Dreamland

Jutting out into the Caspian Sea, the Absheron Peninsula is where you’ll find Dreamland Golf Club located, a mere 20-minute drive from the capital city Baku. The IMG-operated course is the centerpiece of a premier gated community which officially debuted in October 2015 when President Ilham Aliyev and Colin Montgomerie cut the ribbon to open the facility.

Speaking about the resort, Montgomerie said, “I’ve been to hundreds of golf courses in my career and this golf club and complex truly is right up there. From the quality of the course and villas at the resort to the hospitality in the clubhouse, the facility ticks all of the boxes. It’s really exciting to see golf being pushed to new territories such as Azerbaijan.”

With five tee options, the overall length of the course varies from the forward tee positions at the 4,736-metre mark to 6,838 metres from the championship tees. Dreamland is set out as two convenient nine hole circuits with holes routed around ten lakes and fairway perimeters landscaped with olives trees, bringing something of a Mediterranean feel to the Caucuses.

The par threes are particularly challenging. There’s water in play at each of these holes, which is intimidating enough, but the sweeping beach bunkers that line the lakes in front of these greens just seem to add another level of anxiety when standing on the tee. Baku is also known as a windy city so when it’s blowing a bit this can be a very testing track.

Because the clubhouse is quite a way from the golf academy building, where most golfers naturally start their round at the current 1st hole, the playing sequence may be altered soon so that a stipulated round begins at what is presently the par four 13th and ends at the par five 12th.