Golf in Dubai and Abu Dhabi: Views and Verdicts

Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club. Courtesy of Park Hyatt Dubai.

A golf course asks for a considerable part of a holiday: several hours outdoors, often the best light of the day. I want the surroundings to deserve that time. In Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where grass had to be persuaded into the desert, the view is part of the argument for going.

The ambition was extraordinary. Build the courses, bring the tournaments, give winter travellers a reason to come with their clubs. The Majlis opened in 1988 as the Middle East’s first all-grass championship course. Today, almost four decades after that opening, with the DP World Tour returning to Abu Dhabi and Dubai for its November finale, there has been time for the novelty to wear off. Which courses have won the critics over—and has the Emirates developed a golf experience worth travelling for in its own right?

The verdict, before the first tee

There is convincing praise for the presentation of these courses, the care around a round and the pleasure of playing in winter sunshine. Agreement becomes much less comfortable when the conversation turns to greatness. Yas Links divides critics; the Majlis can inspire delight in its condition and frustration at its pace on the same visit. A fine layout does not make the buildings beyond it disappear.

My own test is more demanding than immaculate grass. I am not drawn to the idea of travelling to a former stretch of desert to play somewhere that might pass for Miami. Al Ghazal’s sand, the Faldo’s night golf and Al Zorah’s mangroves interest me because they suggest ways of working with the place. I would like that connection to go further, into the hospitality and culture around the game.

Yas Links: the argument by the water

Yas Links is the course to choose for coastal golf with a formidable reputation. Kyle Phillips opened it in 2010, shaping reclaimed ground into the folds and hollows associated with the links of Scotland and Ireland. Salt-tolerant paspalum covers the playing surfaces, and eight holes run beside the water. This is a deliberately constructed landscape, made to give wind and the contours of the ground a proper say in the game.

Golf Digest places Yas Links at No. 82 in its World’s 100 Greatest Courses for 2026–27. Top 100 Golf Courses put it first in the Middle East in its 2025 list, and 96th worldwide. David DeSmith, writing for LINKS about the 2023–24 DP World Tour courses, admired its convincing links character.

Yet when GOLF’s world list dropped Yas, Alan Shipnuck included it among the courses removed “deservedly”. That was in November 2019. It is an unusually sharp disagreement with the affection the course attracts elsewhere, though it would be unfair to turn one old verdict into the magazine’s permanent position.

The most useful distinction for a traveller comes from Andrea Kaufmann of Golfliebling. After playing in January 2020, she praised the undulating fairways and demanding greens but disliked the construction, dust and noise around them. She heard the neighbouring racing circuit and the rides at Ferrari World. Her account describes that visit, not today’s building works.

Yas deserves a place on a golf itinerary, while the hotel should suit the rest of the trip. Yas Island makes sense for a holiday involving the circuit and attractions. For a beach-led stay, Saadiyat has the stronger pull. The Abu Dhabi Aldar Championship comes to Yas Links on 5–8 November 2026: excellent timing for spectators, a date to plan around if playing the course is the purpose of the journey.

There is a social reason to consider Yas, too. Its FORE Business group holds monthly golf networking meetings. For a visitor hoping to meet people who work in the Emirates, arranging a place at an organised business golf day gives the round a purpose beyond the scorecard.

Saadiyat Beach Golf Club: the resort choice

Saadiyat Beach makes sense when a beach holiday already brings you to Abu Dhabi. Gary Player’s course sits among the island’s beach resorts, with enough exposed sand to give it a character of its own. The St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort and Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi are the relevant hotel names here.

In her 2020 account, Kaufmann admired the service and found the course manageable with precision, even as its deep bunkers punished mistakes. Top 100 Golf Courses ranked Saadiyat eighth in the Middle East in 2025. For an entire week away, its setting matters more to me than that position suggests.

Nicklaus Design worked with Gary Player Design on a redesign of the back nine, completed in 2025. The original beachfront 17th was removed, a new par-three 14th created and parts of the closing stretch rearranged. Older hole-by-hole reviews need to be read with that change in mind. The work also restored dune areas and some of the course’s distinctive bunkering.

The club holds Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary certification, and its wildlife gives the landscape a life beyond the game. The sea and dunes give this resort course a stronger sense of its setting. For me, that makes it an appealing part of a beach holiday, though not yet a reason to build the whole journey around golf.

