GOLF


Maintaining two golf courses that host near one hundred thousand rounds a year between them to an exceptional standard isn’t easy but, at the Emirates Golf Club, Dubai, it is what they do. Blair Ferguson chatted over Zoom with Dònal Mulvey, the club’s Fleet Manager


E


mirates Golf Club was built in 1988 as the Middle East’s first grass golf course. In 2021, it is the region’s number one golf destination and hosts one of the


longest-running European Tour events in the Omega Dubai Desert Classic on the Majlis Course and the Women’s Moonlight Classic, the first European Tour event under floodlights, on the Faldo Course. In December 2020 alone, the Faldo Course had over seven thousand rounds, which is someone teeing off every five to six minutes for twelve to thirteen hours. For every one of these rounds, the members, paying public or PGA professionals expect the very best from the Middle East’s very best, and delivering that along with a


seventy-two strong team is Fleet Manager and Second Assistant Dònal Mulvey. In early February, when we sit down for this interview, Dònal and the course team are in their coldest time of year and fresh from another successful Desert Classic, with Paul Casey claiming his 15th European Tour title.


Whilst the daytime temperature in Dubai is twenty-five degrees Celsius, in England, on the other side of the Zoom call, it’s a slightly colder minus two - a temperature Dònal is more familiar with from his time working at Royal Dublin Golf Club.


The Irishman traded the striking views of Dublin Bay for Dubai’s sun and sand in 2017 after initially learning his trade during a formative 30-week college placement at the


Emirates Golf Club


Temperature challenges


14 PC April/May 2021


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