and the unique sail-shaped clubhouse, designed to depict the sails of an Arab dhow, has become a landmark of this busy, bustling and business orientated city in the United Arab Emirates.

The shimmering white concrete sails have the effect of making the golf course look even more green and inviting and finally my golfer’s soul could stand it no longer and I dipped into my princely allowance of 30 US dollars a day, converted into the local dirhams, hailed a taxi and made the trip.

The Dubai Open has often been staged at the Creek and Ernie Els, who set a record 61, is a former winner.

I was hoping that I might be able to arrange a game but I should have been alerted to the folly of my intentions by the exotic car life in the park.

Thirty dollars a day converts to 150 dirham and I was not adverse to spending my expenses money on “collecting” another golf course.

But mad I am not. The green fee for 18 holes turned out to be 425 dirham… plus a cab ride there and back… add 40 dirham… plus a compulsory golf cart… add 50 dirham…plus hire of clubs… add 80 dirham… plus a couple of balls to negotiate a watery course… add another wad of notes.

At the Rand/dirham exchange rate of about 2.85 I worked out that it would have cost me about R1700 for a single round! – excluding a drink and something to eat.

In the end I had such a yearning to play that I prised out some notes for nine holes on the par three or mashie course. It cost 50 dirhams plus another 20 for the hire of four clubs – some R300 for a spot of pitch and putt.

I must add that the short course was in pristine condition and the Creek course itself looked to be even better, but golf in the Gulf is clearly a case of if you can pay you can play. A Callaway ERC driver, for instance, was listed in the pro shop at Dhs 2240, or, if it hasn’t already hit you, round about R6385.

Dubai also has a fully floodlit 18-hole course, enabling golfers to play in the cool of the night, but even the lure of a unique experience could not justify the cost – cheaper than the flagrantly upmarket Creek but too much to pay for a game of golf.

Having had the good fortune to travel to places such as Scotland, the United States, Hong Kong and Australia it makes you appreciate just how good we have it in South Africa where we not only have an enormous variety of courses, but also ones which by world standards are exceptionally cheap to access.

With equipment, both to play and to maintain courses, invariably priced according to a dollar standard it is a luxury that may not last for too much longer.