Dubai Sports City golf course 'The Dunes' set for December 2007 opening

Set for an official opening in December 2007, The Dunes is rapidly reaching completion, with Dubai Sports City officials planning to use the time between completion and opening to allow the course to mature, so that it will provide the highest quality playing experience.

"The Dunes will be a world-class course," said U. Balasubramaniam, CEO of Dubai Sports City. "From enabling Ernie Els to realise his vision in the design, through to working with leading developers and managers in the construction and organisational strategy, we're pulling out all the stops to make this a fantastic golfing experience."

"The construction effort has been considerable, but we can see that the results are going to be exceptional. The Dunes will be a course that golf enthusiasts around the world will talk about," he added.

Every step of the development has involved some of golf's most experienced professionals. Designed by leading tour professional, Ernie Els, The Dunes' links-style course has been built by Septech Emirates, and the club will be managed by the internationally-renowned Troon Golf.

Such exceptional care and attention to detail reflects the effort that has gone into developing The Dunes into one of the world's most exciting, challenging courses.

The greens and fairways are turfed with varieties of Bermuda grass, a warm season grass that survives punishing temperatures.

The infrastructure required to support the 211-acre site is now ready. Almost 50 kilometres of piping are in place to provide irrigation, backed by a pump station capable of supplying the course with more than 2,000,000 gallons of water every eight hours.

Advanced GPS technology has been used to match precisely the physical space to the original drawings.

More than 100 people have worked on all aspects of the golf course construction and irrigation installation, to a contracted timetable of 480 calendar days. Almost two million cubic meters of earth have been moved to form The Dunes course and neighbouring sites, and over 6,000 man hours have been spent shaping the course into its distinctive form.

"We're extremely pleased with the results of everyone's commitment to this project," said Jeff O'Brien, Business Development Director, Septech Emirates. "Working on The Dunes has been a great opportunity to harness the latest technologies to the project of building a world class golfing venue," he added.

Set in 69 acres of native vegetation, The Dunes combines a links-style course with traditional classic design. On his last visit to the site, designer Ernie Els confidently stated that he felt it would be "the best course in Dubai" upon completion.