The final stroke

Leisurecorp sports events director Colin Smith.

Jumeirah Golf Estates opens its doors to the public at the end of November. CW finds out how Leisurecorp have transformed desert into a championship golf course.

t’s not long now before the eyes of the world descend on Jumeirah Golf Estates. (JGE) November will see golf’s Race to Dubai reach its final conclusion with the Dubai World Championship held at the estate, located on Emirates Road in Dubai.

Leisurecorp is understandably buoyant about the event’s prospects. Both the Fire and Earth courses have, in fact, been ready for around a year now.

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However, the future of the development may differ from the original plans set forth. When announced in 2007, JGE was supposed to have courses representing the four different elements – earth, fire, wind and water.

The Greg Norman-designed Earth and Fire courses are ready, but the Wind and Water courses appear to have been shelved for the foreseeable future.

“Wind and Water are still part of the long-term plan, but we’re evaluating when we’ll begin on those, according to market conditions,” says Leisurecorp sports events director Colin Smith.

“We haven’t started selling on those projects yet.”

The courses also had active involvement from Greg Norman right from their inception. The former champion golfer and designer was at JGE as recently as May this year, making minor changes to the overall course.

ESTATE OF PLAY
In addition to the courses, the ‘estates’ part of the development is progressing, with 2010 looking to be the year of delivery. The development is split into ‘streets’, essentially clusters of villas based around certain themes, with enigmatic sounding names, such as Whispering Pines and Fireside.

The developers are a mix of subdevelopers and Nakheel Leisure, which is developing five of the ‘streets’. Smith says some subdevelopers are expected to hand over in the first half of 2010.

The majority of properties on Fire and Earth have now been sold, with Smith estimating around 90% of the villas having been purchased. “We’ll be releasing more properties in the future, but right now the priority is delivery,” he says.