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The man behind the Emirates Golf Club masterpiece
Karl Litten, the man who designed the Majlis course, is now 80-years old but neither age, nor a lifethreatening condition have diminished his sense of humour.
Litten, who suffers from TIA (transient ischemic attack), or mini strokes – a condition where the blood flow to a part of the brain stops for a brief period of time resulting in stroke-like symptoms – recently spoke exclusively to Sport360° from his home in Miami.
When asked why he thought he wasn’t invited to design more courses in the UAE despite the fact that Majlis is now considered a ‘timeless classic’ in world golf, Litten said: “I suffer from mini strokes, and my nephew (Jeffrey Myers, who does most of the design work under the banner of JCM Group), has got Parkinson’s. You really think they would take a chance on us two?
“And then there is the fact that I charged just $100,000 (Dh367,310) for the golf course at that time, and $75,000 (Dh275,483) for the nine holes that I did for them later (the Wadi course, which was extended to 18 holes and redesigned by Nick Faldo to its present layout). I am too cheap by Dubai standards!”
Having said that, Litten is heartbroken he is unable to make the journey to the Emirates for the 25th anniversary celebration of a course that he considers the No1 in his vast portfolio of approximately 110 golf courses.
Litten said: “I’d say Emirates Golf Club is right up there as No1 because of the maintenance and the fame it has gained. They have spent a lot of money on the proper equipment and on having good golf course superintendents.
“I haven’t been to Dubai for almost 20 years now, but I do keep following the amazing things that are being done there. I’d love to be there for the 25th anniversary, but I am afraid to travel now because of my condition.”
Litten has vivid memories of the days he spent in the UAE designing what was the first grass golf course in the entire Middle East. He recalled: “In 1979, a friend of mine, Larry Trenary, who was an irrigation contractor, went to Dubai to install irrigation systems, to landscape and to maintain all the Sheikh’s palaces.
“In 1984, he thought it would be a good idea to have a golf course in Dubai and ran it by Sheikh Mohammed, who agreed and gave him a piece of land near the Jebel Ali hotel. He immediately contacted me to come down for a site inspection, but we did not have any access to fresh water and the idea was dropped.
“I think it was some time in 1986 that Sheikh Mohammed visited Pakistan and met the then President Zia-ul Haq, who happened to be a passionate golfer. Sheikh Mohammed told the President about his thoughts of opening a green golf course in Dubai, and the President said it was a great idea and he’d personally come down to attend the opening of the course.
“It was then that Sheikh Mohammed gave the golf course a real push. I came down again and we did a bit of scouting and I found two pieces of land much closer to the World Trade Centre than the present location. Things were looking good when during one of our site visits, we saw a few Bedouins with their camels and goats there. When Sheikh Mohammed heard about that, he immediately asked us to go further out and look for another site for the project.
"He said there was no way he was going to displace the men and the camels. And that just showed how much he cared for his own people. So, we looked for another place, and when I was passing the present location, I saw an amazing sand dune amidst the flat desert. It was the dramatic elevation that decided everything for me. And with absolutely no life there, Sheikh Mohammed was happy to grant us the land. That dune is now where the eighth green and the majlis is.”
The original landscape: Litten transformed this into the Middle East’s first grass golf course.
Litten said the only design brief he received was that Sheikh Mohammed wanted it to be the best possible golf course. “Obviously, it was a very important project for him, and it was very important for me too. It was my first golf course in the region and I wanted it to be the best.
"There were people who laughed at us when they heard we were building a golf course in the middle of the desert. I did not want them to keep laughing after we had finished it.”
Of all his projects, Litten, who is currently working on a couple of projects in Oman (Salalah Beach) and Egypt (El Gouna), said the Emirates Golf Club was one of the most hassle-free jobs he has ever undertaken.
He said: “I think the only excitement was when we wanted to grass the fairways and decided to get it from one of the royal family’s palaces, where Larry had used Bermuda419. That really upset some of Sheikh’s people who thought we were trying to ruin his garden.”
So what was Sheikh Mohammed’s reaction when the course was complete? “Oh…I heard he was very happy, but of course he never told me that personally. But since I was asked to design the Creek course after that and then the nine-hole course at Nad Al Sheba, I am sure he was happy with what I did,” said Litten.
1988: The Emirates Golf Course was Dubai's jewel in the desert.
2013: Emirates Golf Course remains a constant in the ever-evolving Dubai landscape.
READ MORE:
- Emirates Golf Club setting the standards for others to follow, writes Joy Chakravarty
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