Never let anyone tell you working at a golf course doesn’t have its hazards. Excessive UV exposure, dehydration, heat stroke. All par for the course, if you’ll excuse the expression. Then you have the native flora and fauna. Poison ivy, falling trees, ticks, snakes, mosquitoes and, as one unfortunate Arizona golf course worker discovered this weekend, bees.

On Saturday at Pebblebrook Golf Course, a maintenance worker had to be rescued by the local fire department after encountering a beehive while working on the course. According to the Arizona Fire and Medical Authority, as firefighters armed with bee hoods and turnouts approached, they initially thought the victim was covered in grass clippings. As they got closer they realised it was bees. Officials say he was stung 2,000 times.

After subduing the insects with foam, they were able to rescue the victim, said to be in his 50s, and transport him to a local hospital. As for the bees, a beekeeper was called in to control them and relocate the swarm. The AFMA says this was the sixh bee-related incident they’ve responded to so far in 2023.

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Nature giveth and nature taketh. It hands us rolling, verdant patches of greenery on which to build golf courses. Then it spends the rest of eternity testing our resolve to maintain them. Just ask Oakdale Golf Club in Buffalo Lake, Minnesota, which was struck by a violent hail storm this weekend. What began as a regular summer thunderstorm escalated rapidly on Friday afternoon as baseball-sized hail began to plummet from the sky. Golfers on the course captured the incredible footage as they scrambled for what little shelter they could find.

 

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However, the true extent of the damage wasn’t clear until the sun broke back through the clouds and the club’s superintendents went out to examine the greens.

Derek Hasselberg / Facebook

Derek Hasselberg / Facebook

What the hail…. ?

(?: short_sided_golf IG + Jeff Asche SC) pic.twitter.com/ZeqAS1edS1

— NUCLR GOLF (@NUCLRGOLF) August 14, 2023

Luckily no one was seriously injured by the storm, but Oakdale was still forced to close for much of the weekend as they underwent clean-up and recovery efforts. Thanks to the help of local golfers and community members — as well as a little sprinkling of greenskeeper pixie dust — Oakdale made massive strides in just a few days. From the looks of things, should be up and running again in no time.

Oakdale Golf Club / Facebook

The post WATCH: Footage of a Minnesota golf course being demolished by a hailstorm will blow your mind and break your heart appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Very rarely does a chance like this come along. All you need is a passport, a love of golf and a boatload of cash.

Spofforth Golf Course and Manor Farm in North Yorkshire are up for sale for over $2.5 million (around £2 million), which doesn’t just feature a four-bedroom bungalow but also a 6,176-yard, par-72 course, six-bay driving range and clubhouse, all located on an “undulating and part-wooded property” on 130 northern England acres.

“While Spofforth Golf Course’s potential for commercialisation is obvious, this attractive property will undoubtedly also appeal to buyers seeking a rural, ring-fenced property for residential, amenity or other uses,” said Ben Allen of HMH Golf & Leisure. “HMH currently has 11 golf courses under offer at various locations around the country and, as always, expect strong interest in Spofforth Golf Course.”

The course will have its 30th birthday next year, so this is a great time to buy in right before the big ceremony. Originally a family farm, Spofforth Golf Club features a greenkeeping complex and car park with a four-bedroom abode that includes tremendous views, a garden and an additional private driveway. There’s a one-bedroom cottage on the property as well. It seemingly never ends.

“Spofforth Golf Course/Manor Farm offers an incredible opportunity to purchase land and property of a scale that is rarely seen in a location this close to Harrogate,” added John Haigh of Lister Haigh.

There aren’t any memberships as this is a pay-and-play facility, so this is your opportunity to really mesh with the locals while getting some good golf in. Prices range between £15-20 depending on what day you can tee off.

You’ll also be near “a range of amenities including a popular primary school, village shop and post office, church, two public houses and a cricket club.” It really doesn’t get better than this.

