Factfile
Barry King was a guest of the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. For a Dubai information pack:
Call: 020 7839 0580
Email: DTCM
Web: Dubai Tourism
British Airways: British Airways operates 16 flights a week from London Heathrow to Dubai rising to 17 a week from March 30. Prices start from £337.20 return including taxes.
Visit British Airways or call 0870 8509850.
Golf: For all you need to know about golf in Dubai visit Dubai Golf
For information on Arabian Ranches visit The Desert Course or call UAE +9714 8846777.
Green fees start from 345 dirhams (£57.50).
Novotel: For reservations at the Novotel World Trade Centre Dubai visit
Accor Hotels or call 0870 609 0961.
Tour operators featuring Dubai include:
Barwell Leisure
Tel: 020 8786 3092
Elite Vacations
Tel: 01707 371000
Virgin Holidays
Tel: 0870 220 2464.
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It is one of the world's fastest growing cities, and is fast becoming one of the world's classic golf destinations. With seven golf venues, Dubai is the place to be for seeking golf in a different culture - and year-round sunshine. Like everything else in the City of Gold, golf is booming and the fact you can play throughout the calendar year, Dubai, offers the perfect escape from the often cold, wet and windy North East golf scene. Golf in Dubai has been put firmly on the world map by the Dubai Desert Classic - a co sanctioned PGA European and Asian Tour event - staged at the luxury Emirates Club. Money is no object to Dubai's ruling family - the Al Maktoum family - and the fact they have been able to plough money into this event, attract the sponsors and pull in big names like Tiger Woods and Ernie Els, has made this one of the top events on the European Tour. And with the ex-patriot community continuing to grow - only 17pc of Dubai's population are local Arabs - golf is picking up pace. Just seven hours from Heathrow, British Airways fly out 17 times a week to the second largest of the seven United Arab Emirates, and with only four hours time difference, this is the perfect venue for those adventurous golfers. Taxis are cheap so transport to and from your hotel to golf courses will barely dent your sweepstake, while car rental is very reasonable. There are a huge variety of hotels, especially just a short drive from Dubai International airport at the World Trade Centre Dubai on Sheikh Zayed Road. For our stay we were based at the Novotel and with a fine restaurant, bar, swimming pool, fitness centre and business centre, it was the perfect base with an ideal location. Just a short drive from the hotel, or from Dubai International Airport across the Creek, is the prestigious Emirates Golf Club for golfers looking to tread the same fairways as Woods and Co. The Emirates Club - designed by Florida-based architect Karl Litten - became the first all-grass championship golf course in the Gulf region back in 1988. 'The Desert Miracle' the name given to the course was the brainchild of His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It's Majlis Championship course is a challenging par 72 measuring 7211 yards, sculptured around the original tall desert dunes. Undulating fairways and greens and the length make for a testing course. The par four ninth (453 yards) played from the highest point of the course plays down to the fairway with the biggest of the four lakes lurking on the left, but if you aim for safety right off the tee, there's rough and trees waiting. The superb agelessly designed Bedouin Tented Village clubhouse provides the perfect backdrop for your second shot but the big double green (shared with the 18th) is skirted by the leg so your approach must be pin point. The 18th- the Emirates' signature hole has to be one of the world's greatest finishing holes. The fairway at the 547 yards par five turns 90 degrees to the left but even your best drive to cut off the corner is likely to still leave the green out of reach. With the huge lake between you and the safety of the green the sensible option is to play short of the green and take a five. There's also the option of playing The Wadi (Valley) course, the second of championship layouts at The Emirates'. A little less expensive and a little shorter than the Majlis at 7114 yards, the Wadi tempts the higher handicap golfers with its wide fairways and big greens. Another course just a few minutes drive from the bustling city of Dubai is the Desert Course at Arabian Ranches. A new exclusive property development, Arabian Ranches is almost like something from the Jim Carrey film The Trueman Show. It is almost a mini-city within a city which once completed will have its own school facilities. The Equestrian Centre at Arabian Ranches allows non-golfers to go and see some fine Arabian horses will the golfers in the party go in search of the unique challenge of Dubai's only true desert golf track. Designed by Ian Baker-Finch and Nicklaus Design, the Desert Course measures a monster 7,698 yards from the championship tees. With no water hazards to face, players tackle the elements and one enormous twisting bunker - the desert itself - on a sprawling course cultivated from the desert topography. Practice facilities on the Flood-lit Driving Range which is open until 9pm everyday, adjacent to the Golf Academy Building. The brand new clubhouse which opened this month features a themed restaurant and an extended bar/restaurant on the upper floor, overlooking the ninth and 18th greens. Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club has recently undergone a major redevelopment, transforming it into a true golfers' paradise. The club's 18-hole, par 71 course rolls 6,857 undulating yards along well-groomed fairways lined with date and coconut palms, attractive water hazards and shrubbery. The course boasts a new front nine, re-designed by Thomas Bjorn, providing an even greater challenge. If you fancy a round of golf in cooler conditions the Nad Al Sheba - the home of the Dubai World Cup (world's richest horse race) - offers you the chance to play floodlit golf. The 6,523 yard 71 course demands accuracy not length, and the back nine is situated inside the perimeter of the main race course. Golf in Dubai doesn't end there. You can also play the Colin Montgomerie-designed Montgomerie Dubai, the nine-hole course situated alongside a magnificent arena at the Jebel Ali Golf Resort and Spa, while an hour's drive from Dubai will take you two the two courses at Abu Dhabi Golf Club. But away from the golf course there is plenty to keep the non-golfers, or those simply looking for a break from treading the fairways, occupied. A City tour - which takes in all aspects of this amazing city - is a must, and should include a trip to the Dubai museum, and rounded off with a trip through the 'old' Dubai and the gold and spice souks. Wandering round the spice souks, the smells really bring home whereabouts in the world you are, while the gold souks ñ with over 1000 stores present you with the chance to peruse through the seemingly endless supply of gold in Dubai and barter for prices on gifts to take home. A trip to the races at Nad Al Sheba is worth it, although with no on-course betting, some of the edge is taken off it. However, just to see how big a family occasion the locals make of an evening at Nad Al Sheba, is worth the visit alone. Shopping is the thing you can do most of in Dubai, with more than 30 air conditioned shopping malls meaning you are simply spoilt for choice. But I'd leave the shopping malls alone for a few hours to seek some adventure in the great deserts in Dubai on a desert safari. Let your 4X4 Landcruiser driver throw you up and down mountain sand dunes and you sit white-knuckled wondering whether your vehicle is going to overturn or you get stuck in the middle of a soft sand dune. Then it's on to a Bedouin tented village and the chance to ride a camel, sip Arabian coffee, taste Arabian bread and sit down to a traditional barbeque, and then retire to your hotel bar with a well-earned drink and plot your next assault on a Dubai golf course. And the nightlife in Dubai offers something for everyone. Bars and pubs can be found in all the top hotels, most of them featuring live music allowing you to enjoy Dubai well into the early hours. | 
Golfing Destinations
