Host of a European Tour event since 1998, the oil-rich Middle Eastern state of Qatar is ploughing vast resources into broadening its range of sporting, leisure and cultural activities ahead of its staging of the FIFA World Cup in 2022. Nick Bayly went to try out its two world-class golf courses during an action-packed long weekend in Doha.
Given the climate crisis and the impending destruction of the planet, it’s becoming increasingly hard to square the idea that building golf courses in regions where grass doesn’t naturally grow is a sensible use of the world’s fast-depleting natural resources. Yet, here we are in 2020, and tournament-standard courses are still springing up in countries whose annual rainfall is less than what fell on Wales in half-an-hour during the storms that battered the UK last month.
So it was more than a little odd to find myself forced to take shelter from a torrential downpour in the smart new clubhouse at Education City Golf Club in Qatar during my brief visit there last November. Knowing that this had been the first significant rainfall in Doha for over eight months, the course manager should have been doing a little jig of delight, but unfortunately this was the wrong type of rain, the heavy sort that lands on dry ground and immediately runs down the nearest storm drain, and not the gentle drizzle that nourishes rootzones that greenkeepers love so much.
Thankfully, Education City’s plush fairways and manicured greens and tees are irrigated in a more controlled fashion, with a state-of-the-art sprinkler system drawing on supplies of desalinated water that are scooped straight out of the Arabian Sea. The course is also sown with something called ‘TE Platinum Paspalam Turf’, a type of grass that requires 20% less water to survive than your standard stuff, so they’re doing their best to mitigate against a climate where summer temperatures nudge 45c on a regular basis.
Fascinating high-tech course management programmes aside, it’s fair to say that Qatar is not the obvious choice for a holiday, let alone a golf holiday. But then again, the same could have been said about near neighbour Dubai 25 years ago, and look at it now. Last year, just over 90,000 UK citizens visited Qatar, with the vast majority no doubt coming to do business in Doha, rather than simply sitting on a beach. That number was 20% up from 2018, and the figures will surely enjoy a further spike in two years time, when England fans head out to Doha to watch Gareth Southgate’s merry men lift the Jules Rimmet trophy for the first time since 1966 at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. We can but dream, eh?
Given the aforementioned summer heat, the tournament has been switched to December, which is also a prime time for golf in this part of the world, with daytime temperatures hovering around the pleasant mid-20s. With all eight football stadiums being used for the World Cup located within Doha’s city limits, it’s going to be one of the most compact tournaments ever hosted, with fans able to hop between venues via a newly-built metro system without having to break sweat.
The gaps between matches will give visiting fans plenty of time to soak up the city’s cultural treasures and sporting pleasures, including its two world-class 18-hole golf courses. Domestic golfers are pretty thin on the ground out here, with the membership of Qatar’s two clubs, Doha, which was founded in 1998, and Education City, which opened just last year, largely drawn from the sizeable expat community that has built up around the oil and gas industry.
Education City, as the new shiny new toy, took over hosting duties for this year’s Qatar Masters, which has been a mainstay on the European Tour’s now somewhat disjointed ‘Desert Swing’ since 1998. Held between March 6-9, José Maria Olazabal’s 7,300-yard layout proved a suitable challenge for Europe’s elite, with Jorge Campillo winning after a play-off with a score of 13 under. Although not quite the draw that is once was, the tournament still attracts a decent enough field, and the introduction of a new course, built by a legend of the European Tour, has certainly helped to revive its status in the tournament schedule.
The course itself is a tough challenge for the club amateur with a sea of bunkers greeting players off virtually every tee, while water – yes, that rarest of commodities – is a strong feature on the layout, coming into play on ? holes. The huge greens are slower than they look, but you certainly don’t want to be putting on the wrong side of the slopes.
Fulfilling its remit to bring on fledgling domestic talent and live up to its rather ‘does what it says on the tin’ name, Education City boasts of two other courses — a full-length six-hole course, and a nine-hole floodlit par three, while the world-class academy boasts five indoor swing studios and a putting studio, all featuring the latest swing analysis technology combined with a team of PGA-qualified coaches, headed up by Director of Golf Rhys Beecher, a Welshman who took who the role following a stint at Celtic Manor. There’s also double-ended driving range fitted with Toptracer Range, a number of practice greens, a dedicated ladies-only green with its own entrance so that local Muslim women can practice in private.
