Is there a golf course existing in this place they called the land of sand and camel?
This is the very first question that comes to my mind as I settled down in my site office at the middle of Arabian desert. I worked as a Senior Engineer in an American contactor for Saudi Aramco projects.
As I pulled my cart at the canned goods section of the grocery store a month after I arrived in Saudi Arabia, I overheard a voice from the other lane mentioning the word TITLEIST. By instinct, I immediately look for the source of that voice and Bingo,I found a golfer and golf indeed exist in the area.
That same weekend , I was introduced to DUNES Golf by that Filipino guy I met at the grocery store. And that’s how my story begins.
Now don’t get me wrong, Dunes golf is for real and not just the Mickey Mouse type of golf you’re thinking. There exist a Par 72 golf course made of sand dunes with dog leg fairways complete with OB stakes, hazards and Jabong. Only jabongs are dry but with markers identifying the boundaries.
They have Par 5s,Par 4s and Par 3s and of course bunkers or sand traps abound everywhere .
RULES of PLAY
Each player is required to carry a one foot diameter mat (same material you see in most driving ranges), where you hit your ball on the fairways towards the” brown” or the putting surface. The browns are made of sand soaked with used oil and flattened by roller compactor to create a uniform and compact surface.
The putting surface also present some challenges. Fast and slow browns exist. You’ll encounter uphill , downhill and difficult side hill putts.
These golf courses are created by Saudi Aramco to give expats some recreation during weekends. Some Filipino golfers mostly engineers were admitted to the club to make the weekends more livelier since only a few of them, American and British expats played the game in the area.
Of course, we relaxed at the 19th hole after a round of golf where stories, food and drinks are served. Saudi Arabia banned all alcoholic beverages in the kingdom, but can you imagine how do golfers spend time after a round of golf? I wouldn’t answer that, but that would be another interesting story.
Golf starts at early dawn as early as 4 am during Summer months to complete the round and escape the heat by 8am. The best time to play golf is during the winter October to February and from March to June when the heat is still bearable.
And mind you fellas, we don’t use cart but walk in the desert sands…We don’t have caddies and we swept the browns after we putt to erase the footprints and return the putting surface to its original condition as a courtesy to the golfers following behind.
The course is open only during weekends ( Fridays and Saturdays)thus Pinoy expats always look forward for Fridays. As Dunes golfer would always say, Fridays without golf is like a week without Friday.
Dunes golf, anyone?..Fooooooooore
