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Lights out
Welcome to the Nad Al Sheba Golf Club of Dubai, the Middle East’s only fully lit 18-hole golf course.
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Floodlights line our fairways, greens and tees, allowing members and guests the unique experience of night golf. Our course also is uniquely part of the world’s richest horse race, The Dubai World Cup. There are nine holes built inside the racetrack and an additional four holes running parallel on the outside. We average 80,000 rounds of golf per annum.
Sounding a bit busy?
Welcome to Dubai, and welcome to Nad Al Sheba Golf Club, the Middle East’s only fully lit 18-hole golf course.
Built initially as a nine-hole floodlit course within a racetrack, the first of its kind in the Middle East, the golf course over the years expanded to become an 18-hole floodlit facility offering golfers the opportunity of playing golf after office hours. This is ideal, as Dubai is known as a city that doesn’t stop. A six-day work week is common, and finding time to enjoy the many wonderful leisure facilities Dubai has to offer is difficult.
Golf is rapidly expanding in Dubai, with about eight golf courses now in operation and six more either under construction or in the planning stages. Tiger Woods is building his first-ever signature golf course here and will be sharing space with the likes of Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Colin Montgomerie, Greg Norman, Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Pete Dye.
From South Africa to Dubai
Born and raised in a small South African town called George, I finished my secondary education in Port Elizabeth, having studied sports administration and marketing. Being a keen golfer, I took an early interest in maintaining golf courses and was fortunate enough to work holiday jobs at the renowned Fancourt Hotel and Country Club Estate in my hometown. This allowed me the opportunity to complete my final six-month study placement, after which I was offered a position as irrigation and chemical technician.
During my four years at Fancourt, I studied turfgrass management and became assistant superintendent on one of the facility’s two courses. I later worked as part of the construction and grow-in team on its third golf course — the Links at Fancourt, which later hosted the 2003 Presidents Cup.
In 2000 an opportunity came up to work abroad at Ria Bintan in Indonesia. After a short time in Indonesia, I received a call from Jimmy Kidd, a well-respected industry consultant. He offered me a position at a course for which he was doing consulting work in Bahrain. I completed five successful years at Riffa Golf Club and finished off by preparing the wall-to-wall paspalum golf course for the European Seniors Tour Championship in 2005.
I now find myself in Dubai, where for the past year I have enjoyed the challenges presented by a course that gets 17 hours of play a day and is enclosed by a horse track. With more than 1,200 members and many local and international guests playing golf full-time, finding time to maintain the course is a challenge, even when it’s not racing season. When horses are out training on the track, you need special care and attention to not disturb these multi-billion dollar investment showpieces. Combining the elements of golf, golf at night and racing requires sound management practices and principles from all involved.
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Nine of Nad Al Sheba GC’s holes are enclosed by the horse track that hosts the renowned Dubai World Cup. |
More light, more opportunity for work
Floodlights are an advantage for the maintenance staff. We are able to get in early and complete more than 20 percent of our daily mowing schedules under the lights.
Maintaining a sound balance between revenue generation and time for essential maintenance work is difficult. But again, the lights favor us, as we are able to work around the clock, which minimizes course closure as we carry out the tasks at hand.
With 80,000 rounds of golf and 90 percent of rounds using golf cars, compaction is a big issue. Fairways, roughs, greens and tees are hollow-tined a minimum of six times a year, while fairways are topdressed a minimum of three times a year. We’re able to complete 18 holes in a day because the floodlights maximize our working hours.
The introduction of SeaIsle paspalum varieties on our greens, tees and approaches has assisted us in managing our traffic on fine-turf areas. The decision to use the variety was an easy one for us. Put 80,000 rounds on your greens in a year, and you’ll know what I’m talking about. In Dubai, the growing season extends throughout the year. Winter conditions still favor growth during the day, with temperatures of 22-24 C (72-75 F). Early morning and night-time temperatures drop to 12 C (54 F), and although you notice a decrease in growth, it certainly doesn’t stop.
A typical day in summer will begin between 4 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., depending on the required work. Desert maintenance is high maintenance, and crew sizes in this part of the world vary between 30 and 40, depending on the size of the course.
In the heat of summer, most courses will pump the U.S. equivalent of 1.5 to 2 million gallons of water a day. With high evapotranspiration and average highs of more than 50 C (122 F), the challenges facing superintendents in this part of the world are vast. The minimum temperature at night during summer is 32 C (90 F), so it never cools down to the point of giving anything a rest. Crews are continuously on top of hose watering and micro-managing various areas of the course.
Equally sharing the workload is made easier by having capable assistants and good foremen. Staff members work 10-hour days six days a week and are the lifeline of the operation. Without their dedication and hard work, the merely challenging might be impossible.