The post Beautiful four-bedroom bungalow for sale in England that comes with an 18-hole golf course and clubhouse appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

There’s a special type of golf “hater,” the one who claims it’s a rich man’s game while owning an $8,000 dirt bike or ATV just to ride around for fun in. And then uses said dirt bike or ATV to go ruin a golf course thinking it’s some big own.

That’s exactly the group an innocent public golf course in Wilmington, Delaware, dealt with this past weekend. Luckily for the course, Rock Manor, a few paying customers captured video of five extreme sports ‘fans’ tearing up the fourth green and causing goodness knows how much in damages that their dads will have to end up footing the bill for:

Toss out the 8th amendment… Their punishment should be cruel and unusual. pic.twitter.com/DgLO8AYAlD

— PGALockerRoom- (@PGALockerRoom) July 28, 2023

In the moment, this has to be the most fun and exhilarating thing ever for these people. Most really, really stupid acts are when you’re a kid. But when they get caught and it comes time to pay? Hooo boy, reality is going to set in very, very quickly. There goes the college fund, lads.

Normally, these types of things happen at night or at a time that isn’t so blatant — like when people are literally on the course. In 2023, when everyone’s every move is filmed, going in the middle of the day was certainly a choice. Now they’re all on camera and will more than likely be caught. If you look at past instances similar to this one, they could end up owing anything from $20,000 to $75,000 depending on how much damage was caused. This was only the bit caught on video.

Yeah, not great, Bob. Let’s hope they find these kids quickly and make them pay up.

The post Watch: Green at Delaware golf course ruined by group of vandals on dirt bikes appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Part-time gardener Ben Thornbury has ingeniously set up some “crazy pothole golf” on Malmesbury High Street in Wiltshire to showcase how brutal the stretch of road has become and force the hand of the Wiltshire Council.

“Wiltshire Council, you’re a disgrace,” reads a sign welcoming “golfers” to the unique course. “Fix the potholes. High street crazy potholes golf now open.”

The street, chockful of small independent businesses, hasn’t been patched up for months and Thornbury said that people have been injured due to this neglect. He even went on to acknowledge that stones from the road have been getting kicked up by traffic with one hitting a shop window.

Wiltshire Council responded to the gesture by telling Thornbury that they’d “been working hard to tackle the issue”, and that the Department for Transport’s Pothole Fund had recently awarded it £3.6 million to begin renovations.

Thornbury has been pushed to bring the tongue-in-cheek courses on the road “playing golf in all the potholes” across the country. First things first, though, the innovative golf course architect wants to fix his “lovely” local high street.

“I have heard from a local shopkeeper that they have begun taking measurements and they plan to resurface the road, although Wiltshire Council hasn’t confirmed this,” said Thornbury.

That most likely means that things are heading in the right direction, and until the potholes are fixed, you at least have a new golf course to test out.

The post Take a look at this ‘crazy pothole golf’ course on a street in England appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Kent Gray
The cliché promises good things for those who wait and it couldn’t ring truer than for the team behind Living Legends.

Fifteen years after the nine-hole layout was first commissioned and five years after ground was originally broken on the project, Dubai’s newest old course is now, finally, full-steam ahead.

The full-length driving range (with views to the Burj Khalifa) has been grassed and the already shaped holes of the Harradine Golf-design will quickly follow suit.

Given the stuttering progress to date, pinning an opening date on principal architect Peter Harradine or builders Orient Irrigation Services is a trifle unfair, although play is likely within a year and possibly well before next spring. The wait will indeed be worth it as Golf Digest Middle East’s exclusive tour of the course, the centrepiece of real estate developer Tanmiyat’s extensive Al Barari residential development off Sheikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road (the 311), illustrated.

Harradine is noted for creating layouts that are the antithesis to the monster “championship” courses that predominate the region’s modern golf landscape and Living Legends is no different.

