Golf was played in Dubai on Sand Courses from early 1960s
Dubai Country Club established in 1971
Their 18 hole sand course hosted international tournanments
Professional Golfers from UK played in an annual event sponsored by British Caledonian Airways
Image by Len Chapman
Dubai became excited at the prospect of Tiger Woods' visit.
Golfers and non Golfers alike knew of Tiger Woods sudden rise to fame and his remarkable golfing talent.
Expectations were high. Tiger Woods was invincible.
He was coming to win the 2001 Dubai Desert Classic!
Tiger Woods and Thomas Bjorn played together for all four days of the competition.
On the final day, I had the privilege of being the “mobile scorer” for Tiger Woods and Thomas Bjorn for their final round. It was Tiger Woods’ first appearance in Dubai so there was a lot of excitement and expectation.
I followed them around the Majlis Course, at a discrete distance, in a golf cart fitted with a scoreboard. After each hole, I put up their scores on my scoreboard using a stack of plastic numbers.
In between, I had a ringside seat to watch these two great Golfers. Woods and Bjorn were neck and neck – Woods simply could not get away from Bjorn.
On the 16th, Woods was one stroke up on Bjorn but on the 17th, Tiger Woods missed a putt and Bjorn drew level – they were both on minus 22.
Then I discovered there were not enough plastic 2s to put up the score.
I stopped by the 17th Green while I located more 2s. I missed seeing Tiger Woods drive into the trees on the right of the 18th Fairway.
I arrived on the 18th just in time to see Tiger Woods play out of the trees and into the rough.
Woods was still behind Bjorn so had to play again. Woods caught the long grass and skied his ball into the lake in front of the 18th Green.
Bjorn calmly played a 5 wood onto the 18th Green.
Two putts later Thomas Bjorn won the 2001 Desert Classic.
Tiger Woods was disconsolate
He left the course in a hurry
Tiger Woods didn’t reappear for the planned charity putting competition with Sheikh Mohammed.Len Chapman
Tiger Woods returned to play in Dubai Desert Classic in the following years to win the tournament in 2008