The Faldo Course at the Emirates Club in Dubai is a bit like its designer – the more you get to know Nick Faldo, the more at ease you are in his company.
I have been fortunate now to play the Faldo course a few times and while it doesn’t get any easier, I do feel very comfortable teeing-up.
Once again, my thanks go to Viren Varma at Golf in Dubai for the opportunity to play the course.
Viren is the highly-respected Media Officer with Golf in Dubai and is based at the Emirates Club. We are fortunate to meet up with Viren during the annual Omega Dubai Desert Classic and also this week during DP World Tour Championship week.
A plaque to commemorate Nick Faldo’s opening day drive.
Of course, the Faldo Course had been unveiled in 2006 as the Wadi, an Arabic name meaning ‘valley’.
And like it’s big sister the Majlis, and host each year to the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and next month’s Omega Ladies Desert Classic, the Faldo course has matured in the near decade it was opened.
We commenced this latest round at 2.25pm and managed to get in 14 holes before darkness descended.
However that was not the end of play as the course is floodlit, so that we managed to play all 18 holes and ending just after 6pm.
My opening tee shot just short of Nick Faldo’s opening drive in 2006.
Highlight of the day was smashing my opening drive just short of the plaque lying centre of the first fairway commemorating Faldo’s opening tee shot in 2006 while I also managed a handful of pars including at the par five 3rd and 10th holes along with pars at 12 and then at the next where I was just short of driving the green.
In the end, Frank (Belgium’s leading golf photographer) managed to finish tied in Stableford points.
So again, a big THANK YOU to Viren at Golf in Dubai.
The dramatic Dubai skyline from the second green.
A new tower building dwarfs the ninth green.
The view into the par five 10th green – par!
Bernie and his ‘Koala’ head cover at 17th tee marker.
The floodlit 17th hole on the Faldo course.
