The Gulf: Talk About Sand Traps

Talk About Sand Traps

One day in 1985, Stephen Trutch, an engineer employed by Dubai's royal family, caught the country's Defense Minister watching golf on television. "Why don't we have a golf course in Dubai?" asked Trutch. He was given the go-ahead, and last week (some $10 million later) the Persian Gulf got its first grass golf course.

The Emirates Golf Club, with a clubhouse resembling a group of Bedouin tents, features quick-growing Buffalo grass imported from Georgia, four artificial lakes and countless natural sand traps. No one in the royal family actually plays golf. So Pakistani President Mohammed Zia ul-Haq, a demon golfer, was...

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