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Planning a golf vacation? Stunning greens across the world to tee off from
Summary
Life’s too short for boring golf. Here’s a bunch of exciting destinations—from the Seychelles to Abu Dhabi—that have been hiding in plain sight and should be on every itinerant golfer’s travel wishlist
There’s no getting away from the home of golf: St Andrews in Scotland has always been and will be for all eternity, the ultimate golf pilgrimage. A bucket list of golf destinations has to begin from where it all began 600 years back: the Old Course. That hallowed home of golf, where King James IV dropped by the pro shop to pick up a new set of clubs in 1506, and where nature and wind were the only architects until Old Tom Morris created the current layout in the 19th century. It is not a golf course as much as it is a shrine. And sadly, that’s why you might have to wait over 18 months to get a game.
So get on that waiting list by all means, but while you wait, there’s no dearth of magnificent courses that are capable of giving you bragging rights. Here’s a list in no particular order of ranking.
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NORTH IRELAND
The north-west coast of Ireland, windswept and wild, is that overlooked corner where the game is played with a quiet passion, far from the crowds and the clamour that you’ll find on the much celebrated layouts of neighbouring Scotland. You won’t find the hordes of itinerant golfers here. Only the inveterate ones who have already played the grails in Ireland and Ulster—Ballyliffin, Portrush, Royal County Down, Ardglass, Lytham—and want to see what they have possibly missed. A ruddy lot it turns out. Here, the links courses cling to the cliffs, battered by the Atlantic gales, their greens as unpredictable as the weather. This is golf in its rawest form, a test of skills and nerve, where the odds are always stacked against you.
County Sligo Golf Club, with Benbulben mountain looming in the distance, is a masterpiece of natural design. An authentic championship layout, the course has a fantastic location—framed between the Atlantic and the Rosses Point peninsula—and pedigree, being over 100 years old. The 18-hole championship layout got its present shape from Harry Colt in the 1920s. Some of the holes are absolutely spectacular, but the golf is difficult. The wind howls off the sea, tearing at your sleeves, and the gorse—the famously unplayable thick grass —lurks everywhere, waiting to swallow errant shots. Donegal Golf Club, further north, is another gem. The course sprawls across the Murvagh peninsula, a vast expanse of dunes and hollows, where the wind whips the ball in every direction. It’s a long course, one of the longest in Ireland and not even scratch golfers play off the tips.
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And then there’s Narin & Portnoo, a hidden treasure tucked away on a remote peninsula. The eighth hole, with the Gweebarra Bay swirling around the green, is a sight to behold. This is an old fashioned course—natural and tremendously scenic—meandering over dunes with a range of teeing-off areas, some overlooking peninsula greens, with gorse lining the generous fairways that run against the Atlantic breeze. A real find, this one.
The most compelling reason for Indian golfers to endeavour this far north in Ireland in the off-season (November-February) is because, well, it’s cheap. Green fees off season are half and there are great deals to be made on hotels. The best way to play these courses is to land in Dublin, hire a car, and drive along the coast.
Twenty miles north of Letterkenny, is a resort with not one but two magnificent courses. Out of the two layouts at The Rosapenna, the Sandy Hills Links is the more monstrous of the two—fairways snaking through giant dunes and a surfeit of trouble—while the adjoining Old Tom Morris course (established 1891) is much more forgiving and easier to manoeuvre through. The rooms at the on-site hotel on the OTM layout are the ideal place to lay your hat, and spend a couple of days soaking it all in.
Finally, while links golf might be golfing Valhalla, wrap up your trip at Castle Dargan—home to the Premier Parkland Golf Course designed by 2011 British Open Champion, and Irish veteran Darren Clarke. This inland parkland course, that can hold its own amidst all the legendary links courses in the country, is likely to provide just the succour that your wounded pride needs.
PRASLIN ISLAND, THE SEYCHELLES
While most holiday destinations promote direct flights and easy access, Praslin Island, at the edge of Seychelles’ marine territory in the Indian Ocean, does precisely the opposite. It takes a determined traveller, three flights, including a perilous one on a small turboprop, to make it to this bona fide getaway. On the north-west coast of this remote atoll, cascading down a densely forested hillside lies the Lemuria Golf Club.
What really surprises golfers is that this is no boutique layout added as an afterthought to a resort, but a full-blown championship layout with some spectacular holes overlooking the sea, a surfeit of elevation changes and a serious challenge. This is widely considered to be one of the finest courses in Africa. No small feat that, considering it’s the only course in Seychelles.
