By Kent Gray
James Williams is a stress-free interview. Simply press record, sit back and enjoy a captivating journey through a lifetime in golf as colourful as that famed tan, one that strangely never acquainted itself with his legs. It seems there is a reason seasoned golf professionals wear trousers and if you ask nicely, Emirates Golf Club’s newest “old” pro will likely hitch said slacks to keep a running joke rolling. Self-deprecation is one of the Shropshire product’s endearing trademarks.

But we digress. Back to an interview where probing lines of enquiry, beyond the initial conversation starter, are rarely required.

So, how did you get into golf?

“My golfing life started…actually, I was a much keener cricketer to the extent that I did play a lot of county cricket and got selected for England training. Didn’t get on the team, but that was my true love. Left-handed cricketer, totally right-handed person.”

Williams is a totally natural storyteller too, and clearly just warming to his task as the next 112, almost pauseless minutes prove.

It transpires his introduction to golf came through his father, a bank manager who took up the game later in life. Williams’ Snr saw a neighbour throwing out an old set of clubs one day and seized on an opportunity for young James.

“It was a rusty old pencil bag with about eight clubs in there. Believe it or not they were hickories. We cut them down and of course I gripped it cack-handed because they’re right-handed clubs. I probably would have been world No.1 if I didn’t remain left-handed,” Williams says with a hearty dollop of English jocularity.

He may never have become a world-beater but the then Shrewsbury G.C. member was good enough to get down to a one-handicap and play county golf. And in some illustrious company too.   

“I come from a county that at that time had five courses so we had to join forces with a neighbouring county. We played in the Midlands league… [European Tour Dubai chief] Nick Tarratt probably played against me years ago, we didn’t know each other then. [Golf in Dubai President and former R&A chief] Peter Dawson actually played for Warwickshire. They’ve got like 20, 30, 50 golf courses, we had five, got thrashed every time.

“The incredible thing was, we had as our No.1 and No.2, AWB [Alexander Walter Barr or “Sandy”] Lyle and Ian Woosnam. So the other 10 of us turned up and lost most times and those two played together in the foursomes and always won.”

Williams eventually fell into a PGA traineeship and deeply in love with teaching. After cutting his teeth in the UK, foreign adventures beckoned and he soon found himself mixing with 4-Star Generals at Woodlawn G.C., a course within the Ramstein Air Base in southwest Germany which remains today the U.S. Air Force’s European HQ and home to the NATO Allied Air Command.

It was an enlightening life and golf experience but the icy German winters eventually wore thin so Williams applied for a role at a club soon to open in the UAE. It was 1987 and his military pals were worried.

“No one had heard of the UAE but I speculated and put in an application.” Williams sat back and waited for a response. And waited. Six months later he’d almost given up but decided a call to Emirates Golf Club was in order, if only to politely register his disappointment at the lack of a courtesy call to say he’d missed out.

An apologetic Rodney J. Bogg, Emirates G.C.’s first general manager, answered and had a surprise, inviting Williams out for a trial along with two other hopefuls.

“I stayed for a week – gobsmacked! Horrible word, but just gobsmacked by the whole place. I remember walking on the driving range. I’ve been to many golf courses by this time but I was tip-toeing across the grass. I have never seen anything so level, every blade of grass vertical to the ground like a brand new scrubbing brush. ‘Well hit a few shots, guys.’ You know I’m a big ball and turf guy which golfers should be if they are going to strike the ball. But I didn’t dare take a divot, I was just clipping it off the top, didn’t want to be the guy digging up their new range.”

Williams became part of the furniture at Emirates G.C. for the next decade as Dubai grew up around its pioneering grass golf course. The next chapter in his career spans 20 years at Jebel Ali where, as golf operations manager, Williams was the perpetually smiling face of the resort course. Recently though, the grin started to fade as he did a stocktake of his career and realised he was no longer in the customer-facing roles he loved. A hankering to get back to those happy old teaching days become impossible to ignore and thankfully Emirates G.C. were receptive to a home-coming.

“I was the first pro to get here, and sadly now I’m the oldest pro,” Williams jokes of being back on the tools as part of Dubai Golf’s Peter Cowan Academy Dubai team.

“It is fabulous fun. I’ve got to rebuild my clientele but a lot of the original members have already come back. It never goes fast enough for me because I want to show that it’s worth Emirates having me back but it’s been very encouraging so far. I hope it’s been for the club. I couldn’t be happier.”

Mustufa Abidi/Motivate Publishing
James Williams and son Robbie are now working side-by-side at Emirates G.C. where Robbie is part of the Golf in Dubai team delivering the Omega Dubai Classics and MENA Tour.

The role means Williams now has the joy of working even closer to his 25-year-old son Robbie who is part of the Golf in Dubai team behind the Omega Dubai Desert and Ladies Classics and increasingly the face of the MENA Tour. Like his father, Williams Jnr’s first love wasn’t golf either, rather football. He was good enough to play for England Schoolboys and sign junior papers with Wolverhampton Wanderers but also cunning enough to see a good opportunity when the father of Emirati golf, Mohamed Juma Buamaim, offered him an internship.

