Majlis golf course ranked top in Middle East
The Majlis course at the Emirates Golf Club has added another first to its impressive credentials when the oldest grass course in the Middle East was ranked No.1 in Golf Digest’s first-ever list of Middle East’s top 10 courses this month.
Designed by Karl Litten, the Majlis course has been a catalyst in the dramatic growth of golf in Dubai since its inception in 1988. Over the years, “the Majlis has developed character and maturity that its rivals cannot match,” Golf Digest said in its July issue.
“And it remains a superb test of golf despite the revolution in technology that has rendered many golf courses obsolete at the highest level. The main strength of the Majlis is still in the quality and enjoyability of its holes,” the magazine added.
The home of the premier Dubai Desert Classic and the Dubai Ladies Masters events, the course ~ with the closing 18 th hole providing a great finish ~ has seen many “vintage moments of brilliance” from the likes of Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Annika Sorenstam, all of which have since become part of Dubai’s golfing folklore.
To determine Middle East’s Top-Ten, Golf Digest’s judging panel, comprising seven panelists, rated courses on seven criteria, each on a scale of 1 to 10: Shot Values, Resistance to Scoring, Design Variety, Memorability, Aesthetics, Conditioning and Ambience. After panelists filed their evaluations, Golf Digest averaged the scores of the seven categories (scores in the Design Variety category count double) and totalled the averages to determine the overall rankings.
The Majlis course’s total score of 61.8 was well ahead of the second-placed Doha Golf Club (59) and the Abu Dhabi Golf (58.2), also the venues of the European Tour’s so-called ‘Desert Swing’ which culminates with the Dubai Desert Classic.
“Frankly, what they are doing is phenomenal,” Tiger Woods, the world number one golf player, said before winning the Dubai Desert Classic in 2008. Indeed, a big compliment for Dubai, the city of golf.
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