The battle for the Dallah Trophy between Viktor Hovland, Richard Bland and Rory McIlroy at the weekend will go down in the annals of great moments at the Dubai Desert Classic.
There have been plenty of those since Emirates Golf Club became the first in the Middle East to stage a European Tour event back in 1989.
From the region’s most historic tournament, the now-renamed DP World Tour caravan is now heading up the coast, to a venue that is ready to mint some memories all of its own.
Starting on Thursday, Al Hamra Golf Club will become the latest member of an elite club, when it makes its Tour debut by hosting the Ras Al Khaimah Championship presented by Phoenix Capital.
Al Hamra will immediately achieve something unique. None of the courses in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Qatar, or Saudi Arabia — or anywhere else for that matter — staged its second tournament as soon after its first as Al Hamra will be doing.
Because of issues arising from Covid, the Qatar Masters was postponed midway through January. Having first decided back in October RAK was a worthy host for a new event, the DP World Tour this month asked if it could manage back-to-back weeks.
It met with a positive response. And so Al Hamra’s debut will be followed immediately by the Ras Al Khaimah Classic next week.
“The second week is a unique situation, purely based on what we are facing in the world,” said Craeg Deery, Al Hamra’s sales, marketing and membership manager.
“It is unfortunate for Qatar as a venue and a destination, but they are just moving that event — not cancelling it.
“What it did do is provide us with an unforeseen opportunity. It is like London buses: you wait for one to come along, then two come back to back. It is fantastic.
“We are really, really hoping this will put us on the map — or escalate what we already have.”
As Deery points out, Al Hamra and the Emirate in which it resides remain a relatively well-kept secret on the international stage. He is hopeful the arrival of golf’s elite will go some way to altering that.
“It is a phenomenal opportunity to showcase the whole destination, and what Ras Al Khaimah is about,” he said.
“Dubai and Abu Dhabi, rightly so, have a phenomenal reputation as world-class destinations for their golf course facilities.
“But we are lucky that other Emirates have that as well. We see that with the amount of guests we have coming across from Europe and the UK.
“They really enjoy playing here, despite not necessarily having heard of it before. They might have known it as somewhere just past Dubai Airport, but are not quite sure where it is. We just really hope it puts us on the map.”
Tour officials made their final inspection of the course in September, and confirmed it worthy of an event immediately.
Not everything ran smoothly thereafter, though. Within days of the Tour’s head of agronomy giving it his seal of approval, the system pumping water to the course broke down. The problem persisted for weeks.
Dindy Macatlang, Al Hamra’s course superintendent, and his team had to water the greens by hand in order for the Bermuda grass to survive, until the issue was eventually rectified. Not that even a seasoned observer would be able to tell by looking at the course now.
“At the end of the day, it is all summer grass, so drought resistant, Macatlang said.
“After 10 days, when we saw the golf course I was thinking, ‘This is really drought resistant?’ It was so brown. It was terrible. I couldn’t look at it.
“This was the first time in 25 years I’ve experienced something like this. That is why my head was really spinning, thinking, ‘How can I revive this golf course?’
“If we didn’t have a tournament, I could guarantee we could get the course back in due time. But with the tournament, the time frame is very small.
“At the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘Can we revive this?’ With proper planning, with the right amount of products we have, we have been able to do it.
“Two months from November 3 is what we had for tournament preparation. In two months, we have made a big turnaround. I am very proud of my team.”
Macatlang has a quarter of a century’s worth of experience in golf course agronomy. The fact he is not the only one in the Al Hamra management with such depth of knowledge is perhaps a clue to why the Tour deemed the place capable of hosting two $2 million tournaments.
Paul Booth, the club’s general manager, had a key role in organising the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship in his previous role at the National Course.
“We had been talking to various tours about hosting an event here,” Booth said of how the Tour decided on RAK.
“To showcase the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, it has been great to get that done.”
Countries recognising Palestine
France, UK, Canada, Australia, Portugal, Belgium, Malta, Luxembourg, San Marino and Andorra
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
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ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
MIDWAY
Produced: Lionsgate Films, Shanghai Ryui Entertainment, Street Light Entertainment
Directed: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Ed Skrein, Woody Harrelson, Dennis Quaid, Aaron Eckhart, Luke Evans, Nick Jonas, Mandy Moore, Darren Criss
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
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From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
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The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
Power: 70bhp
Torque: 66Nm
Transmission: four-speed manual
Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
On sale: Models from 1966 to 1970
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Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
Funding stage: Seed investment
Initial investment: $200,000
Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East)
