Golf Course Architecture - Issue 64, April 2021

first grass layout was built at Dirab Golf & Country Club, in the shadow of the Tuwaiq escarpment southwest of the capital, Riyadh. While the new course was well received, it didn’t yet signal an opening of the f loodgates. Since the turn of the millennium, just a few more grass courses have followed. In 2002, thanks to the efforts of Saudi Aramco’s Community Services, the Rolling Hills club was transformed from sand to grass. In order to properly utilise the space it was decided to convert the 27-hole layout to an 18-hole course of 6,649 yards. The remaining nine was decommissioned, but if you stroll the jebels on either side of the current course, which is now open public land, you can still find old tee boxes, benches and ball washers. There are two more 18-hole grass courses close to Riyadh. North of the city, Riyadh Golf Courses started life in 1986 as a sand course, and in 2005 was converted to grass. Each hole is an oasis of green on the desert landscape, with waste areas to be carried from the tee. There are a few lakes, the largest of which includes an island green for the par-three eighth. Nofa Resorts, around 60 miles southwest of the capital, is a contrast, with wall-to-wall grass. Barrie Gregson – formerly the golf operations manager for DeVere Hotels in the UK – replaced the resort’s original nine-hole course with an eighteen-hole layout in 2013. The back nine lies entirely within the interior of the Nofa horse racing track. Nine-hole grass courses in Saudi Arabia include the par-34 grass layout at the Arizona Golf Resort residential community close to the centre of Riyadh, and the par-36 Safaa Golf Club layout at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology near Jeddah, which was designed by Dave Sampson of European Golf Design and opened in 2010. In recent years, as Saudi Arabia has developed its Vision 2030 to diversify the economy and develop public services, golf has climbed the agenda. With the establishment of the Saudi Golf Federation, the organisation of the sport in the country has been formalised and ambitious plans created for the game’s future development. The task of driving this change has fallen to Majed Al Sorour, the CEO of Golf Saudi, a subsidiary of the Saudi Golf Federation. A former professional footballer, playing for Saudi Premier League side Al Nassr FC, Al Sorour went on to study and work in the United States, during which time he also carved out a successful amateur golf career and Photo: Alamy Golfers at Ras Tanura, above, the site of Aramco’s first refinery, played over ‘browns’ of sand and oil Photo: Alamy 73