Another Harradine Course in the middle east. What makes this course special is the setting inside the race track in Kuwait, turning every Scot into a tee totaller.

The terrain is wide open. As always for Harradine courses the proportions are off - unnecessarliy wide areas where no golfer ever hits the ball and tight landing areas around 250yds off the tees where most golfers hit their balls. Having suffered the misfortune of playing many of their courses in Switzerland and the middle I east I never understood the design philosophy. Hole 5 stands out with a giant landing area and a forgotten forest to the right of the hole in no man's land. The green complexes are somewhat dull and large, as are the bunkers. There are many hit-it-as hard as possible 450 yard par 4s. The new holes (by a different designer - IMG I was told) 10 and 16 to 18 are in stark contrast. The 10th green is hilly (perhaps too hilly for fast green speeds), reminiscent of Kingsbarns. 16 and 18 are around 350 yards and the 17th around 150 yards, not necessarily executive golf but enjoyable. At least the green complexes are more interesting than the wide polo fields of the other 14 holes.

It's a decent course but will Harradine (father or son) be remembered for anything extraordinary? They used a cookie cutter approach to greens and bunkers to put their stamp on many public courses. The result is mass mediocrity. The surrounding landscape architectures (trees, hills, flowers) is better than the golf archictecture itself, like in Jebel Ali.