Golf in Abu Dhabi: 3 must play courses in the United Arab Emirates capital
With reliably hot (and dry) weather, modern courses, amazing clubhouses and superb practice facilities, DP World Tour professionals love the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and increasingly amateur golfers do, too.
Off the course is pretty special too with desert safaris, the grand mosque and the Abu Dhabi Louvre art gallery to fill your time.
But the biggest connection between on and off the course in Abu Dhabi is driving.
Off the course there is the Yas Marina Circuit, host of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and Ferrari World on Yas Island.
On it are three exceptional golf courses, all designed by respected architects, and all three would make any golf trip better.
The Ryder Cup warm-up – the Team Cup – was being played on one while the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship is held at another.
3. Saadiyat Beach Golf Club
This might actually be the most beautiful of the three courses.
All of them feature sand (duh, it’s the Middle East) but this genuinely looks like a course built on a beach rather than in the desert or desert scrub.
The city is in the distance and it looks great at sunset, the ocean is in the other direction, and Gary Player, who can sometimes create rather wild layouts, has been quite sensible here.
It is yet to host on the main tour but the Challenge Tour has visited in the last two years and young Danish star Rasmus Neergaard-Petersen won last season.
Fun fact: you can sometimes see gazelles running across the course – keep any eye out early and late in the day.
2. Abu Dhabi Golf Resort
Used for 16 editions of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship this is a big boy golf course.
Martin Kaymer, Paul Casey and Tommy Fleetwood were multiple winners, Rickie Fowler, Shane Lowry, Lee Westwood and Tyrrell Hatton all won once.
It is a long golf course and designer Peter Harradine asks big questions of the driver – that will attract handicap golfers who like to test themselves to the limit and those who like to tread in the footsteps of giants (Tiger played the course! That said, Robert Rock went head-to-head and beat him in 2012).
Others might be put off.
But everyone will enjoy playing the ninth and the 18th holes which both skirt a lake and head towards the famously imposing Falcon clubhouse.
1. Yas Links Abu Dhabi
Famed as the first genuine links golf course in the Middle East, the designer Kyle Phillips is widely perceived to have succeeded in his task.
Phillips is also responsible for Kingsbarns – another new links course, this time near St Andrews.
And both are wonderfully playable and fun.
The holes sweep from the tee, the fairways roll, the greens attract and repel.
The current host venue for the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, it is visually wonderful as well as great fun – and that’s why it gets top spot.
Another fun fact: Yas Links is overlooked by Ferrari World.
READ MORE: Rory McIlroy and DP World Tour stars hail “absolutely amazing” Yas Links