Dirab

Golf courses in Saudi Arabia have come a long way since Aramco expats built the first 9-hole desert layout near Dhahran back in the late 1940s – complete with putting surfaces, or “browns” as they’re called, made from a mixture of oil and sand.

A number of other sand courses were constructed over the years, mainly around Jeddah and Riyadh, before the initial 9-hole grass layouts appeared during the 1990s. The first, and still the best of these, is the Dirab course, expanded to 18 holes in 1998.

Situated 50 kilometres south west of Riyadh in the Dirab Valley, beneath the Tuwaiq escarpment, Dirab is one of only a handful of grassed championship courses in the Kingdom, with an extensive driving range and practice facilities – indeed, nine holes can be floodlit here to extend play after sundown!