Saadiyat also has a place in Emirati golfing life: it hosted the Emirates Golf Federation’s UAE National Monthly Match in September 2025, with senior, mixed and junior divisions.

The St. Regis Abu Dhabi I have written about is on the Corniche, in Nation Towers. It is a separate property from the Saadiyat resort. From the Corniche hotel, allow about 20 minutes by car to Saadiyat Beach Golf Club and a little over half an hour to Yas Links. That makes golf possible from a city base without pretending the course is outside the bedroom window.

Abu Dhabi Golf Club: the purist’s base

Abu Dhabi Golf Club is the practical choice for putting the course at the centre of the stay. Its National Course hosted the Abu Dhabi Championship from 2006 to 2021, before the event moved to Yas. The falcon-shaped clubhouse remains one of the region’s most recognisable golf buildings.

Peter Harradine’s design has a different atmosphere from the island courses. Kaufmann stayed beside it and played shortly before the 2020 championship. She admired the fairways and service, while finding the electricity pylons and wider surroundings less appealing. Her recommendation was essentially for golf purists.

Al Ghazal: golf on sand

Al Ghazal offers the clearest contrast to the green courses: golf played on sand. Near Abu Dhabi’s airport, this 18-hole course opened in 1997 and keeps a form of the game that can disappear from the polished story of Gulf golf.

Players carry a piece of artificial turf for fairway shots. The putting surfaces are called browns, made from rolled, treated sand. The change is more interesting than a novelty photograph: the ground itself alters the routine of a round. It also puts the effort behind all that immaculate grass elsewhere into perspective.

Al Ghazal’s premise interests me more than another expanse of imported greenery. I would like to see sand golf developed with the same care given to the championship resorts: the desert left visible, with shaded, planted refuges offering the relief of an oasis. A place to sit, cool down and drink Arabic coffee could be part of the experience.

Emirates Golf Club: the skyline and the lights

The Majlis is the course for anyone who wants Dubai’s skyline in the view. Karl Litten’s 1988 design helped establish grass golf in the region, and the Hero Dubai Desert Classic has given its fairways a familiarity that reaches far beyond the Emirates.

Thomas Modolo, the serious amateur behind French Lefty Golf, was enthusiastic about the Majlis in his April 2022 vlog. He praised its maintenance and the view from the eighth tee, then recorded a less glamorous irritation: pressure from a marshal while his group was already waiting to play.

The membership gives Emirates Golf Club another kind of local grounding. Emirati banker Abdulfattah Sharaf joined in 1998 and later served as club captain. That long association interests me: a club becomes part of a place through the people who return to it, as well as through the tournaments it hosts.

Night golf in Dubai

The Faldo Course at the same club changes the rhythm of a golf holiday. All 18 holes are floodlit, allowing a round to take place after the beach, sightseeing or the working day.

Night golf feels more at home here. It works with the climate and suggests a connection to the country’s social life after sunset, so visible in Ramadan’s evening gatherings. I would like the hours around the round to develop that connection: time for food and conversation, with the warmth of a majlis, the traditional place of gathering. Floodlights make an evening round possible; the hospitality could make it distinctly Emirati.

Dubai Creek: the waterfront stay

Dubai Creek is the clearest hotel-and-golf pairing in the city. Park Hyatt Dubai sits within the resort, with the course and marina forming part of the same setting. For someone who already wants a Dubai holiday, this is a convenient way to include golf.

The championship course opened in 1993. Its closing holes bring the creek directly into the challenge, while the clubhouse gives the development its familiar dhow-sail silhouette. The DP World Tour returned here with the inaugural Dubai Invitational in 2024 and its second edition in January 2026.

The Invitational’s host, Emirati businessman Abdulla Al Naboodah, also played alongside Rory McIlroy in its 2024 pro-am. Dubai Creek is his home club.

Top 100 Golf Courses moved Dubai Creek up to seventh in the Middle East in 2025. Staying at Park Hyatt gives the golf a place in a broader waterfront holiday, instead of making every round a separate expedition. The appeal is ease; that is different from choosing a destination for a golfing experience found only there.