Doha Golf Club, offers a distinct contrast to its arriviste golfing rival, and has a much more relaxed, lived-in feel that you’d expect given its 20-year head start. No longer the only golf show in town, its members will probably enjoy not having their course taken over for a month each year now that the Qatar Masters has switched to Education City.
The 7,374-yard course, which was designed by Peter Harradine, is certainly nowhere near the same level of presentation as its neighbour, and felt a little rough around the edges by comparison, although we had arrived during the dormant season, so the grass was by no means at its best. That said, the layout is excellent, with generous fairways and contoured greens nicely routed through numerous lakes, big bunkers, limestone outcrops, dunes and desert.
Among the highlights were the ninth, a 600-yard par 5 that will test your stamina and patience; the par-4 12th, whose impressive limestone formations guard the entrance to the green; the tough par-four 15th, which requires a lengthy second shot over water; and the drivable 16th, which requires a lusty blow over a huge rocky outcrop to reach the putting surface. The 140-yard 17th requires a pinpoint shot over a deep, duck-filled pond to reach a shallow plateaued green, while the 527-yard 18th is a suitably challenging par-5 with water down the left-hand side. Played off the whites, which take the course down to a more manageable 6,640 yards (the yellows are 6,300 yards), it was very enjoyable test, with a good mix of risk-and-reward holes all played in front of the backdrop of Doha’s impressive city skyline.
In addition to the Championship course, there is a 9-hole floodlit course, which we didn’t have time to play, although we did factor in a lunch in the characterful clubhouse, which boasts an excellent bar (alcohol is served here, although not at Education City) and restaurant, which is popular with golfers and non-golfers alike at weekends – Friday and Saturday in this part of the world – when the course is buzzing.
Between rounds of golf we were treated to a whistlestop tour of Doha’s many and varied attractions, including a trip to the Waqif Souq, a bustling warren of alleyways housing small shops crammed with everything from spices, perfumes and Arabian coffee pots, to jewelry, leathergoods, and even a live falcon, if that grabs your fancy. These elegant, intelligent birds are highly prized in Qatar, with the best specimens changing hands for five-figure sums.
After a memorable Persian meal at the mosaic-bejewelled Parisa restaurant in the souk, we boarded a motorised dhow for an night-time tour of the harbour, which gave us the chance to take in the sheer scale of the city, with our eyes craning up to the vast number of high-rise offices, hotels and apartments that have created a skyline that is fast rivaling that of Dubai or Hong Kong.
As a pleasant escape from the bustle of the city, we also enjoyed a desert ‘dune-bashing’ trip an hour’s drive away, to the shores of the Khor Al Adaid inland sea, on the border with Saudi Arabia, where we thundered up, down and occasionally sideways on steep, golden sand dunes in a Toyota Landcruiser. Chaperoned by an experienced driver, it was certainly exhilarating stuff, although I’m not the most relaxed of passengers when hurtling over a blind precipice!
The cultural highlight for me was a visit to the National Musuem of Doha, which is housed in an award-winning building created by acclaimed French architect Jean Nouvel. Resembling dozens of concrete discs that have collided into each other at varying angles, it’s a jaw-dropping structure, while the art, natural history and culture contained within its sloping walls and floors are equally impressive. Art lovers should also visit the Museum of Islamic Art, whose stunning collection of jewelry, paintings, textiles and ceramics are housed in a magnificent five-storey tower that pays homage to Islamic architecture both inside and out.
Visitors to Doha are spoilt for choice when it comes to luxury accommodation, with the city boasting more than 50 five-star rated hotels, and another 70-odd that fall into lower categories. Our group stayed at the impressive Ritz-Carlton Doha, a five-star venue built on its own island with its own 235-berth marina, adjacent to the Lagoona shopping mall. For a more central stay, the Mandarin Oriental, located close to the Corniche, is a suitably luxurious affair, while its eighth-floor Mosaic restaurant, which offers nine different kitchens to take you on culinary journey from countries along the Silk Road, is also well worth a visit in a country that draws its influences from so many different cultures.
Qatar Airways flies fly direct from London Heathrow to Doha from £670 return (qatarairways.com). For more information visit www.visitqatar.qa.
For the latest visitor green fee rates and tee time bookings at Doha GC and Education City, visit www.dohagolfclub.com and www.ecgolf.com.