The routing was largely dictated by the available corridors within this portion of the 500 villa-12 apartment block development, essentially two horseshoes that snake around four man-made, saltwater lakes. It hasn’t stopped Harradine sculpting a collection of holes offering strategic challenges from tee to green with ample, eye-catching elevation changes.

The landing areas for tee shots looked tight in their nude state during our inspection but this is apparently some sort of optical, pre-grass illusion – they are in fact a generous 40-55 yards wide in most instances. All will be revealed once the wall-to-wall Paspalum Platinum T3 grass grows apparently and with just one fairway bunker, to the right of the 4th fairway, the course appears imminently playable in trademark Harradine style. There are also five tee options on each hole – spanning 3248 yards from the tips to 2543 yards from the forward-most red markers – to cater for all ability levels.

Principal designer Peter Harradine surveys progress, here on the approach to the 1st green.

The lakes, all on the left of the holes they hug, will give right-handers with a hook and lefties with a slice pause for thought on four of the nine holes. Harradine also promises plenty of trees to separate adjacent fairways, offer protection to homeowners where necessary and no doubt frustrate those trying to stay out of the wet stuff. Otherwise, the stiffest challenge will come on and around the sizeable greens that are to be well protected with a combined 11 large, deep bunkers.

Without grass and the benefit of a loop or three with clubs in hand, it’s hard to single out the best holes although the par-3 4th and par-5 next look like a beauty and beast back-to-back and the 7th will be another stern test with all that water. The two pars 3s also shape as thoroughly memorable, both played to downhill greens that are blessedly only 180 and 153 yards from the tips (Memo to contemporary architects: 200-yard plus par-3s are no fun for club golfers).

Living Legends takes some finding off the 311 but once discovered, it shapes as a fun-friendly beacon for residents and guests alike, especially as the layout is to be fully floodlit. It joins Abu Dhabi G.C., Doha, Al Hamra, Mirage City (Egypt), plus four other nine holers at Jebel Ali, The Track, Sharjah and Jebel Sifah (Oman) in Harradine Golf’s Middle East portfolio. It might be the latest addition, but on first evidence we trust it won’t be the last. The game here is fortunate to have an architect with an everyday golfer (read common sense) touch to modern day design.

The new driving range with views to the Burj Khalifa.

The post The Legend Grows at Dubai’s newest course appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

Blind dates of the golfing kind are invariably awkward.

The nervous suitor arrives snappily dressed and fashionably early as golfers are want to do. They’ll still need to size up a clever opening line on the fly but won’t know if their game is compatible until well beyond the first tee.

The object of all this affection is a course so new, it transpires, that it’s still fussing over an alluring picture and description for golf’s equivalent of an online dating profile, the club website. It’s just as eager to make a favourable first impression but equally doesn’t want to come across as too forward for fear it might be perceived as ostentatious or difficult, unsuitable for any sort of meaningful long term relationship.

A bunker escape on the par 4 6th. The fairway of the tough 7th sits ominously in the background (Photo: Kevin Murray)

There will be no such awkwardness when you stride onto the flowing first tee at Trump International Golf Club, Dubai. Indeed, visitors will be charmed the moment they roll up to bag drop at the foot of a majestic 30,000 sq ft clubhouse, a sweeping crescent-shaped statement that stands architectural compare to anything in Middle East golf (no easy feat) and promises to plate gourmet delights and dish-up service to a white-gloved standard.

SEE ALSO:
Making golf great (fun) again

Wander through the massive open-air atrium after check-in and Gil Hanse’s creation begins to reveal its character. You’ll happen upon the neighbouring 9th and 18th greens and the man-made lake that guards them both, a promise of the strategic challenge and slippery run off areas to come. Your gaze will also catch the towering clock that is a trademark at all of the U.S. President’s courses worldwide. A silent observer of history, it’s positioned to the right of the rumpled 1st and 9th fairways which are stitched together by just a peep of the sandy baranca areas which snake and weave through this rustic, links-style layout.

