When we interviewed Donald Trump back in June 2014 it was hard to believe that two years later he would become the 45th President of the United States and the most powerful man in the world. I’m sure he wouldn’t have believed it either. Below is our exclusive interview with Donald Trump as he arrived to Dubai to announce the Trump International Golf Course Dubai to the world. So now could the Ryder Cup be heading to Dubai? Who knows but what a story.
CALL it the Trump Factor, the Trump Affect, call it what you like but whatever words you choose to describe one of the most charismatic entrepreneurs of our time, he’s got it. When he talks, people listen. Some hang on his every word. Yet behind all the hype, ballyhoo and razzamatazz his personality is such that you are compelled to sit up and take notice. Donald Trump has made a career out of positive thinking and turning bold visions into reality, so when he says Dubai, and the Trump International Golf Course Dubai, have a great chance of hosting the Ryder Cup, you have to think he just might have the ‘kahunas’ to make it happen.
WWG: How did the business relationship between you and DAMAC Properties come about?
DONALD TRUMP: Through reputation we knew each other. DAMAC wanted to do something and they knew I wanted to do something here so we somehow just got together. We determined that although you can just do an average course – and it’s much less expensive – we wanted this to be a world-class venue and course – and that’s what we did. I can tell you that Hussain Sajwani, Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DAMAC, moved buildings because when Gil Hanse got involved we had a large area laid out but Gil liked certain areas.In fact, on the 18th hole, he said, ‘could you move the buildings back a couple of hundred yards’ – and they did! It showed that the priority is building a great course – it would have been tougher otherwise. I have tremendous respect for DAMAC and, hopefully, they have great respect for us and when we formed this partnership it just worked out to everybody’s benefit. Hopefully, the biggest beneficiary will be Dubai – I think they’re going to be very proud of the end product. Our Trump International Golf Course Dubai at Akoya by DAMAC is very, very special. We’ve done many special projects around the world. In Dubai we’re setting a standard in the Middle East that’s never been set before and that’s going to be very exciting.
WWG: You already own highly esteemed, established courses such as Doonbeg in Ireland and now Turnberry in Scotland as well as your courses in America – is this a different challenge, creating something from scratch that can match those courses?
DONALD TRUMP: A recent statement was made by one of the great photographers of golf. He said that I have the greatest collection of golf courses ever assembled by one person. That’s a great compliment. We’ve got Turnberry, which is an Open Championship venue and we just got the PGA Championship at Bedminster in New York, which is the youngest course ever to get a Major – and we’ll have the US Women’s Open at the same venue. We’ll also have the Senior PGA Championship at our course in Washington. I have great courses. I don’t want courses that aren’t great. If they can’t be the best I’m not interested. I think this course will fit that mould so it’s sort of interesting. I just left Turnberry, which is very old and has tremendous history having hosted many great championships. I was very lucky to get it and this development in Dubai is very new but I think at the end it’s going to be equally great. We’ll make sure it is.
WWG: What came first your love of the game or the business of golf?
DONALD TRUMP: I love building beautiful things and I’ve built some of the great buildings of the world; New York has many of them. The architectural critic on the New York Times, Herbert Muschamp, always used to treat me so well and give me such great reviews. I was always very conscious of architecture. I love playing golf, I enjoy golf. I’ve been a good golfer over the years and I’ve won a lot of club championships. I love the beauty of golf, I don’t think in terms of the business of it. I do the best job with it and the finances and the money comes but I don’t really do it for that. There’s a beauty to building these great golf courses. There’s a great beauty. I don’t think of the numbers. I build the best and then the numbers work out great. Golf is not my main business by any means, it’s just a relatively small part of my overall business, but I really enjoy it. I think, more than anything else, I love the beauty of golf, there’s something very beautiful about it.
WWG: What is it about Dubai that made you want to build a course here?
DONALD TRUMP: The people at DAMAC are great people, just amazing people. It’s a vibrant group headed up by Hussain. You only need to look at his numbers. He’s just done such a great job and it started off with very little. They’re amazing people at DAMAC. It’s just a very vibrant company and that would be the word, vibrant – the people and the area. Dubai is big and it’s bold and it’s moving forward. The emirate is doing well and I think it’s going to continue to do well for an awfully long time. This project is going to be a tremendous success and I think Dubai has a tremendous future, a really tremendous future.
WWG: You were going to begin a project in Dubai a few years ago before the global recession hit. What is it about the economy this time around that makes you think there wont be another dip?
DONALD TRUMP: : It’s a lot different today than it was when the recession hit and the world went bad. It wasn’t Dubai that went bad – it was the entire world, whether it was New York or Los Angeles or any place you can name. The world crashed. We were going to do something in Dubai that would have been very good but we were fortunate because we didn’t start it. Therefore nobody got hurt. Other people started building and they did get hurt. We had the sense not to start and that was a very good thing for everybody involved. We would have done a nice project with nice people but we never got it started because of the fact that world had crashed and Dubai had a much different persona at the time. I always wanted to come back and I think it’s a great tribute to Dubai that we’re here. We just never forgot Dubai. It was just always some place that we wanted to be and now we’re here in a very big way.
WWG: What effect do you think your project in Dubai can have on tourism in the region?
DONALD TRUMP: In Scotland I built a course in Aberdeen and because of what I did, there are people coming from all over the world. It’s been adjudged as one of the greatest golf courses ever made. It was done by a fabulous architect, highly recommended by the Royal & Ancient, and we have the largest dunes in the world. The bottom line is it was very tough getting it approved but we got it approved, we got it built, and it’s doing record business. It’s packed from morning till night and what happens is the overflow of that business is going to the hotels, it’s going to the other courses. They had an article on it last week in Scotland’s main paper calling it the ‘Trump Factor.’ That’s because of the tremendous success of the course, other places are up 50-60% and they’ve never seen anything like it. You’re going to have the same thing here, you’re going to have a huge ‘Trump Factor’ here in Dubai. It’s going to have a tremendously positive effect.
WWG: Do you have your sights set on a particular tournament?
DONALD TRUMP: Sandy Jones (Chief Executive of the British PGA) has a lot to say about where the Ryder Cup is held and I actually just said ‘we have to call Sandy because this is an incredible venue for The European Tour to bring the Ryder Cup’. I’m not saying we’re going to get the Ryder Cup but I think we would have a great chance. Sandy respects me and I respect Sandy and we like each other. I think we have a good chance to get the Ryder Cup coming here and certainly the course is designed for the highest standards of golf. It’s as good as it gets in terms of shot-making and shot value in particular and I think we’ll have a good chance of getting the Ryder Cup. Because they will be bringing it to this region at some point, in my opinion, in the not-too-distant future, and we will have the best course by far. so I think we have a good chance.
For more information on Trump International Golf Course Dubai go to: http://www.trump.com/golf/trump-intl-golf-club-dubai/
