Creek chic - Celebrating a Middle East icon

An aerial view of Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club from Feb. 1991. Images David Cannon/Getty Images.

Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Here author Rodney J. Bogg, the Middle East’s foremost golf historian, charts the rise of the iconic Dubai landmark

“Hey big spender”. Those immortal words were hammered out by Welsh singer Shirley Bassey to more than a thousand VIP guests, headlined by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, and more than a thousand VIP guests, on a starry night in January 1993. It was a fitting climax to the opening party for the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club, a party that has gone down in the annals of this remarkable city as “The Party of the Century”.

Two days earlier the golf course had been tested by four of the world’s leading golfers in an opening tournament – the Dubai Creek Challenge – which was a curtain raiser to the 1993 Dubai Desert Classic. Isao Aoki, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, and Severiano Ballesteros competed over the back nine holes in front of a crowd of several thousand, many of whom were probably there to see the new course as much as the stars.

Is there a tougher, or more picturesque closing stretch in Middle East golf than the 17th (pictured) and 18th at DCGYC?

The course had been designed by the same course architect as the Majlis at Emirates Golf Club – Karl Litten – but on a very different site, with just a flat piece of land on the banks of the creek to work with. But work with it he did and the result was lauded by everyone who played it in the coming months.

From the outset the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club was far more than just a golf course. As the name suggests it housed the first inland marina in the region, with berthing for pleasure boats of all sizes, plus a workshop and the first chandlery in Dubai.

The Dubai Creek Golf Academy was the first of its kind – totally dedicated to teaching golf and bringing new people into the game – a remit that continues to be fulfilled today, especially in the introduction of so many UAE Nationals – young and old – to golf.

The iconic clubhouse taking shape.

And then there was – and still is – the clubhouse.

Driving into the property today is like entering a hidden valley, with palm trees and bougainvillea lining the entrance road between half-hidden villas, bringing one to the lush fairways of the golf course, the richness of the Marina, the stone lined entrance to the hotel, all reflecting the amazing expansion that the club has seen over the past 25 years. But the highlight of it all is still the fabulous multi-tiered clubhouse which sits majestically overlooking the entire property.

Brian Johnson’s iconic building has received more awards, plaudits, and publicity than virtually any building in Dubai – the Burj Al Arab and Burj Khalifa apart. Voted Best of the Best by Golf World in 1997, it must surely be the only golf clubhouse to appear on its national currency, thanks to its unique – but classic – architectural style based on the design of the lateen sail of the traditional racing dhows that were such a thrill to watch sailing along the coast.

The island green on the 14th in build.

The first brochure published about the club was called “The Creek” (a name by which it is now affectionately referred) – with the tag line ‘More Than Just Golf’, which it certainly was even before the hotel and the 92 residential villas were added in 2005.

The hotel sits on a site that hosted some of the finest parties ever held in Dubai, including five Dubai Air Show Gala Dinners – headlined by such stars as Barry White, Stevie Wonder and Rod Stewart – Shopping Festival openings, and concerts featuring the likes of Roger Waters, Asha Bhosle and Sir Elton John.

Enjoying a prime location the envy of any sports resort in the world, the Creek took full advantage of its good fortune and created some of the most exciting restaurants in Dubai. Over at the Yacht Club – its design based, like the clubhouse, on a nautical theme, this time the prow of a luxury cruiser – the Aquarium with (at the time) the first floor-to-ceiling aquarium in Dubai drew seafood lovers to its location overlooking the marina, while the Boardwalk became one of the city’s ‘must do’ experiences in every travel brochure, often serving in excess of 1000 covers on its wooden decks overlooking the sparkling waters of the creek.

Boardwalk dining at DCGYC.

Despite all this, the Creek is still a golf club, and has over the years hosted numerous international tournaments. In 1994, following the success of the opening tournament, the European Tour held its pre-Desert Classic exhibition match at the Creek for the second year, this time as the Reebok Challenge, featuring Isao Aoki, Fred Couples, Colin Montgomerie, Bernhard Langer, and Greg Norman, who, despite going straight onto the course after flying in from Tokyo, won by three shots over the back nine.

For three years between 1994 and 1996, the Creek played host to the Asian Tour, the US$500,000 events becoming he third ‘major’ on the rapidly developing tour. Despite the name of the tour, the Gadgil Western Dubai Creek Opens produced two winners from Australia – Robert Willis and Adrian Percey – and one from South Africa, Paul Friedlander.

But it was the 1999 and 2000 Dubai Desert Classics that really put Dubai Creek on the map internationally, when the tournament moved from its traditional home on the Majlis course at Emirates Golf Club, to the tighter fairways of The Creek. Intended to demonstrate to the world that Dubai had more than one world class golf course, and to show off the ‘new’ Dubai skyline to the world, those Desert Classics were beamed to millions of household television sets around the world.

Enjoy a post round dip.

The two Desert Classics produced two first-time Tour winners in David Howell and Jose Coceres, but received most of its publicity for two other reasons – the USA-Open style rough which Course Superintendent Ken Glover produced in response to the Tour’s request to toughen up the course, and Director of Golf, Peter Downie, who nearly created the biggest upset in European Tour history when he led the field halfway through the third round, and actually threatened to win the 1999 Classic.

Argentina’s Jose Coceres won the 2000 Dubai Desert Classic at The Creek before the European Tour event returned to sister property Emirates G.C. where it remains.

After the Desert Classic moved back to its traditional home on the Majlis , the Chairman decided that the time had arrived to develop the hotel that had always been intended for the property. Although this took away the lucrative concert site, the advent of the Park Hyatt Hotel and the 92 residential villas – and the subsequent re-design of the golf course to accommodate them – changed the Creek from a golf and yacht club to a fully-fledged resort.

The Park Hyatt Dubai is regarded as the perfect luxury city centre retreat, with its stunning architecture, world-class cuisine, personalised service, and excellent facilities, including one of Dubai’s leading spas – the award winning Amara.

Opening fireworks.

The hotel and villas may have made the Creek the complete resort in physical terms, but it is still an abstract quality that continues to make Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club such a special place – something that has become known as the Creek Culture.

From the day it opened under the Chairmanship of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the Creek has gained a reputation for its warmth and welcoming feeling, excellent service, and its friendly staff, much of the credit for which must go to the early management team, and especially front man Downie, whose expression “This is not a practise round, the tournament’s today” became the motto that defined the entire Creek operation.

The Creek is a Middle East landmark for more than just the world class golf on offer.

Today, under the excellent stewardship of wasl, DCGYC continues to develop – always dynamic, always changing, but always charming – and always focussed on His Highness Sheikh Mohammed’s vision
of a world-class resort, which personifies Dubai and its cultural heritage.

While January’s celebrations may not equal those of the opening party, you can be certain that the celebrations will nonetheless be typical of this fabulous resort – classy, friendly, and a credit to Dubai.