Dubai May Have Cure for Bored Gulf Officers : Middle East: An $11-million golf course--with real grass--stands ready for some new players.

This is one corner of the Persian Gulf where President Bush might feel right at home.

Rising green through the searing heat of the Arabian desert, the Emirates Golf Club stands as multimillion-dollar proof of the spectacular wealth of the Persian Gulf countries lined up with the United States against Iraq.

Camels gaze forlornly through the club’s fences at greens, trees and ponds stocked with thousands of Japanese goldfish.

Drifting sand dunes have been anchored by a lush blanket of grass imported from Georgia. And 1 million gallons of water each day from a nearby desalination plant are sprayed into the air by a high-tech sprinkler system that keeps nature at bay.

“This is the only real golf course in the gulf,” said General Manager Rodney J. Bogg, sitting in an air-conditioned clubhouse designed to resemble a cluster of traditional tents of nomads.

Despite good conditions and year-round sun, the Emirates Golf Club has found its hopes of becoming a key stop on the world golf circuit temporarily dimmed by the Persian Gulf crisis.

But another valuable market sector may be developing.

Bogg said the course has been approached by both the U.S. and British embassies to allow high-ranking military officers serving in the gulf multinational force to use its facilities. Some have already played the course, he said.

Fees are reasonable by world standards at $3,245 a year per family and $2,400 for singles, but one round would cost $270--the price of a monthly green fee.

The 18-hole desert course is the brainchild of Sheik Mohammed Bin Rashid al Maktoum, defense minister of the United Arab Emirates and a brother of the ruler of Dubai.

The Maktoums, who have also plowed their oil wealth into one of the world’s top stables of race horses, decreed that a grass course should be built and put up the $11 million it took to build it. It opened in 1988, taking 18 months to build.

The planners spared no expense: After moving 14 million cubic feet of sand and slapping a foundation of gravel and fiber covering over remaining dunes, the course was seeded with a hybrid grass flown in from Georgia. Sprinklers were run 24 hours a day to give the greensward a chance against the brutal desert heat.