ON THE TEE
The first design subtly you notice at Trump Dubai is the long, undulating tee box which melds seamlessly into the first fairway. There’s no discernible rough either which brings the opening hole on the Old Course at St Andrews to mind; its no coincidence that Hanse spent half of a year’s scholarship studying course architecture at the home of golf. More distinctive links quirkiness is to be discovered on the 7th and 12th, but more on those magic par 4s later.

The generous fairways are all part of Hanse’s mission to make Trump Dubai playable for golfers of all abilities, although the relatively comfortable departure on the 1st gives way a challenging approach that spotlights the strategic delight of the design.

Miss a green at Trump Dubai and it’s just as well you are a short game wizard as well as a golfing Casanova. Neither? At least there’s plenty of un-used lead in the pencils they hand out with the scorecard because you’ll be scribbling down some sizeable numbers.

The par 5 2nd (Photo: Farooq Salik)

The premium Hanse places on approach shots and short game creativity is ratcheted up on the second. The par 5, presuming you negotiate the tee shot and second to a narrowing and eventually water-fringed fairway (only the strongest hitters or foolhardy will dare a dart at this green in two), accentuates the tightly clipped Tifgrand Bermuda grasses used on the green surrounds.

With water left, it will be easy to bail out right with your third shot but this will see your ball separated from the Tifeagle Bermuda-carpeted green by a steep little dune, presenting a test of your wedging nerve with the wet stuff ready to swallow any skulled flop shot. Many will be tempted to use a putter from such a tight lie which is just what Hanse envisaged when he helped sculpt this course into life from the controls of a bulldozer.

The American has designed the surrounds to make even the lowest of handicappers think. It’s not impossible – the higher marker or short game challenged can revert to the Texas wedge – but it’s no cinch either, providing length is not the only defence to the march of modern club and ball technology.

Beware the hard-packed pimples within the bunker guarding the 7th green (Photo: Kevin Murray)

“That’s the most fun part of the game from my standpoint,” Hanse enthuses. “Not being a great golfer myself, I loved having imagination in recovery because everyone thinks of golf architecture from the standpoint of you tee it here, you hit it there and you are suppose to get it on the green in regulation. But that never really happens for 96 percent of us. From that perspective, the short grass around the greens really gives you the opportunity to feel hopeful, feel like you are going to hit a fun shot.

“Conversely, for the better player, that is a more difficult proposition. Put a really good player in the rough or in a bunker, it’s all muscle memory, they know the shot, they just hit it, boom, it’s done.

“But you put them in a situation where they’ve got to think, ’do I want to putt it, do I want to chip, do I want to flop it?’ then you get these cornels of doubt going in their head…maybe that’s not the right shot, maybe it is?

“It’s one of those perfect scenarios where it is playable for everybody and interesting, yet the level of precision to pull off that shot to get it close for a good player is probably more challenging than being in a bunker because they can hit that shot pretty simple.”

The tricky crevasse in the 7th green. The elevated 8th green is in the background (Photo: Farooq Salik)

STADIUM FEEL
It would be easy to wax lyrical about every hole at Trump Dubai, let alone all the clever little nuances around the greens. Instead we’ll leave a little suspense by emphasising a few early favourites.

Beyond the par 3 3rd where any tee shot left will be wet, and the eye-catching (albeit intimidating) tee shot on the 4th, you swoop down into what feels like an amphitheater framed by apartment blocks for a memorable three-hole stretch.

The 5th is another aesthetically pleasing par 3 to a massive green (don’t miss left) while the 6th requires strategic thinking rather than a driver off the tee. You’ll need a solidly struck short iron approach as well to avoid the baranac that runs at near right angles to the green; the waste areas house five types of native grasses which are not to be tangled with or you could well require a sharpener for that pencil.

