Golf course review: What to expect at Jumeirah Golf Estate's Earth Course

Gulf News

The Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estate is a proud host of the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai - the culmination of The Race to Dubai and DP World Tour season. This sharply defined, sculptured course inspired by the great parklands of Europe and North America, paints a magnificent pastiche of ora, rolling terrain and rushing water. These natural components also provide differing angles and changing perspectives from each tee. Watch the video to see Dubai-based golfer Hannah Mannion, show you around.  Read more Golf in UAE stories here:   https://gulfnews.com/sport/golf-in-uae  Subscribe to Gulf News on YouTube and watch more of our videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/GulfNewsTV  #UAEnews #golf  #sports

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone, my name's Hannah Manion. Welcome to Jemira Golf Estates.

00:03Follow me as I take you around the earth course today.

00:10So how many times have you been to the DP World Tour Champs here?

00:13I actually think I've been here every year.

00:16Every year?

00:17Since I moved to Dubai. Not all day, every day,

00:22but I've managed to make it to at least one of the day in sports here.

00:25It's a pretty cool experience isn't it?

00:28Yeah, it's mostly all the top players out there. It's always a great experience watching them.

00:32They play some great golf and it's actually good to see how they play the hole,

00:37give you a little bit of tips and tricks of how to play them.

00:42Not going off the tips, no?

00:44Not today.

00:46We could do like a combination I think, like that's what I would normally do.

00:49They do like half blue, half green. We'll go green here.

00:53Okay, so we're here at the first hole. We have about 235 yards to that bunker on the left,

01:01so we're going to aim right of that. We really don't want to be in there on the first hole.

01:05We're going to try and eliminate a bogey or a double bogey,

01:08try and start the round with a nice solid par.

01:16Oh no, I can't get it.

01:18Okay, I think it's 172 yards to the flag. There's a bunker just in front of the green,

01:28so we're going to aim a little bit left and hopefully it'll just kind of roll around a

01:32little bit towards the hole. 172, I feel like that's not right, but we'll go with it.

01:42Solid strike though, so we can't complain.

01:46What's your putting usually like?

01:48To be honest, it's the one thing that I really, really need to work on,

01:51but I just prefer hitting balls to be honest, so I kind of avoid going on the putting green

01:56and putting in the practice that I really should do. No high expectations.

02:06Go.

02:10It's rolling down, not quite hit it hard enough. We'll see if we can hold this one for the par.

02:17Oh.

02:23No comment.

02:24Yeah, no comment. My putting's terrible, so we moved.

02:29What are the greens like here in the UE? A lot different to kind of back at home as well,

02:33aren't they?

02:34Yeah, back home, very different kind of greens. Out here, different courses,

02:40they can be a little bit grainy, which will affect the way that the ball rolls.

02:44And they're also generally quite a lot faster than most of the courses in the UK.

02:56Okay, so we're here on hole four. The green is completely surrounded by bunkers,

03:01so we want to try our best to avoid all of them because they're super, super deep.

03:06We've got 165 yards to the flag. It's a little bit into the wind,

03:11so we're going to see if we can get our seven iron there.

03:16It's terrible.

03:19I have no idea how far I hit my iron so far. I've just got two irons,

03:24and I'm like, yeah, it goes about one foot apart, but that's how he's like most of the way.

03:30It's going to turn a little bit left to right.

03:33We're just going to give it a roll and pray for birdies.

03:41There we go.

03:57Right, so it's 174.

04:03Be good. I think they were Ping I25s, my previous ones.

04:09And I've had them literally for about seven years. I got them before I moved to Dubai.

04:13Now I think I've got the Ping I525s. Absolutely love them. They're great.

04:23No. Yeah, terrible.

04:26Need to spend more time on the putting green, definitely.

04:33OK, so we're here at hole 10. The hole from these tees is about 366 yards on the scorecard.

04:43It's pretty wide open down there, so we're just going to aim for the middle of the fairway.

04:48It's quite a short par 4, so we're hoping to try and get a birdie, but we'll see how that goes.

04:55That's completely the other way.

04:57OK, so despite the fairway being completely wide open, I didn't do too well.

05:04We're kind of out in the box. An OK angle in to the green here.

05:08We're going to aim a little bit right just to make sure it stays on the green.

05:13We're quite far away and we're very underneath the flag.

05:18So this will be a good test for my putting.

05:20I would maybe normally chip this, but we're going to give it a go with putting.

05:25And we need to improve, as we said, so nothing like a bit of practice.

05:37Keep going. I'll take that. Definitely can't complain.

05:48Of course, we've missed it. Another little bogey there.

05:55I've lost that net. No.

06:13Another missed birdie.

06:19Right, OK, so this is actually the 16th hole.

06:22There's a lot of water and there's a lot of bunkers,

06:25so we're just going to try and wangle our way away from both of them.

06:28The fairway all runs down to the right hand side,

06:31which is where the little creek is going to be.

06:35I can't see it. Oh, we're on the fairway, I think.

06:39We're good. Yeah, we like it.

06:45OK, so we've got 167 yards to the flag.

06:47It's downwind off the right hand side.

06:51Obviously got a lot of water over there,

06:53and then there's three bunkers on the left hand side.

06:56We'd much rather be in a bunker than in the water,

06:59so we're going to aim a little bit left

07:01and the wind should also help bring it across.

07:07Well, we didn't make it in a bunker or the water, so we're safe.

07:14It's sat up quite high, so I don't think it's going to be a problem.

07:17I want to make sure I don't go underneath it,

07:19so we'll just see if we can get this one in close.

07:22A little tap in.

07:26Whoops, bit heavy on that, but that should be fine.

07:33And a nice little pass.

07:40Can we believe I made up and down?

07:44OK, so we're here at the 17th hole

07:46and it is an island green.

07:50There's been many a drama at the DPU World Tour Championships here.

07:55There's lots of room for error,

07:57but obviously if you can hit a good shot in their floor.

08:07So we've got quite a long putt here.

08:09It's uphill, so we need to make sure that we get it there.

08:17Good job.

08:23Oh, made the pass.

08:27It's always nice to hold a second long one.

08:30So we've got the 18th hole coming up.

08:33The tee shot, in my opinion, is one of the toughest in the UAE.

08:40There's a lot of danger both sides and you can kind of be punished

08:44even after a good tee shot,

08:46as a lot of the fairway kind of runs down towards the end of the creek.

08:51So we need to really plan where we're going to go off the tee.

09:02You've got either two options.

09:03You can either play it left of the creek or right of the creek.

09:07I personally prefer to go to the right hand side.

09:09It just gives you a more straight shot into the green.

09:13So we're just going to lay up right hand side of the fairway.

09:17I've got a three hybrid, so should hit about 200 yards-ish.

09:23Oh, or chunk it.

09:26Either way.

09:27It's a pretty terrible second shot.

09:30Thankfully, we're not in any of the danger.

09:32I'm just going to try and fade it in.

09:34Oh, we're in the danger again.

09:44Bunker time.

10:04How did you find the course today, Hannah?

10:07The course was great.

10:08My putting, not so much.

10:11But yeah, it was in great condition.

10:13Love the course.

10:16I think it's time to go for a drink now.

10:18Definitely earned it after playing in that heat.

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