Harnessing the elements

fmME catches up with Bob Knott, director of golf operations for Jumeirah Golf Estates, to talk about designing, building and maintaining golf courses in the Middle East.

The Earth golf course at Dubai’s Jumeirah Golf Estates (JGE)—which recently played host to the Dubai World Championships—is a sharply-defined, sculptured course inspired by the parklands of Europe and North America. Designed by golf legend Greg Norman and executed by Norman and JGE’s golf operations director Bob Knott, the course paints a magnificent pastiche of flora, rolling terrain and rushing water. These natural components also provide differing angles and changing perspectives from each tee.

The Earth course is streaked with what JGE calls “meandering, and occasionally daunting, water features [which] are ever-present factors when lining up one’s next golf shot”. Fully grassed since April 2008, JGE gave Earth two full seasons to mature before hosting the championship tournament.

With a variety of inspirations that range from the olive groves of Spain to classic Roman towns, the homes of the Earth neighbourhood offer a compelling variety of architectural styles. This diversity, and the district’s verdant topography, lends an air of expansiveness and encourages residents to congregate outdoors.

Because of the publicity surrounding last month’s Dubai World Championships, the Earth course has become very familiar to golfers and golf course designers throughout the world. But JGE’s next offering, the Fire course—which Knott claims is completely finished—is still shrouded in a bit of secrecy.

fmME: How does one build a green golf course in the desert?

BK: When we started, we didn’t have the Dubai World Championship in mind. This began as simply a golf real-estate development. When you build a golf course in the desert, the most important thing you need is water. I can shape anything in sand; it’s a wonderful medium to work in, but if we have a 40mph wind coming through, everything I’ve shaped that day could be blown away. So as soon as we shape, we need access to water, so the first thing I did when I came here was create a temporary lake. We had a specific 24-inch main from Dubai Municipality that would service our temporary lake, so everything we built emanated away from that water source.

When we first came here, the site was a raw desert. Sand was blowing all around, dunes were shifting and Greg Norman was surrounded by camels. The first thing he did was create a ‘routing’ which is a basic idea of where the course will lie from tee #1 to green #18—hopefully this is done in two loops of nine holes so you’re always coming back to a central point, which is the clubhouse.

Once we had that routing, we decided on the style of the course. We looked at features we could design into the landscape, whether those were lakes or streams or trees or general landscaping.

After that, we began the plotting process. At tee #1, we put a stake in the ground, then we would go down the middle of where the fairway would be and we identify the turning point—at around 275 yards away—and we put a stake in the ground there, which would be the centre of the fairway. Then we go another 180 or so yards and that’s the centre of your green.

After that, we brought in a team and began shaping. I had shapers here from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the US, Mexico and Great Britain. The shaping team literally came from all over the world. At the rough grading stage we focus on the general look and shape of the golf course. Then another team comes in and does a fine grade. After that another team comes in and starts putting in all the features. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. Then we get irrigation and topsoil and eventually grass. To get to this level of quality, you have to spend an inordinate amount of time preparing those surfaces.

fmME: What can you tell me about the Fire course?

BK: The Fire golf course is a very special course. It is a hidden gem. It is the most beautiful golf course. The beauty of JGE is that the four golf courses have different themes. The formality of the Earth golf course, with its very formal shaped bunkers and so on, contrast sharply with the Fire course. The featured bunkering on Fire is much more rustic in feeling. It goes much deeper than just one having red sand and the other having white. Of the two, Fire is certainly the equal of Earth in playing strategies—but Fire is shorter.

fmME: For Fire and Earth, what kind of shaping, sculpting and construction was required?

BK: We moved and shaped two million cubic metres of earth for these courses. Across Fire and Earth, we have 60 hectares of playing surface. We have 30,000 square metres of greens and 25,000 square metres of tees. Normally, I’d usually use a half metre of sweet soil under the surface, but on these courses we have used a full metre, meaning we’ve got 600,000 cubic metres of sweet soil beneath the playing surface on these two courses.

BK: We took six or seven months locating the Bermuda grass from a specific farm in Pike Creek, Georgia. One of the first things I did when was to build a 100,000 square foot nursery for us to grow the grass we needed, and then whenever we were growing areas, we simply harvested from our own nursery.

That was absolutely necessary because you cannot import that amount of grass. We needed to control the environment in which that grass was grown; we wanted to control the percolation rates; we wanted to control the type and quality of the grass on the surface. We’ve got in excess of 450,000 square metres of bark mulch and 3,600 mature trees. I have trees out there that are 11-12 metres high already.

fmME: What are your water requirements?

BK: We have 20,000 linear metres of mainline ranging from six to 24 inches in diameter. We have 70,000 metres of lateral irrigation piping out there. We have 17,000 metres of power cable and 20,000 metres of communication cable. On just those two courses, we have 4,000 sprinkler heads.

During construction, we were using 4.5-5.0 million gallons of water per day. Once the grass matured, those numbers came down. We expect the cost of water to be about AED6 million a year. Maintenance will be about AED 8 million a year.

But it’s important to keep in mind that every gallon is treated water. Nakheel is building its own sewage treatment plant on the project site, which is big enough to supply water to the entire 1,357 hectares..

fmME: Some of those numbers are astronomical. In the era of sustainability, do you feel you have to justify them?

BK: I think you do. For people who don’t understand golf courses, they can appear to be wasteful of resources and energy. I have a totally reversed opinion. On a golf course, you have the most wonderful natural environment. Up until 3-4 weeks ago, we had about 20 flamingoes living on the golf course. Next year, when they come back, we’ll have double that. I had a family of swans arrive 18 months ago and they’ve never left. I have tens of thousands of bird species living here.

Greg Norman and chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem were founding members of the Environmental Institute of Golf. We’ve been very conscious of being mindful of where we were going with it. One 18-hole golf course, by photosynthesis, will provide enough oxygen for 100,000 people per annum.

This is a major facility for the environment. Even for non-golfers, this is a beautiful landscape.

Miele’s JGE Contribution

Miele is a German manufacturer of high-quality domestic appliances and machines for commercial applications. Miele aims to manufacture the highest-quality domestic appliances and commercial equipment in the world, and to be seen by markets worldwide as providing an absolutely top-class household product. In the words of Carl Miele and Reinhard Zinkann, “Success is only possible in the long term if one is totally and utterly convinced of the quality of one’s products.” (www.miele.com)

Legrand’s JGE commitment

A world leader in home automation, Legrand designs products that give residents total control over lighting and other home functions via a system of intelligent switches, touch screens, remote controls and the Internet. (www.legrandelectric.com)

Poggenpohl’s JGE commitment

Poggenpohl has been the leading innovator of kitchen design for more than 110 years. It has a well-deserved reputation for offering superior quality and functionality. (www.poggenpohl.de)

B&B Italia’s JGE commitment

Since its foundation in 1966, B&B Italia has been a leader in contemporary furnishings. The company’s success is based on a matchless alchemy of innovation and industrial skills aimed at producing timeless products. (www.bebitalia.it)

Bang & Olufsen’s JGE commitment

Founded in 1925, Bang & Olufsen manufactures high-end audio and video products that are world renowned for the benefits its cutting-edge industrial design brings to the appearance, function and operation of its equipment. (www.bang-olufsen.com)