Inside the new greens at Emirates Golf Club

A guide to the changes at Emirates Golf Club, where all 18 greens have been completed remodelled ahead of the Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic.

This may be the 31st time that this particular tournament has been played at Emirates Golf Club, but a new challenge awaits on the greens of the Majlis course in 2022.

All 18 greens have been recreated following the 2021 event, which have seen a substantial increases in size that is more like their original composition. On average, it equates to roughly a 33 percent increase, with the biggest of those at the first, and the result is a variety of new options for pin positions.

Other challenges include a flatter run-off at the fourth and new undulations on the fifth, and time will tell whether previous experience or coming to the course with a fresh eye will benefit players in the field.

We caught up with both Golf Course Superintendent Matt Perry and golf architect Terry Baller to find out all about the process and the big changes ahead of the 2022 Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic.

Why did you decide to upgrade the greens?

MP: The greens have been the same type of greens for over 20 years when they were done in 1998. They are push up greens, created with native sand from the desert, pushed up with turf on top and that was it. So we’ve been a little bit behind over the years in that they are nearly 30 years old, and we didn’t have drainage and the right design on them so over time they change.

It came to the point last year where we lost a lot of areas on the greens. During the tournament last year was a real struggle and we decided that we needed to upgrade the greens and put drainage and the right sand in and make it USGA greens, which all tournament courses typically are. Some greens didn’t have many options for pin positions, which wasn’t just a struggle for tournaments but also regular play, so we’ve deciding to upgrade also allowed us a lot more pin placements and we designed them so that water would run off properly.

What was the process of the initial redesign?

TB: For me it was like OK, we can look at enlarging greens, and look at the USGA greens. So we start there, but what else happens with these modifications, and that includes everything from where you are on the fairways, to where you are on the greens, looking at strategy. We can control a lot of that stuff so it goes into the thought process: Where do I want this person ideally to be hitting from into this green on his next shot, so the thought starts there. We looked at a lot of scenarios, we know from a tournament perspective what they’ve asked for, and can we accommodate those? We can’t force everything, but we did accomplish them.

My goal was to not come in and change the world. Usually my philosophy is whenever it’s a new site or a renovation, what’s the best way to maximise it. My background as an engineer is really to solve and find solutions to maybe some new problems, or problems that are actually defined by technology, which has developed enormously in the 30 years since something has been created. For me it was simple: Looking at what you have surrounding the green. Where are the drainage exit points and trying to work to those, and highs and lows, and how does that play into what the green looks like. You want everything to look as natural as it can, and smoother transitions, so you may have high areas on these greens that bleed into the green and influence the green topography.

What were the main benefits of redoing the greens?

MP: In doing that we were able to enlarge them back to their original size, and take them back to their original design, because they change a lot over the years with top dressing sand, and things change, and a lot of the greens we’ve taken back to the original design because when we dug them out we found the original slopes in some of the greens which was amazing to find.

How long did the process take?

MF: We started on May the 2nd, on May 1st evening we started digging out the greens, and we had a great consultant, and a great contractor called Golf East, and we all we worked in partnership to dig them all out, shape them, put in a gravel layer and sand. We got all the greens ready for grass by the 13th of June. The first nine greens got put down on the 13th June, back nine a week later on the 20th. That grass was all air-freighted from the United States, from Georgia. It’s the same type of Bermuda Tif-Eagle grass that we had before, but it’s evolved over the years, so it’s now even better. That was flown over in two days. We used sprigs that they pull out of the ground so they were all in boxes, in refrigeration, so they get taken out of the ground and refrigerated, go to the airport, refrigerated on the plane, out of the plane into a refrigerated lorry. So they arrived here at night, they cleared customs the next morning and that morning we put them in the ground. It was literally over a 72 hour period from out of the ground in the U.S to in the ground here. Then the growing began, it had to grow in from these small sprigs to grow in completely. It was a tight time frame, we were only closed until the 30th September. It was a very quick turnaround, and it was a great growing time, but to be able to sit here today and be 7 months and 9 days and we’ve got a tournament.

Which holes would you say have the biggest changes?

