Al Hamra Golf Club became an official DP World Tour venue when the Tour visited the beautiful Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates for the first time in 2022, hosting the inaugural Ras Al Khaimah Championship which was presented by Phoenix Capital. The $2million tournament originally scheduled to be the third of four consecutive events in the Tour’s ground-breaking early season ‘Middle East Swing’, following back-to-back Rolex Series events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and preceding the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters. Unfortunately, the 2022 Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, scheduled for the following week, had to be postponed due to ongoing restrictions associated with the global Covid-19 pandemic. This created a unique opportunity for another $2 million tournament, The Ras Al Khaimah Classic, to be held over the picturesque Al Hamra Golf Club, which received praise from all players for the immaculate presentation of the golf course.
Unbelievably, in between the back-to-back DP World Tour events, Al Hamra Golf Club managed to play host to The Hero MotoCorp Ras Al Khaimah Team Challenge, an exciting one-day televised exhibition event featuring some of the Tour’s biggest stars competing over nine holes in a classic Scramble format. To enhance the fun the players were mic’d up, which certainly increased the entertainment value.
Al Hamra Golf Club previously hosted the European Challenge Tour over three consecutive years from 2016 – 2018. It was initially the venue for the Ras Al Khaimah Golf Challenge in 2016 and 2017, before hosting the Ras Al Khaimah Challenge Tour Grand Final as the final stop on the Road to Ras Al Khaimah in 2018. The course is a stunning par-72, 18-hole championship golf venue that lends itself perfectly to all levels of golfers, providing the fledgling novice or the most accomplished of players with an enjoyable and interesting golfing challenge.
This 18-hole golf course, designed by Peter Harradine, opened it’s doors in the year 2007. The course meanders around four inter-connected open water lagoons merging seamlessly with the water of the Arabian Gulf. As many traditional courses do, the front nine measuring 3,578 yards makes its way out and away from the Clubhouse, whilst the back nine measuring 3,747 yards returns home around the lagoon to the Clubhouse. The result is a stunning Par 72 Championship Golf course measuring 7,400 yards at full length designed with five varying tee options on each hole.
Originally planned to be built on the salt flats bordering the water edge, some five million cubic meters of sand combined with expert shaping have come together to create gentle elevation changes as the terrain moves around the lagoons rising and falling from plus one to plus eight meters.
Al Hamra Golf Club’s Par 72 Championship course lends itself perfectly to all levels of golfers, providing the fledgling novice or the most accomplished of players with an enjoyable and interesting golfing challenge.
Course Designer – Peter Harradine
The designing of golf courses runs deep in the Harradine family tree, dating back to the 1920 when Peter’s step grandfather designed and built his first course. Don Harradine, Peter’s father, designed and built his first course in 1929 a career that would span 60 years before his retirement in the late 1980s.
Golf was obviously going to play a huge part in Peter’s early years, receiving his first set of clubs at the age of six, and experiencing his first taste of course construction around the same time when he was drafted by his father to help out on projects during school holidays.
Between 1965-66, Peter traveled to the U.S., where he studied landscaping and golf course design and construction, before returning to Europe to design and build many courses with his father and other prominent European architects.
In 1976, a visit to the United Arab Emirates to investigate the possibilities of constructing a golf course led to the establishment of a Middle East office, which has grown from strength to strength. Harradine Golf has designed and built five courses in the Emirates, alone, with many more in the region. Together, with courses in Europe, Asia and Africa, Harradine has amassed an impressive portfolio of over 160 projects.
10 World’s Most Eco-Friendly Golf Courses
Sustainability is an ever-growing necessity in today’s world and golf courses are joining the global movement.
In 2018, Forbes stated that 9 million tons of plastic infiltrate the ocean every year. With this in mind, golf courses all over the world are making conscious decisions to eliminate plastic.
From the preservation of wildlife to promoting a low-carbon future, the golf community is making more and more changes to contribute to the worldwide movement to put theenvironment first.
“An understanding of the natural world is a source of not only great curiosity, but great
fulfillment.” – Sir David Attenborough, renowned biologist
Al Hamra Golf Club, Ras Al Khaimah
Al Hamra Golf Club is the first golf club in the Middle East to go fully plastic-free! By eliminating plastic items and introducing high-quality water filtration solutions, Al Hamra sets a new industry standard and joins the global movement to conserve the environment.