The 7th is Trump Dubai’s No.1 stroke hole and undisputedly so, triggered from a mammoth teeing ground that bends banana like towards a fairway bordered by apartment buildings to the right and a craggy-edged drop-off to baranac left. You’ll be thankful you chose to tee it forward on the 1st (hint, hint) as this beastly par 4 looks like a par 5 from the tee and only becomes more intimidating the closer you get to the green.

SEE ALSO:
Top 10 Golf Courses in the Middle East

The day we tested Trump Dubai the author and the club’s head pro, Sven Nielsen, were both punished for hooked tee shots into the baranac. Nielson’s second found one of three gnarly little, hard-packed pimples Hanse has (sadistically) left in the big bunker guarding the front of the green, presenting an almost impossible shot the big-hitting South African duly air-mailed over the green. It’s a green that gives new meaning to undulation too with a massive crease running through the middle, not unlike the famed 16th green at the quirky North Berwick Golf Club in Scotland. The editor, needing three to get on the green, needed three more to get off it after having to putt through the crevasse. Your flat stick will likely see plenty of overtime on this course.

The short par 4 8th is a driver and a flicked wedge to a green atop a dune. It’s framed by a peep of the clubhouse in the distance, a backdrop that is magnified in a fitting finale to the outward nine.

A decent drive on the 9th may tempt you to have a pop at the par 5 in two but with bunkers and a near-nude run off to the right of the green, any mis-struck shot will feed down into that greedy lake. A three shot strategy may prove more prudent and your reward for a layup will be a close-up of the miniature rupture in the fairway just shy of the green. It looks like it’s been created by a small earthquake rather than an earthmover – and absolutely lovely with a touch of late afternoon shadow to enhance its linksy-ness.

A panoramic view of the 1st and 8th greens. (Photo: Farooq Salik)

HOMEWARD BOUND
The homeward half shapes as the easier of the two nines but only by a whisker. Accuracy with approaches to the 10th (short-side yourself on the right at your peril as you’ll be chipping to an uphill green from a downhill lie) and 11th will be required for pars before you arrive at the aforementioned 12th.

All great courses have a drivable par 4 and this is Hanse’s memorable version at Trump Dubai. The biggest hitters may even get home here with a three wood or hybrid but holding the green will be a different story, either with a tee shot or your short second.

At its most anorexic, the 12th green is just seven paces wide. A pin cut here will be mightily tough to get at and with tightly clipped drop-offs at just about every turn, don’t be surprised if your third shot is also from off the green but further away. It’s a risk and reward gem sure to be a joyful source of conversation in The Ninth, the clubhouse bar, after most rounds.

Then you get these cornels of doubt going in their head… – Gil Hanse

The strategic-approach, short-game combo continues on the stretch of holes from the 13th to the 15th (make sure to take a peek at the awesome par 3 Academy Course on the way): a strong, dog leg par 5 to a well-bunkered, hanging green; a testy par 4 with a big slopey putting surface and a par 3 over the same interconnected baranac.

The closing three holes are gems all, the sweeping left-handed par 4 16th to an enticing but well-protected green proceeding what many consider Trump Dubai’s signature hole. Hanse secretly despises the term as he gives each hole equal design love and attention but it’s easy to see why this little par 3 is so cherished, although you mightn’t be so enamoured if you miss the terraced green short and end up in the baranac.

No round is over until the very last shot and there promises to be quite a few of them on the 18th, a par 4 that hugs that pesky lake all the way down the left. The approach here is over a bank of bunkers that challenge your depth perception. The obvious bail out is right but this means a deft downhill chip onto a green that seems to slide into the water, ensuring any matches that survive until the last hole will go to the wire.

POST-ROUND DEBRIEF
Some will bypass Trump Dubai based solely on the openly divisive politics and personality of the man now sitting in the Oval Office. Given his past statements on Muslims alone, that’s entirely understandable, not least in this part of the world.