MP: We used to always have a problem with number 4, which used to slope aggressively towards the water and if that green got too fast we weren’t able to put pins on the right hand side because people would putt and it would roll into the water. It’s still got a slope, but we’ve levelled it up more, and we’ve got a new pin at the back left over a ridge. Then number 5 was very aggressive from back to front, and when the greens were fast, there was only maybe three of four spots you could put it in. As a collective we put a couple of different plateaus in there so we could have different pin positions all the way up the green.

And then on number 11 we found the original design. It used to be three tiers, so now we have the front, it goes up a little bit, and then we’ve got the back tier as well, and we haven’t been able to put pins at the back of that green for years and years because it wasn’t healthy enough, and this year we might put two pins there. And all of them have increased in their design by size, right back to sprinkler heads. Number 1 increased by 67% : They’ve all got bigger, but the biggest is one. As a whole they’ve all increased by 33%.

TB: I think four turned out great. We brought it to the waters edge a little bit closer than it was before to have pin-able areas at the back right and back left, and if you go back and look at it you’ll see this little rise on the left side of the green where it forces the player to make a choice: Does he try and hop one in and try to catch the slope and run, or does he come over the top and try and hold the green? I also really like 12, 11, 6, 5, and then 18 and 9: You’ll see a new pin on 9 you’ve never seen ever before they’ve been trying to get to for years, so it levels the playing field of technology.

Were there any surprises?

TB: On the front of the 12th green from the original construction we found potential for some water to come up through the green, but also undulations we weren’t expecting, so having James Ashfield and Gary Ashfield was so valuable. It’s also moments like those which are so important, because when you do uncover those nuggets you want to take advantage of them.

MP: The 12th is a great example. You should just be straight down flat but it went down and we dug it out and found a step in the green which we’ve redone now. We didn’t expect to find anything like that there. We also thought it would be interesting to find out what would be underneath but we found different aspects of greens that we didn’t know would event be there.

Is there a good example of a green where you’ve now brought bunkers back into play?

TB: Number Eight is one of the most spectacular golf holes in the world. I’m not going to go to these guys and say you need to do that, but the green edge was pulled so far from the bunker – the same as at number 4 as well – so we were able to extend those greens all the way back to the bunker where now you can have a pin further back. It means now those bunker are in play, whereas before it would never have had a chance.

What about noticeable changes of shape?

TB: To take it from an angles perspective, when greens shrink they tend to become generic circles, and you lose a lot of elongation and diagonal. Number six is a great example. We were able to find some extra room at the back of the green to extend it out even farther, and also bring the green closer to the front bunker. So now when golfers are coming in from the fairway, it’s a bit of an elevated and now elongated green, so depending on where the pin is it’s a different club from the front to the back. Now you have to test the bunker too, or you can try and use the slope to get it up to the back.

Where are they now compared to your expectations of where they would be?

MP: I didn’t think they would be this good at this time. I’d been erring on just wanting full coverage because in previous years its been a bit patchy so I was thinking I don’t want to stress them out, they are going to be really young, they are meant to last 20 years I don’t want to ruin them in the first year. But they came in really well, they are firm, they’re a really good speed, so very happy with that. It’s always a worry, because while I always look forward to the Desert Classic, over the last couple of years it’s been a bit nerve-wracking because the greens haven’t been very good and we held our ahnds up and said we know they aren’t the best, we need to do this project. And it was a case of OK, you can do that project but you’ve only got from May until September. Everything had to come together: The contractor, the designer, the grass, our team, and it all clicked. We were lucky, but we all got on well, and it’s a real positive thing.

I think the way they are at the moment after 7 months, we are further on than I thought they’d be. We all aspire to present great golf courses for people to play, and our members have been really happy, it makes me happy as a team we’ve been able to achieve it.

What has the reaction been like?

MP: I knew they would say they were firm, because they aren’t mature yet because the cushion of the grass isn’t there yet so it’s just hitting sand, so it means the ball is bouncing easy, and we can get the speed easily. They are definitely fairer too: They are bigger, but because they were getting old so they weren’t draining water and the edges were a struggle, so that's a big improvement. Last year because the greens were so small there were only a couple of options for the pins, but now they are much bigger they can tuck the pins in the sides, which they couldn’t do before. Even people watching will see pins they’ve never seen before, and it excites us.