Gil Hanse, without doubt the most scrutinised golf course architect in the world at the moment, swears by the concept of minimalism.
When creating a course, he is always thinking of moving the minimum amount of earth, and instead use the natural topography and the native vegetation to the maximum.
But when the man who is famously designing the 2016 Rio Olympic golf course and giving the iconic Blue Monster at Doral a complete makeover, waves his magic wand at the Trump International Dubai, he admits he will have to throw his philosophy out of the window for once.
Trump International Dubai is the latest golf course project announced in the UAE and forms the focal point of property developers Damac’s multi-billion dollar Akoya City in the Dubailand area.
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Hanse is a personal favourite of real estate tycoon Donald Trump, whose company Trump Organisation will be managing the golf club. The reason minimalism won’t work for Hanse this time is because he has been given a piece of desert land with absolutely no features to work upon.
But the 49-year-old American, who was on a two-day site visit recently, has already hit upon a plan to make it the most distinctive golf course in the region when it opens for public play sometime in the second half of 2014.
“The site itself is fairly nondescript from a natural standpoint,” said Hanse. “So, we will have to put in a lot of creativity and imagination into creating the landforms.
“During these two days of inspection, we also went out to Hatta dunes to look at the natural landforms and the kind of vegetation we can use, and build something very different and distinct in Dubai. We are excited about what we have come up with. I think we have got a very good plan.
“Our vision for Trump International Dubai is based on two things – one is the dunescape that exists out there in the UAE desert and how graceful these wind-swept landform looks.
"We would like to create, through shaping, such a wind-swept look to the in-play corridor. I think that surely will provide something distinctive from the other golf courses.
“And the other element that we want to replicate is the wadi. We have something similar in the US called the barrancas (a deep ravine or gorge), which are used as hazards in some of the great golf courses like Riviera and Los Angeles Country Club. If we can use it creatively, it can become something that is natural to this landscape.
“I’d be lying if I say that we are going to have a minimalistic approach to this golf course. We will have to be very creative, but we will have to move a lot of earth. However, if people walk away from the course thinking that it feels natural and part of the surrounds, we’d have achieved what we set out to do.”
Hanse already has a routing for all 18 holes on paper, and thus, definitive idea of how the golf course will look like when complete. And he was quick to deny any suggestions that this would be a typical residential course.
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“We have a routing for the 18 holes and thankfully, Damac were willing to look at some of the opportunities we saw in building a core golf course as opposed to a strictly residential golf course,” added Hanse. “That was a big positive in our minds. The fact that Damac accommodated our requests shows that golf is high up on their priority.
“We have just over 150 acres for the golf course which will snake through the residential areas. It will play around 7,200 yards, par-71. We do want to have variety in the holes, like a 150-yard par-3 and drivable par-4. The critical part is to have the flow and the pace be a part of the experience as opposed to you reaching every single hole and saying ‘Gosh, how am I going to play this hole?’.
“We will have a few lakes on this course that will become a part of the finishing holes. We understand the beauty that water brings to this kind of landscape, even though it may not be a natural part of it. We have kept it at places where it not only helps in drainage, but also provide exclamation spots on the course.
“When we are finished, this course will have more elevation than the course in Rio, which is in a very flat with just 20 feet of elevation change. We will have much more here through the use of wadis and dunes.”
The odd couple
Hanse and his partner Jim Wagner are involved with several Trump projects, including the massive $200 million (Dh734.5m) renovation to give the Blue Monster added teeth.
The soft-spoken Hanse and the flamboyant Trump make a very odd couple, but it is obviously a partnership that is working out well. “The thing about Donald Trump is that he is passionate and knowledgeable about golf. I have been teased a lot that his aesthetics does not necessarily match the one that we portray, but at the core, like us, he wants good golf,” said Hanse.
“There were aspects of his earlier design involvements where he was looking more to create a statement and that became more important than the golf course itself. But I think he now realises that through great architecture, through attention to details about the golf course itself, you can create a great golf experience without going to the extent of making waterfalls etc.
“His experience in building golf courses has been a great asset to us because he understands the process. He is way ahead of the learning curve. There are some owners who don’t understand a thing about building a golf course and you have to carry them along. Donald has the vision, he has the creativity, but he never forces us to do anything. We engage in a lot of conversation, which I think is great.
"He can be very persuasive at times, but his arguments are never without merit and have been very helpful. It is an odd partnership, in that we are very opposite. I am very soft-spoken and he is very outgoing, very gregarious. But at the core, he loves golf and that is something that is sometimes lost on people.”
Having designed such critically acclaimed courses as Castle Stuart in Inverness and Rustic Canyon, Hanse said Trump International Dubai will become a very important new chapter in his firm’s portfolio.
“It will be very important. It represents a different path for what my partner Jim Wagner and I have been doing,” said Hanse. “Most of the golf courses we have build are on great natural sites. And we have those advantages to work with and exploit.
"Trump International Dubai will show a side of our creativity to take a site that lacks those natural advantages and to create something very special out of it. It will show another aspect of the talent that we possess.
“The Middle East is a great growing golf market and it is important for us that this course holds its own.”
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