“As a Dad, to see him growing and getting all this experience, yeah, I’m very proud. I will say that there is no one prouder than me seeing him on television doing the Desert Classic presentation. I’d be shaking like a leaf and apparently he was but he doesn’t stumble over his speeches like me.“

James Williams is equally proud of his daughter Anna-Louise, a physiotherapist in London, and grateful to his understanding wife Heather for allowing him to pursue a career where weekends and family time are a precious commodity. “She’s been very patient with her husband. You’d better get that in writing before she divorces me!”

Conversation reverts back to his beloved cricket but this time with a golf spin, not unlike the leg-breaks he used to “turn a yard”, at least the ones that bounced anyway. His childhood hero was the elegant left-handed West Indian batsman Sir Garfield Sobers so imagine the thrill when, during his initial stint at Emirates G.C., Bogg asked him to look after the visiting cricketing knight one day.

“He was just the greatest guy to talk to. When your hero turns out to be as nice as that, it’s one of the biggest things that has happened to me out here. Perhaps in our own countries we would never meet all these famous people. Is it a big deal? To me it has been. To actually see these people and find out they are normal like us has been a thrill.”

Williams played in the first three Desert Classics but his biggest playing kick came before the inaugural event in 1989 when he was asked to guide another idol, Tony Jacklin, in a reconnaissance lap of the Majlis course. The 67 he shot in the company of the Ryder Cup legend is a treasured memory and made all the practice beforehand, and some predictably nervy play in the tournaments proper afterwards, worth it.

“We were working 14 hours a day preparing everything for the first Desert Classic so I’ve hardly played and I’m going to look stupid in front of the members. All of a sudden I’m feeling a lot of pressure. So three weeks before I fished my clubs out. I would finish giving lessons at 10 o’clock at night, quickly run home, have a shower, half an hours kip, and then put the range lights on and belt balls all night long, over and over and over again until I actually had an awful cut down here [pointing to his left palm] because of a poor grip and soft hands. I don’t think we paid for the electricity in those days but I’ve paid with a scar for life.”

Williams would love to play more often and has a goal of teeing it up in the Sharjah Senior Masters if he can get his game, and his now 59-year-old body, to co-operate. But it’s teaching that really inspires him.

“I don’t think I’m really somebody, maybe not good enough, to be at the sharp end teaching top professionals but that was never been my goal. I actually don’t think you get as much satisfaction as seeing someone that’s come along, dead keen, they finally get the ball up in the air, they’re running around jumping in the air, like whoopee!

“I’m sure some people here think I’m a bit of a pain in the arse, but for people to say its really nice to have you back, and there’s been too many saying that for it not to be half true, it’s humbling. I think maybe they just like my enthusiasm, that I care. It is lovely to be back.”

The feeling from friends old and new at Emirates G.C. is mutual. For lessons, and yarns, delivered with genuine enthusiasm, the club couldn’t have hired anyone better.

The post James Williams is back on the tools at Emirates G.C. delivering lessons – and legendary tales – with unbridled joy appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Wednesday, March 8, 1988 began as a typical day – blue sky, glorious sunshine, no wind and perfect temperatures – but was destined to become, as Neville Parker wrote in the Gulf News the following morning, “A Golden Moment in Dubai’s History”.

For this was the day that the eagerly anticipated Emirates Golf Club opened its doors to the world. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum (pictured below left), the man whose vision had created this, the first all-grass championship golf course in the Middle East, was there, as were the Crown Princes of every one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE, to witness Zia-ul-Haq, the then President of Pakistan, inaugurate the Karl Litten designed course with a golden club brought to him by the UAE’s world champion parachute team.

(Left) HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum was on hand to open the club. (Right) the world champion para team fly into the opening ceremony

The opening was followed by an exhibition match – the East-West Challenge – featuring Europe’s Howard Clarke and Sam Torrance for the West against Roger Davies and Graham Marsh for the East, which was won by Clarke and Torrance on the final hole.

The clubhouse was much smaller than today

That opening day will be remembered by every one of the 3500 guests as one of the most memorable in Dubai’s amazing history, as His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum cut the ribbon at the entrance to the magnificent Bedouin camp shaped clubhouse to open what was destined to become one of the landmarks in this remarkable city.

What is even more remarkable, however, is the fact that in 1988, Emirates G.C. was a full 25km from the city, with virtually nothing between the old Defence Roundabout (now the Dubai Mall interchange) and the site, which had been chosen for its elevation and natural terrain, both of which enabled Florida-based course architect Litten to create one of the finest courses in the world, one that would witness some of the greatest golf in the history of the European Tour.

“It was destined to become one of the landmarks in this remarkable city.”

It was also significantly smaller than the sophisticated resort that it is now – it opened with just one golf course, one driving range, four tennis courts, two squash courts, a swimming pool, a gym, and, surprisingly, the first and only lawn bowling green in the country. The clubhouse was also much smaller than today, with no terrace overlooking the putting green (as can be seen on the aerial shot opposite page), a terrace which was created by the three extensions to the Spike Bar and Pro-shop that were carried out over the next 10 years.

