Dubai Country Club (Al Awir course) Est. 1972

While you're in Dubai, why not try a round of golf at Dubai Country Club's Al Awir sand golf course, and sample golf as it was originally played in this desert habitat, before the arrival of grass courses that is ! Sand golf may not be to everyone's liking, but it is remarkable how close to grass golf it comes. What's missing is all that lush green grass. On Al Awir the entire game is played on sand, and that means fairways, greens (called browns) and obviously the bunkers. The only green you'll see comes from a sprinkling of trees around the course, and a small astroturf mat that you carry with you for shots from the marked-out fairways. Al Awir may not be as aesthetically easy-on-the-eye as a grass course, but at a very respectable 6477 yards, and with many well laid out holes, good greenside bunkering, occasional water hazards and browns that have the pace and holding characteristics of normal greens, this is a course that will test your game as fairly and thoroughly as any grass course. It may not be golf as you've experienced before, but you may just get to like it !