Greg Norman Says The Player He Talked To Really, Really Liked The Earth

The Race to Dubai ends on the "Earth" Course at Unfinished Dunes, Beach And Outta Money Club, where Greg Norman designed the first course (the subsequent Fire and Rain courses, or whatever they were to be called, are on hold).

Alistair Tait reports that Norman says he's getting a lot of positive feedback from players, even if he'd only spoken to one. And that same player thought Liberty National could host a major.

Course designer Greg Norman said he’d had good feedback from players on the 7,675-yard, par-72 layout. Turned out Padraig Harrington was the only player he’d spoken to. Had he talked to others, he might have had some evasive answers from players too polite to tell the truth.

“Awful.”

“Not worthy of the season ending event.”

“Boring.”

These are among the comments I’ve received from just a perfunctory walk along the driving range. All off the record, of course, since under Euro Tour rules players aren’t allowed to criticize courses.

James Corrigan in the Independent writes about the lovely sixth hole:

Even if it is possible to blank out the windowless and roofless, then the stench from the pond on the sixth hole is unavoidable. Augusta National famously uses blue dye to enhance their water features; Jumeirah should have resorted to Blue Toilet Block. There is also a quilt-work patch of fairway on the seventh which will have to be Ground Under Repair should any ball fall that short.

Derek Lawrenson writing for the Daily Mail:

But walk round this inordinately long course, and you can’t tear your eyes from the fact that hardly a single piece of property lining the fairways has been finished. Work on the clubhouse stopped in May, and it remains an empty shell. No wealthy Brits will be proudly showing off their new vacation home this week. No champagne will be flowing on any balconies here, as the players move into view.

And...