Swinging through the sands of time: The untold story of UAE's ‘sand golf' era

Khaleej Times

6 hours ago

There was a time, not so long ago, when a round of golf in the UAE had a lot to do with brushing sand, not grass, off your 'pimpled wonder'. A time when 'bunkers' stretched for miles and a good shot depended more on luck than actual skill.
This wasn't just golf. It was SAND golf. And for a brief, sun-soaked chapter in UAE sporting history, it was legacy in the making.
Before the immaculate greens of Emirates Golf Club or the YAS Links, before the PGA tours came calling and Tiger Woods tried his hand at desert domination, golf in the Emirates was a gritty and grainy game, although a masterclass in skilful chaos.
Think carpeted tee boxes on sand, rolled oil-sand greens, sunburnt dunes, and fairways you'd sometimes need four-wheel drive to navigate. It was part sport, part desert expedition, but completely unforgettable even to this day.
Perhaps nothing captured that spirit more than the legendary Sharjah-to-Dubai Golfathon of 1986. Ten teams. One desert. A single golf ball per team. And 30-odd miles of raw, rolling sand between tee and flag.
Desert Dream Takes Flight
The brainchild of Alan Forster, then captain of Sharjah Wanderers Golf Club, the idea took shape when he pitched a bold, slightly madcap proposal to the Dubai Country Club: a Golfathon across the desert, two cities and endless sand.
Starting at Sharjah Wanderers Golf Club, originally part of Sharjah Wanderers Sports Club and founded in 1978, a troop of bold pioneers set off in the blistering 110°F afternoon heat, armed with clubs, hats and water coolers to reinforce the timeless truth that golf's spirit thrives beyond manicured greens.
The rules were as simple as they come: team members play alternate shots, try to hit fewer strokes than your rivals, and make sure you don't lose your only ball in a herd of startled camels.
By sunset, the leading team crossed the 18th green at the erstwhile Dubai Country Club with 174 strokes on the scoreboard and heaps of sand in their shoes. The Golfathon was mad, magnificent, and uniquely UAE.
Braving the blistering heat, shifting dunes, and the raw desert, the team of Bill McBride, Phil Mulligan, Jeff Lampitt, and Ian McDonald stormed to victory, conquering the approximately 30-mile course in just 174 shots over 5 hours and 5 minutes of unforgettable determination and endurance.
With grit and grace, the women's team completed the course in a noteworthy 332 strokes.
From Sand to Skyline
Fast-forward to today, and it's hard to imagine such chaos existed years before the Burj Khalifa was even thought of. The route from Sharjah to Dubai is now one of the busiest highways, lined with high-rises and shopping malls. The golf courses are lush, pristine, and GPS-enabled. Sand golf, like cassette tapes and Kodak film, has disappeared into the background.
But here's a thought: Imagine vintage sand golf making a comeback!
Not as a replacement for the modern game, of course, but as a celebration of it. A retro revival, just like vinyl records are enjoying in the music industry. Perhaps a weekend tournament on oil-sand greens, a nostalgic nod to the early pioneers of UAE golf who didn't need fairway sprinklers or clubhouse beverages to enjoy the game.
After all, we're still a desert nation. Sand is in our soul and our shoes. If vinyl records can make a comeback, and black-and-white photography still has its magic, why not a return to sand golf?
A Vintage Classic?
Perhaps even a "Dubai Desert Classic: Vintage Edition," played on throwback courses with era-specific rules. Maybe even another Golfathon, though we might need to navigate a few more swirling roundabouts and toll gates rather than camels this time.
There's something so pure, so rudimentary, about the old sand courses. No frills, just you, the desert, and the stubborn hope that your 7-iron doesn't bury itself three inches deep in powdery sand.
Sure, we love our well-manicured greens now. But once in a while, wouldn't it be fun to play golf like it used to be in the old days, with sand under your ball, and nothing but hope and luck determining your success.
Golf, after all, didn't begin as perfectly as you might think. And maybe, just maybe, we can pause to salute those imperfections that led to the modern, monumental game that is now played by over 60 million golf fanatics in more than 200 countries and around 40,000 golf courses worldwide!