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EmailHOLE 11 - FRIENDSHIP
This is the pivotal hole of the golf course which provides the theme for playing this course. The hole is actually a simple dog left with a wide fairway and large green. The bunkering, mostly on the left hand side spells friendship in Arabic script, more discernable from the air than from the ground, but sensed from the ground just the same.
The theme is based on three quotes, one from the English writer George Elliot: “On the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person having neither to weigh the thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keeping what is worth keeping, and then, with a hand of kindness blow the rest away.”
Another from Dale Turner:
“True friends are faithful to the very end. During World War 1 a man was missing from the trenches and his close friend heard a cry from no man’s land. His C.O. allowed him to attempt a rescue adding. ‘…….it is probably not worth it, your friend is probably dead by now. You will throw your life away.’
Some time later the rescuer returned dragging the body of his dead comrade. He himself was mortally wounded. ‘Sir, he said, it was worth it…..’ When I reached him, he looked up to me and said….I knew you’d come.”
And the third from Gina Crocetti:
“Hospitality may be the single most important law of the desert. Without it people traveling in the desert away from their groups would die. Even poor people must feed and shelter strangers for an obligatory three days. The guest may leave without ever having stated his name or business. It is rude to ask. Without this hospitality an individual would not survive the desert, nor encounters with other people once he had left the family or tribe. Even a fugitive, a person shunned from their own tribe or a person guilty of a crime against his host is taken in and treated as a guest of honor for the obligatory three days.
It is interesting to note that Sheikh Zayed shared up to 30% of Abu Dhabi’s income with poorer Muslim countries and helps the six other emirates with funds for schools, hospitals, roads, etc.”
Friendships are very valuable to Emiratis and are much closer and more durable than in the western world. Golf is a great game for friendships.
Friendships today need nurturing. The bunkers on this hole are to remind the golfer that however fertile the ground for friendship the constant pitfalls of modern life must also be avoided.