Dubai Festival City's Eco-Friendly Golf Course To Boost Dubai's International Golfing Profile

Dubai Festival City today unveiled a stunning and environmentally conscious design for its 18-hole recreational golf course that will open in September 2003.

The 7,250 yards, par 72, course, which will be rich in water features and lush with plants indigenous to the Arabian Gulf, has been designed by Robert Trent Jones II LLC, California's internationally acclaimed golf course architectural firm. It will form the centre of Dubai Festival City's golfing community, which will include the clubhouse, a golf academy, executive town homes, apartments and a 150-room boutique hotel.

The design sculpts a course that integrates with Dubai Festival City's superb waterfront environment. It incorporates 10 lakes and several smaller ponds.

"Robert Trent Jones II has delivered a design which is environmentally responsible and which will be challenging for the seasoned golfer and a memorable experience for the recreational player," said Lee Tabler, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Festival City Development.

"The course will be a significant addition to Dubai's growing international status as a premier golfing destination."

The golf course project will feature a floodlit driving range, sports academy and clubhouse. Interwoven throughout the course will be over 300 housing units, Dubai Festival City's first residential offering.

This golf course residential offering will integrate into the layout of the golf course, optimising views over the course, the lakes and the landscape. It will provide a unique alternative living style for Dubai.

"The decision to build this course as part of Dubai Festival City followed a study by the International Management Group which confirmed its feasibility for both the emirate’s local and tourism sectors," said Tabler.

An oasis inspired the course design. "We used the concept of a fertile garden in an expansive desert where the presence of water brings serenity," explained Robert Trent Jones Jr., Golf Course Architect, Principal Designer and Chairman of Robert Trent Jones II LLC. "The course is reflective of the overall waterfront development. Water flows through a series of lakes connected by meandering streams and gentle waterfalls.

"The course has great variety, in terms of the lengths of the holes, of their orientation as well as teeing angles. Multiple tees at every hole provide the opportunity for players of various skill levels to test their game."

In line with Dubai Festival City's commitment to delivering a sustainable project environment, the course utilises environmental innovations to limit the use of irrigation water. 

Incorporating the latest varieties of highly salt tolerant paspalum grass, which can be cultivated in seawater, Dubai Festival City will irrigate its turf with a mixture of seawater and reclaimed tertiary water. The two are monitored to ensure use of tertiary water is minimised to about one third of the total and that of seawater maximised.

Around a million gallons of water a day will be needed to irrigate the course. This is about one-third less than would have been required if the more conventional bermuda grass had been used.

To make the most efficient use of water resources, the course design also minimises the total acreage of maintained turf, without compromising the shot values, playability or feeling of expansiveness in the fairways around the greens. The course will also make extensive use of plants native to the Gulf to give a natural effect. 

To facilitate the relief and contouring of the course, some six million cubic metres of sand excavated from the Dubai International Airport expansion project is being transported to the Dubai Festival City site. 

The Dubai Festival City course will be Dubai's sixth 18-hole golf facility.