Top Middle East Golf Courses – 2012
Top 100 Golf Courses updates its Middle Eastern golf course rankings
Top 100 Golf Courses, the most informed and dedicated ranking website, currently features golf courses in eight of thirteen countries assigned to the Middle East, with seven of these eight countries each boasting one top course within its territory.
The eighth country with serious golf facilities is the United Arab Emirates and such is the quality of the golf courses here, we’ve now created a Top 10 chart for this federation of emirates, double the number of layouts that we showcased in 2009.
In addition to these courses, we have another three UAE tracks – Montgomerie Dubai, Arabian Ranches and Tower Links – catalogued under our “Your Gems” section.
Two of the UAE’s seven emirates – Abu Dhabi and Dubai – now appear to be in a head to head contest vying to deliver the best course in the region. Dubai certainly has strength in depth of numbers compared to Abu Dhabi, but the latter has just overtaken its golfing rival at the top of our rankings with the arrival of Kyle Phillips’s Yas Links course.
Billed as the first links layout in the Middle East, it’s an absolutely stunning 18-hole set up that elevates modern golf course design in the region to new heights. Laid out on Yas Island, a multi-million dollar development that also includes a Grand Prix racing circuit, the fairways here first opened for play in only 2010.
The next two new entries in our Top 10 listing are the Jumeirah Golf Estates Earth and Fire courses at number 3 and number 5, respectively. Both are Greg Norman designs with the former hosting the European Tour’s prestigious season ending Dubai World Championships for the last three years.
Two more new courses enter our rankings at positions 7 and 8. The higher rated of this pair is Gary Player’s wonderful layout at Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and it slips in just ahead of Robert Trent Jones Jnr’s 2005 design at Al Badia Golf Club, on the edge of Dubai Creek.
Because the quality of all the new courses in the UAE is so good, don’t be surprised to find that our next ranking chart for the emirates doubles in size again. Nevertheless, no matter what size the listing is next time, it will surely take nothing less than a world-class 18-hole layout to topple our current number 1.
We always welcome feedback at Top 100 Golf Courses so please feel free to let us know what you think of our golf course coverage in the Middle East – maybe there’s a layout in Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria or Yemen that’s worthy of exposure on this website?
Top 100 doesn’t claim to be “definitive” but we like to think that we’re the “most informed” golf course ranking operation in the industry. If you’ve played one of our featured courses in the Middle East, then we’d be only too pleased to know what you think of it, so why not post a course review.
Click here to view the Top 10 golf courses in the UAE in greater detail or simply click on the Middle East on the left hand navigation to journey through the region.