The bowling green soon became a grass tennis court, and then a five-a-side football pitch, but everything else still remains – testimony to the quality of the design and construction, both of which have endured for 30 years. Even the car park and cart paths have lasted for all that time, whilst the eponymous Majlis on the 8th green still overlooks the course in all its majesty.

(Left) Jamie and The Divots entertain. The clubhouse under construction

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed had inherited his father, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum’s amazing vision, and created Dubai’s first grass golf facility as an addition to the infrastructure of a city that wished to attract both commerce and tourism as part of its long-term diversification from its reliance on oil revenues.

Emirates G.C. was, however, destined to do far more than that and was immediately overwhelmed by golfers, visitors and the world’s curious press. Its attraction to wildlife was another plus, with ornithologists – including US President Jimmy Carter – eager to see the myriad species of birds that had never been seen in the region before this haven of green appeared in the desert.

The first Desert Classic, then known as the Karl Litten Desert Classic, was won by Mark James in 1989. The Englishman edged Australian Peter O’Malley in a playoff after both ended with 277 aggregates, -11.

More importantly, the club put Dubai firmly on the world’s sporting map as it became the European Tour’s first permanent venue outside mainland Europe when the 1st Dubai Desert Classic took place in March 1989, just a year after the opening of the course, with future Ryder Cup captain Mark James being the first to receive the magnificent silver dallah trophy from His Highness Sheikh Mohammed.

Related: Emirates Golf Club returns to No.1 in the Top 10 Courses in the Middle East rankings

The Desert Classic continues today as the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and has seen some of the world’s greatest golfers lift the trophy, not to mention some of the most dramatic finishes in European Tour history. Who will ever forget Thomas Bjorn’s victory over Tiger Woods in 2001, or Tiger’s dramatic finish in 2008 to take the title for the second time, something that only Ernie Els and Stephen Gallacher have repeated. It is also worth noting that the Desert Classic launched several illustrious careers, including those of such greats as Ernie Els – who is the only three-time winner – and Rory McIlroy, who both recorded their first European Tour wins in Dubai.

Back to 1988, Emirates G.C. had opened as a members’ club under Chairman His Highness Sheikh Butti Al Maktoum, and with James Williams proving himself the perfect head club professional the club was an instant success and membership was full within six months. It was immediately evident that one golf course was not going to meet the demand from both local and international golfers, and the first nine holes of the Wadi course opened in 1992, to be increased to 18 holes just four years later, allowing the club to open its doors to visitors and corporate golf.

“Emirates G.C. was an instant success with membership full within six months.”

In 1999 Dubai Golf was formed under the Chairmanship of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum who led both the Emirates and Dubai Creek golf clubs in the same way as Emirates Airline, with quality always the first priority, and approving the club’s first major refurbishment in 2000, and the return of the Desert Classic in 2001 after its two years at the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club.

Mohamed Juma Buamaim became the first UAE National General Manager in 2000, and he immediately began to re-establish the club spirit among the membership, as well as re-establishing the Majlis course as the permanent venue for both the Omega Dubai Desert Classic and the Omega Dubai Ladies Masters, now the Omega Dubai Classics. When Mohammed left to create the MENA Golf Tour and Golf Citizen, Chris May returned, and eventually took over as CEO of Dubai Golf, but not before overseeing the redesign of the Wadi course by Sir Nick Faldo, to enable the building of villas on the property.

Rod Bogg, Nick Faldo and Mohamed Juma Buamaim at the Faldo opening

After the Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club opened in 1993 golf tourism really began to take off and Emirates Golf Club became the benchmark for the many new developments that followed in the late 90s and early 2000’s. Indeed, when wasl Asset Management took ownership of Emirates G.C. in 2008 they immediately began a modernisation programme that brought the Emirates G.C. firmly into the 21st century.

With the latest refurbishment, which has introduced Jones The Grocer to the Club and a new Spike Bar on the first floor (where many believe it should always have been), Emirates G.C. has taken on a new lease of life and continues to be the benchmark for other clubs. With TopGolf is on the way, and the Majlis course recently voted the number one golf layout in the Middle East by Golf Digest Middle East, the future looks bright.

When you look at the club now, and how it has progressed over the last 30 years, it would have been impossible for anyone who was at the opening in 1988 – when the club was a 45-minute drive from the city, and when you could still see the sea from the 8th green – to have foreseen the amazing golf and leisure resort that it is today.

The Majlis’ 7th

Thirty years ago it was called the ‘The Desert Miracle’, and although it has now been swallowed by the incredible expansion of Dubai, it is still fondly referred to as such, with the name being adopted for the detailed history of the club that was published by Motivate on the occasion of the Club’s 25th Anniversary in 2013.

“It’s impossible to have foreseen the amazing resort that it is today.”

This year Emirates Golf Club celebrates its 30th anniversary, and it must be gratifying for its creator, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to see it continue to flourish and project the image of Dubai to every corner of the golfing globe.

Copies of The Desert Miracle, and the 25 Years of the Dubai Desert Classic, are available in limited numbers from Motivate at Media One Tower.

The post Emirates Golf Club – the ‘Desert Miracle’ appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.