On Thursday July 15 2004, I had the pleasure to meet Mr. Peter Harradine, the designer of the new grass golf course at the Hunting & Equestrian Club.
Since he signed the contract for the design back in March
2003, Peter visited Kuwait regularly to check the progress of the project.
I was a little nervous about the meeting because I thought
Peter will not feel comfortable having me around while he was doing his job. I have to
admit that he was so friendly & humble and made me feel welcomed right away.
For two hours that morning, Peter, David Finley & I, drove
around the Golf Course.
That gave me a chance to ask some questions and take some pictures.
Peter is a resident of Dubai, and opened an office
there in 1977.
His first visit to Kuwait was 25 years ago when he came to
attend a landscaping & agriculture Fair.
I always wanted to ask Peter about his favorite golf course or
the best he designed.
His biggest challenge here was designing an 18 holes golf
course in a relatively small space where some holes are located inside a horse-race track.
Due to visibility requirements imposed by the horse-racing grandstand the level of some
holes inside the race-track were decreased by up to eleven meters.
Some skeptics think that the quality of grass on the new
course will not be as good as other golf courses in the region. Peter assured me that it
will be the best grass in Kuwait and will surpass people's expectation.
Peter expects that 9 holes will be ready for play end of 2004/ early 2005.
Harradine Golf have designed, constructed and/or supervised the construction and/or re-modeled over 200 Golf Courses in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The golfing history of the Harradine family dates back to 1891. You can read more about it at www.harradine-golf.com