Morning and evening cuts
With much of our revenue coming from night golf, we strive to offer the best playing surfaces after most people’s work hours. But because we cut greens between 4:30 and 6 a.m., by the time golfers play in the evenings, the growth of greens — especially in summer — can create less-than-perfect putting surfaces.
With this in mind, we combine evening cuts and the application of growth regulators. We typically walk-mow our greens. To complete evening cuts, however, and to save on labor and reduce interference with golfers, we send out the triplex greensmower. The operator is able to mow against the traffic starting at the 18th hole and work back toward the first. We usually send the mower out at 3 p.m. Amazingly, interference is minimal as long as the operator stays on course and finds the appropriate gaps to avoid the same group twice. Golfers don’t mind being interrupted once in their round. Do it two or three times, and everyone gets annoyed.
Fertility management becomes vital as we try to prepare surfaces able to handle the immense traffic. We try to minimize major growth spurts and strike a happy medium, which can be difficult at certain times of the year.
Aerification programs are severe — they have to be. We take any opportunity to aerify. I’m one of three superintendents employed by Dubai Golf, which also manages the Emirates and Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club. GCSAA Class A superintendent Rob Gradishar, of Dubai Creek (a 12-year member), Jeff Julich, superintendent at Emirates (an eight-year GCSAA member), and I are fortunate in that we’re able to share our resources, especially when doing our essential core aerification.
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Extreme daytime heat in the desert makes nighttime golf popular. |
By communicating and splitting our aerification so that we’re not all doing it at the same time, we’re able to beg, borrow and steal from each other and get the job done more efficiently. If we at Nad Al Sheba are unable to get the closure times required, we have the seven hours in which the course is closed between midnight and 7 a.m. to do what we can.
Seven hours a day is the only rest this course gets from golf. As advantageous as floodlit golf is, it definitely has an adverse effect on consistent conditioning throughout the year. However, all this is weighed, and with sound planning and organizing, and with good communication through the director of golf to members, we’re able to maintain the course to high standards.
Make way for the horse races
Members at our course have unique circumstances and have to be understanding of the course’s racing element. For example, every Thursday night between November and March, we make way for the races. The course will close at 5 p.m., and by 7 p.m. we are racing. During the Dubai World Cup, we give up our facility to the Racing Club, which uses our driving range, No. 1, No. 9 and No. 10 fairways as hospitality and parking.
During this time we prepare temporary tees and play various holes as par 3s, still offering 18 holes of golf. We also have built a temporary driving range facility that allows our golf pros to continue with lessons during this time. Although the situation is not ideal, members and guests are able to hit wedges to 6 irons and also enjoy a small chipping area complete with practice green and bunker. This temporary area is floodlit.
Playing golf at night is an experience all golfers need to experience. Seeing the ball at night often is easier than during the day as you have a black backdrop to a shining white ball. During the day, the desert skies can be murky and seeing the ball flight is sometimes difficult.
From a maintenance point of view, night golf creates challenges not experienced at other golf courses. My philosophy, however, is this: Every golf course is unique and site-specific. Along with varying water quality, climatic conditions and elements both in and out of our control as superintendents, we are given the opportunity to put our experience to the test every day. What more can we ask for?
Nad Al Sheba Golf Club to close this month
Shortly before publication of the June issue, owners of the Nad Al Sheba Golf Club announced that the facility would close at the beginning of this month. GCM believes the article is still valuable to readers, and is publishing the piece as originally written.
Below, Craig Haldane updates readers in his own words:
Dubai is a vibrant and ever-changing city, and looks at expanding and making positive changes at all times. It was with great disappointment that we learned recently that the golf course would have to close to allow the space and time for the development of a new racing project, Meydan, a state-of-the-art horse racing city with luxury hotels, a sky-bubble restaurant, clubs and a boat house.
Due to the proximity of the golf course to the current site being developed for Meydan, it was necessary for Nad Al Sheba GC to close. Dubai Golf, the management company responsible for the day-to-day operations at Nad Al Sheba GC, was exceptional in doing its utmost to absorb almost all the staff at Nad Al Sheba within two other management contracts in Dubai, namely, Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club and Emirates Golf Club, host to the Dubai Desert Classic and Ladies Masters. The announcement came as a surprise to the club, its members, guests and staff.
Night golf in particular will be sorely missed by all, the maintenance team included.
— C.H.
Leo Feser Award candidate
This article is eligible for the 2007 Leo Feser Award, presented annually since 1977 to the author of the best superintendent-written article published in GCM during the previous year. Superintendents receive a $300 stipend for articles. Feser Award winners receive an all-expenses-paid trip to the Golf Industry Show, where they are recognized. They also have their names engraved on a plaque permanently displayed at GCSAA headquarters.
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