But conveniently ignoring Trump’s increasingly unavoidable geopolitical influence, it is hard to deny the impact the 45th U.S. President is having on modern golf globally. Nielsen witnessed it first hand with Trump’s acclaimed redevelopment of the Alisa course at Turnberry before he was headhunted from the Open Championship venue to head the academy at Trump Dubai.

A doff of our cap to the leader of the “free world” for selecting one of the golfing world’s best to sculpt what is a magnificent addition to the Middle East golfing landscape. This despite the aesthetic limitations Hanse faced building inside the corridors of a major real estate project. We love that the distances between green and tee box makes the course walkable in the winter while superintendent Ben Griffiths deserves much kudos for the immaculate surfaces, a glorious, grassy final coat on Hanse’s handiwork.

Not unlike the American architect’s Olympic Games course in Rio, Trump Dubai is an eminently playable layout without being easily score-able, striking just the right balance between the advances of technology and the still generally unreliable swings of the vast majority of weekend warriors.

The magical 12th green (Photo: Farooq Salik)

 While the high handicapper will revel in finding fairways, to score well the low marker will still need to position their drives for decent looks at pins. Regardless of ability, bring your short game with you as nerveless wedge play and plenty of bump and run artistry are a perquisite to seeking out a good score.

“I think with all of our courses we’re trying to hit the sweet spot where they are wide enough to play – sure you are going to get in trouble if you are hitting it errant, but it’s plenty wide to hit shots – but then the level of precision required to score on the golf course is much, much higher,” Hanse said.

“What we tried to do here is just to get it to a point where it is fun to play and if there is ever a tournament or we need to really ramp it up, I think we can set it up pretty difficult and especially if the wind blows out there which it seems to do quite a bit.”

Like a memorable first date, Trump Dubai does exactly what Hanse hoped it would…it leaves you wanting more. We’re already looking forward to a second rendezvous but maybe not before a little short game guidance from Nielson. The first date was awkward enough.

This feature first appeared in the February issue of Golf Digest Middle East.

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Bunkers are considered an integral feature on any golf course, but on the beautiful island of Langkawi, an award-winning Ernie Els design has shown that in the right location, you can easily do without them. And that location is a dramatic Malaysian rainforest.

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A trip to the Datai entails a short night flight to Kuala Lumpur followed by a 45-minute hop to Malaysia’s northerly island of Langkawi. It feels like it should be harder to reach than that. More remote; more spectacularly removed from the glinting metropolises of the UAE. From an urban jungle to the real McCoy, complete with inquisitive monkeys and prehistoric-looking bird life, this is a dramatic assault on the senses. And then of course, there’s the small matter of an award-winning golf course.

Ernie Els’ Teluk Datai course is carved out of a mature rainforest in the northwest corner of Malaysia’s Langkawi island

Bunkers? Who needs ‘em? Not the Els Club Teluk Datai, apparently. I have to confess, when I first heard that this renovated golf course had entirely foregone arguably the game’s most essential hazard, I was initially skeptical.

I expected to be wowed by the scenery and surroundings, but underwhelmed by a layout that must surely suffer aesthetically from this omission. On the world’s greatest golf courses, the bunkers are a work of art in themselves – from the traps at Royal County Down that look like someone took a giant ice cream scoop to the turf, to the famous walled pots at St Andrews that have names like ‘Hell Bunker’ and the flawless curves and crushed white marble eye-poppers of Augusta National. Unless your name is Luke Donald you never enjoy venturing into bunkers, but they sure are pleasing to the eye, not to mention a valuable distance gauge.

Well, after playing just three holes of the Els Club Teluk Datai with Troon’s resident golf operations manager, Steven Outlaw, I had already forgotten this supposed bone of contention. A course with no sand is certainly unique, but then nothing about this layout could even remotely be placed in a bracket marked ‘standard’. Located in the north-west corner of Langkawi, the terrain is rugged, mountainous and covered by a rainforest that is many centuries old. With the far reaches of the golf course running up the coast to meet the calm waters of the Andaman Sea, Thailand’s southernmost island, the uninhabited Ko Tarutao, looms with a pale sunlit halo just five kilometres across the Strait of Malacca. In short, it is a spectacular spot to play golf.

