Suite101

Life is not fair.


© Russell G. Bell

Feb 17, 2005


The Emirate of Dubai is a desert surrounded by sand and salt water. What makes Dubai so important is what lies under the sand, oil. Oil has the capacity to make the most unforgiving of terrain, attractive. Before oil the population rode around on horses and camels; today these have been replaced by the Mercedes, the Rolls and the EZGO. The EZGO?

When you have all the money that Dubai has and you want to make your Emirate less dependent on oil, what do you do? You build an infrastructure that will allow tourism to replace the oil revenues. That infrastructure has to include plenty of fresh water for drinking and irrigation. Irrigation?

Here is where I tie it all together. Because grass is not abundant in Dubai, they have planted enough of the stuff to make a pretty good golf course in the middle of the desert. Their desalinization efforts have provided amply for the fresh water drinking needs of the public, the tourists and the grass. I understand the need to make the course look "natural" and for this reason they used their local sand in the bunkers. Their sand is the normal brown desert color and I think it would have showed a touch of class to have one of the arriving empty oil tankers deliver imported white sand for the bunkers. I do not know for certain if EZGO is their cart of choice. It could very well be Club or Yamaha or any one of a dozen other brands.

What does this have to do with the lighter side of golf and what does it have to do with the title of the article? If you were to click on the following link:

http://sonnym.com/tiger.htm

You would be taken to a web site that shows Tiger Woods practicing for the Dubai Desert Classic. Now most times you would see Tiger on the driving range but this location is a little different. He is on the heli-pad of the Burj Al Arab Hotel! This article states Tiger was there for the 2004 Dubai Classic which, incidentally, was won by Tiger's friend Mark O'Meara. An interesting note is that in 2004 the organizers of the classic paid Tiger one million dollars just to show up and play. This was over and above any money he could win on the course. I don't know about you but I think that is an attractive incentive...

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Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: View all related messages
2.   Feb 18, 2005 5:14 PM
It amazes me how these people get paid the big bucks for doing these things, like Tiger getting paid millions for participating in this tournament. I heard the other day that Paul McCartney got a coo ...

-- posted by Tom
1.   Feb 17, 2005 7:41 PM
I was almost afraid to click on this, but what a surprise I got! The link and photos are fantastic! Amazing, as a matter of fact. No wonder Tiger Woods loves this place.

I have to say I've never ...

-- posted by jerrib



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