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Tom Fazio has designed more than 200 new golf courses. None of them have been quite like the one set to open in Dubai.
Tom is based in Florida. As you know, that is nowhere near Dubai. In fact, it’s almost exactly on the other side of the globe from where the 80-year-old lives. That could have proved troublesome in building a golf course, but Fazio jumped at the chance to design his first golf course in the Middle East. He admitted he had to “think outside the box.”
So much so that Ron Smith, Fazio’s right-hand man, attached a camera to his hat during early site visits so that Tom was able to see every part of the elevation and every inch of the site as they set out to build Discovery Dunes, the newest project and course from Mike Meldman and Discovery Land Company that opened last week for members and prospective homeowners.
MORE: Ever wanted to be a member of a private, luxury, golf club in Dubai?
Sami Khatib
“I literally felt that I was on the project a couple of days a week the whole time it was being constructed,” Fazio told me in an exclusive interview about the course. “It was very, very exciting. That kind of dedication is just one of the many ways that Discovery thinks out of the box and gets things done, and it’s been a really rewarding project for me.”
Sami Khatib
Fazio’s prolific Hall of Fame career includes 31 courses on Golf Digest’s current U.S. top-200 list (more than double the next architect, A.W. Tillinghast, with 14), with notable international courses such as Waterville, Adare Manor and the Corales course at Punta Cana. The majority of his recent work has been teaming up with Discovery Land to create courses across the world for their private communities, like the recently opened CostaTerra in Portugal.
With that in mind, what can people expect from the company’s first course in Dubai?
“The great thing about Discovery is that we start with no boundaries. We start with what we believe is the best we can do for the land on which we’re designing. We always think out of the box and push ourselves to make it the best that it can be.”
Sami Khatib
Located in South Dubai, just minutes from Al Maktoum International Airport, the site was largely a flat piece of desert before Fazio and his team got to work. With an ambitious design and budget, they began sculpting the sand and contours to create a “one of a kind” design.
“The environment and the setting was created from a mostly flat plane. So that commitment to not only create elevation, but to then plant vegetation on top of that, was about as grand as you can get.”
The result, a par-72 layout with four tee boxes stretching the course anywhere from 5,200 yards from the claret tees to a whopping 7,955 yards from the club’s “Falcon” tees.
Holes weave through undulating dunes, around white-sand bunkers and to a variety of green shapes and sites. Discovery’s signature comfort stations are, of course, located at strategic points on the course, including the fifth and 11th holes. Each station is designed to reflect the character of its surroundings, featuring playful touches, like a green rooftop that can double as a tee box during community events and tournaments.
Thus, years after first discussing the idea of a private course in Dubai, Discovery Dunes is now set to welcome members and residents.
“We saw an opportunity to create something that feels intimate and personal within a global hub that is incredibly connected, forward-thinking and welcoming,” Meldman told me. “The response from families already living in the UAE, as well as those spending part of the year here, made it clear that Dubai was the right place for our first Middle East property.”
Sami Khatib
Discovery Land Company now has more than 35 communities around the world, from Las Vegas to Italy, from Honolulu to Canada and from Mexico to Scotland. At the core of each property is golf. But not like the experiences most golfers used to.
I asked Meldman why golf was so important within the properties he builds.
Sami Khatib
“At every Discovery community, golf sets the tone,” Meldman says, “so you can see kids on the tees, parents taking a golden-hour round, friends playing barefoot, and someone sneaking off for a bite at the comfort stations.”
“That sense of fun and ease is what makes golf at Discovery so special, and why it has always been an important part of the experience.”
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