The par 5 seventh hole, with the distinctive peak of Mat Cincang looming in the background

Four of the holes on Ernie Els’ design run right along the calm waters of the Andaman Sea

The Datai Langkawi hotel occupies a hillside setting deep in the heart of a spectacular rainforest and just a short work from its stunning beach

Carved through the rainforests that lie beneath the distinctive rocky peak of Mat Cincang (which serves as a useful alignment guide on several tee shots), the holes plunge through thick jungle and skirt the coastline on both the front and back nines. Originally over 20 years old, four-time major winner Els was tasked with the job of renovating and improving the course, which reopened for play just under two years ago.

The South African’s decision to make the new layout bunker-free was rooted in practicality. Although our visit fortunately coincided with one of Langkawi’s driest spells on record, when it rains here, they are the kind of deluges that would prompt Noah to gather supplies for a new Ark.

The distinctive peak of Mat Cincang serves as a useful alignment aid

Els was told that in this volatile climate, keeping the bunkers water-free was a logistical nightmare, so he decided instead to make the jungle the star of the show. And boy, does it deliver.

You would naturally assume that if you keep your ball out of the trees, the guarantee of always playing from the grass would make the game considerably easier. If that is true, it wasn’t reflected by our scorecard.

Many of the greens are protected by the kind of swales and run-offs that characterise the Els Club’s sister venue in Dubai, and the rough can be knarly and difficult to get a clean contact from. If you start spraying it off the tee you can really rack up a number, because the walls of jungle that flank many holes have a ‘don’t bother looking for your ball’ vibe to them. Even Bear Grylls would have to think twice before wading in to recover his Pro V1.

The holes themselves contain plenty of variety, with changes in elevation and a number of doglegs keeping you on your toes. A stirring finish is highlighted by two cracking par 3s, the dramatically downhill 15th protected by a large pond – one of the few water hazards on the golf course, and the 17th, which runs right alongside a shoreline coincidentally known as ‘pebble beach’.

There are no bunkers on the 18-hole course, with the rainforest acting as the layout’s chief protection on almost every hole

The Datai Langkawi’s beachside pool and restaurant

The Teluk Datai has more in common with California’s famous venue than you might think, having joined it for the first time in Golf Digest U.S.’s compilation of the 100 greatest courses on the planet (entering at an impressive No.83 earlier this year). There is an unmistakable resort-type feel to it that may offend the type of golf snob who shuns all bar the championship courses, but for fun-factor alone, the Els Club Teluk Datai is hard to beat. It’s also in extremely good condition, even if the greens aren’t quite as fast and pure as those that we’re used to in the UAE.

But just as crucial to the overall package on Langkawi is the Datai Hotel itself, which is easily among Malaysia’s finest. Nestled on an elevated perch in the densest part of the forest, you can choose from canopy or beach accommodation, take guided nature walks or relax in surely one of the best locations for a spa in Asia. The jungle is alive with a vivid array of bird and animal life, brought into even sharper focus when we joined a small huddle of nature lovers in the lobby for a guided walk led by Malaysia’s answer to David Attenborough.

Such was this gentleman’s enthusiasm and depth of knowledge for every single inhabitant of the natural world – plant and animal, that after an hour of rushing, gesticulating and insightful anecdotes, we had barely made it past the swimming pool. Everything from the resident eagles to snakes, predatory fig trees and the problems with Darwin’s Theory of Evolution were tackled over the course of a hugely educational, if extremely truncated walk.

If it’s an exhilarating escape from the real world and a golf course to match that you’re seeking, then this is a place you simply have to visit.

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