Over 30 years, through hard work, determination and vision, Nick Tarratt has been at the forefront of helping the UAE become the top golfing destination on the planet.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Over the years, I've fallen in and out of the game many times.
00:12I first arrived here in September 1990 during the Gulf War.
00:18My first position in golf in the Emirates of Dubai and the UA was in this building at Emirates Golf Club.
00:27I was the golf secretary of Emirates Golf Club.
00:30I've been a former scratch golfer and a former life, but when your hobby becomes your job,
00:36it isn't really your hobby and you kind of don't always love the game.
00:40So over the years, I've fallen in and out of the game many times.
00:45After three years, Dubai Golf and Racing Club opened and I was the first general manager there.
00:53In the meantime, the creek had just opened after I arrived.
00:57So suddenly, they went from one golf course at Emirates Golf Club in the region,
01:02not just Dubai, to the creek and Dubai Golf and Racing Club,
01:07which was home to then the Jockey's Challenge and then the Dubai World Cup and now Maydan.
01:13I cheekily said I opened it and maybe other people closed it.
01:18So that's my claim to fame at Dubai Golf and Racing Club.
01:22A great nine-hole facility.
01:24But my own personal opinion, when I worked here in 1990 at Emirates Golf Club,
01:29why are they building another golf course at the creek?
01:32No one will play there.
01:34Then why are they building a nine-hole golf course under lights?
01:38No one will play at night and look where we are now.
01:4131 years later, 22 golf courses all over the UAE.
01:45The golf industry is thriving.
01:48Local golf now with UA nationals, with expats.
01:51It's a huge industry now and I was very much there at the starting point.
01:55I established and set up Dubai Golf and Racing Club.
01:58After three years, I was approached by His Excellency Mohammed Al-Abar
02:03and he wanted to set up the then UA Golf Association
02:08for the governing body for amateur golf in the country.
02:14In my former history, I've worked for golf federations
02:18and professional organizations in the golf business.
02:21He invited me to be part of the team.
02:24We received sanctions from the R&A, both the amateur rules
02:29and the playing of the game and the authorities.
02:32We set that up and those were exciting pioneer days.
02:36As a hobby, I also ran the Dubai Desert Classic,
02:39which was growing bigger and bigger.
02:42I was very proud in that journey until 2002
02:46when we invited Tiger Woods, one Tiger Woods to come.
02:51In my opinion, that was a breakthrough for the Dubai Desert Classic.
02:56Now the Omega Dubai Desert Classic, it was a breakthrough for Dubai.
03:01It put Dubai on the map and very much golf tourism
03:04then took off with the Majlis.
03:08In 1999 and 2000, under the directives of Mohammed Al-Abar,
03:14we took the Dubai Desert Classic to the Creek Golf Club,
03:17Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club.
03:19Not because it was a different course.
03:23He only did it to showcase Dubai and the skyline.
03:27That's why we did it. It wasn't a golfing reason and we made it happen.
03:30Then we returned here to Emirates Golf Club and to the Majlis,
03:34which is really its home.
03:36Healthy rivalry is always good between golf clubs
03:39and we found that the improvement of the condition of the golf course
03:44and the overseeding, that's when that really changed.
03:47Trust me, Ernie Els has the course record of 61 on the Majlis.
03:51You will not see 61 on the Majlis again.
03:54Despite modern equipment, talent, fitness from the world's best players.
03:59In 2002, I took a bit of a sabbatical and went to Egypt for two years.
04:06Then I was invited back to be EMA Golf Advisor.
04:10Then in 2007, I got a call from George O'Grady,
04:15my former boss and great friend at the PGA European Tour.
04:21They were doing the huge Leisurecore European Tour partnership.
04:28It was very much a huge project and I was the sole employee
04:31of the European Tour here on the ground in Dubai.
04:34It's still going to this day, despite me leaving the European Tour.
04:38Maybe because of me leaving the European Tour a couple of years ago.
04:42It was challenging times with the world's financial collapse in 2009,
04:48but we've kept it going.
04:50I'm very proud of my journey in being a part of many different parts of the jigsaw.
04:57Here I am, aged 62, so that's really my journey to date.
05:01This is my home and who knows where my journey will take me.
05:04So I've had great fun, too much fun at times,
05:08but you have to have a little fun along the way.
05:10And here we are in 2021.
05:12Who knows what the next 32 years, 31 years is ahead of us.