Jumeirah Golf Estates: Earth and the finish

Earth is the course for a traveller who wants to recognise the final holes from television. Greg Norman designed it, and the DP World Tour Championship returns on 12–15 November 2026. The white bunkers and water demand attention, but much of its emotional appeal comes from knowing what has happened here.

Modolo’s March 2022 film captures that affection. He described Earth as his favourite of the courses he had played and singled out the closing stretch for its possibilities. In the accompanying description, he called it the best finish of the Tour season. That is a player’s personal enthusiasm, rather than a panel verdict; Top 100 Golf Courses separately ranked Earth fourth in the Middle East in 2025.

Al Zorah: a reason to look towards Ajman

Al Zorah’s mangroves bring the local landscape into the game. The Nicklaus Design layout opened in December 2015, with tidal water making the setting change through the day. It is a welcome departure from the manicured resort landscape.

Top 100 Golf Courses placed Al Zorah ninth in the Middle East in 2025, up four places. This is a stronger connection to the coast’s ecology, but for me it still leaves a cultural distance to close. I would like the experience around the course to feel as specifically Emirati as the mangroves make the ground feel coastal. Ajman is a separate emirate, and it deserves more than being treated as another stop on a Dubai scorecard.

Al Hamra: golf beside a beach resort

Al Hamra makes sense when Ras Al Khaimah is part of the holiday. Peter Harradine’s course opened in 2007, arranged around four connected lagoons. It became a DP World Tour venue in 2022 and entered Top 100 Golf Courses’ Middle East list at 14th in 2025.

Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah is the natural hotel pairing, and the club includes it in its stay-and-play arrangements. There is also a floodlit composite nine, assembled from holes on the championship course. That gives a beach stay more flexibility: golf need not always claim the whole afternoon.

What the green landscape takes

These courses depend on irrigation. Emirates Golf Club uses treated wastewater, and Dubai Creek’s 2025 GEO certification report records irrigation entirely from treated sewage effluent. Saadiyat converted to treated effluent in 2020 and has reduced the area of maintained turf in its recent redesign. Those are concrete improvements worth recognising, without mistaking a green photograph for an environmental verdict.

For a golf holiday, I would favour November to March. October and April extend the season, with more heat at its edges. A cheaper summer green fee buys a different proposition: early starts, heat and a day arranged around avoiding the worst of it. Night golf is useful, but darkness does not make a Gulf summer cool.

Prices need to be compared on the same basis. An 18-hole championship round, a twilight offer and a floodlit nine are different purchases. Al Hamra’s advertised weekday night offers, for example, range from AED 195 (about US$53) to AED 350 (about US$95) per person, with separate pair and family deals. Include club hire and transfers in the comparison, and reserve the essential rounds before choosing the rest of the programme.

A golf holiday that belongs here

The United Arab Emirates has built courses that serious judges admire. Their rankings do not settle my reason for travelling. Recreating the look of a Florida resort in the desert is an achievement of construction and maintenance; it does not, by itself, excite my curiosity.

There are useful precedents elsewhere. At Assoufid in Marrakech, Niall Cameron worked with undulating desert terrain and a dry riverbed that becomes part of the challenge. The club planted only 45 per cent of the course, retaining areas of desert and existing trees. The landscape helps determine the game instead of disappearing beneath it.

Kawana in Japan offers a different kind of connection. Staying golfers can follow their round with a soak in the hotel’s sea-facing hot-spring baths. Golf fits into the local culture of bathing and relaxation. That is a more persuasive sense of place than a decorative motif on a clubhouse wall.

Local food, planting and the work of Emirati makers could give the stay a character that continues beyond the fairway. Al Ghazal, the Faldo and Al Zorah each suggest part of the possibility. If I travel to the desert, I want the desert to be part of the pleasure.

Flying perks on golf airlines

For late-2025 travel, Etihad is offering a useful allowance for a golf holiday: one golf bag weighing up to 15 kg travels free on Etihad-operated flights, in addition to the normal checked baggage allowance. It can contain clubs, balls, an umbrella and one pair of golf shoes.

For winter 2025–26, Emirates is offering savings on the ground through My Emirates Pass, including golf, dining and leisure discounts. The programme runs from 1 October 2025 to 31 March 2026: passengers present their Emirates boarding pass and photo ID at participating venues.