Praslin Island is the remotest speck of tropical jungle in the Indian Ocean and the Lemuria Golf Club, along with the vulgar titillation of the Coco de Mer, is the most compelling reason to visit this isle of idyll. The air-ferry for Praslin leaves every 30 minutes from Mahe.
MAURITIUS
There are over six golf courses in Mauritius, including the famously challenging one to play at—Bernhard Langer designed Le Touessrok. If you aren’t a scratch player that course should truly be out of bounds for you unless you are a masochist or just want to do it for posterity’s sake. Either way, you’ll like the highly rated Legends Golf Club that has hosted the Mauritian Open and a European Senior Tour event.
The Legend will be familiar to the eye of the Indian swinger who’s teed it up at the Royal Calcutta GC or the Delhi Golf Club: it’s got the same old-club feel, the punishing thickets running along the fairways.
This is a seaside course and there’s a surfeit of water inlets, lakes, and even an open lagoon to add to the challenge. Then there’s the adjacent, more modern-feel Links Golf Club. The fairways are more open than the Legends course, and there are fewer water hazards but the greens are much more undulating and quicker. There are also a number of unsettling blind shots and it’s a good idea to pick up the detailed course guide from the starter if you’re not taking a caddy.
ABU DHABI, UAE
Eclipsed by Dubai’s starry golf firmament, Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), doesn’t bomb its drives: it just kind of putts along, winding along a translucent green sea, compiling a bogey-free card that puts it high on the leader board amongst golf-destinations in the region. You go in expecting some kind of suburban Dubai but what you get, instead, is an ultra-modern port littered with supercars and fantastic golf courses draped in foliage lush enough to fool you into thinking you’re playing in the tropics.
To be fair, Abu Dhabi isn’t in the middle of the desert, rather it’s a small island in the Persian Gulf, a stone’s throw from the mainland. Most of the city lies on the island with extensions on the adjoining Saadiyat Island. A small part of the island is covered by low mountains while some part of the coast even has natural mangrove swamps and wetlands.
Amongst the modern wonders to come up is Yas Island, a man-made island which has been fashioned into an adventure-leisure-entertainment hub. The island’s attractions are many, the pick of which is unquestionably the spectacular Yas Links Golf Club.
With as many as eight holes running right along the western coastline of Yas Island, this genuine links layout is as picturesque a seaside layout as you’d encounter anywhere in the world. The authenticity is not coincidental: the course was designed by Kyle Phillips, who’s better known for creating the Kingsbarns Golf Links in Scotland. Not surprisingly, Yas Links has been tabbed the “best golf course in the Middle East", by the Golf Course Architecture magazine and previously rated among the “Top 10 New International Golf Courses" by Golf Magazine. If you can only play one course in Abu Dhabi, then it should be this one.
The Abu Dhabi Golf Club is the emirate’s best-known course, and consequently the busiest. Think of a first-rate parkland course with few trees, generous dollops of sand ( there are no less than 90 bunkers) and water hazards—water comes into play on as many as 12 holes. The Saadiyat Beach Golf Club has gained a lot of attention for its stunning oceanfront views. Designed by Gary Player and overlooked by the St Regis Hotel, the course is the first “ocean" course to be laid out along the shores of the Arabian Gulf.
Saadiyat is definitely the most picturesque golfing track in Abu Dhabi with over a third of the course boasting views out over the coastline, and home to an assortment of wildlife, including a herd of impalas. Three salt-water lakes and restored beach and sand dunes double up as on-course hazards. For golf vacationers, the St Regis and Saadiyat Beach GC combination is hard to beat.
Needless to say, summer, from the end of May to August, isn’t exactly tepid. As a visitor, you’ll find the Emirate quite pleasant between November to April.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Most golfers heading to Turkey make a beeline for Antalya and Belek. With a generous 40-odd courses between them, the two locales make the country one of the most visited golf destinations in the world. But very few visitors tee it up at Istanbul’s modest handful of golf courses. And that’s a shame, because the Kemer Golf Country Club, a USGA-certified course hemmed in by the rolling hills of Belgrad Forest, is well worth the trouble of getting a tee time here. Given the paucity of golf courses of this calibre in Istanbul, it needs to be booked well in advance. Kemer GC hosts over 50 tournaments every year.
Designed by well-known Dutch course designer, Joan Dudok van Heel, the course’s yardages are in metres, and, given the elevation changes on the fairways, a rangefinder is essential to accurately dial in on distances. Playing well at this course requires not just strategy but a quick pace of play. Given the number of people on the course at any point of time, marshals are quick to penalise slow play and extremely particular about repairing divots—well-meaning advice for would-be visitors.
LEVI, FINLAND
The Finns have a word for it: yöttömän yön aurinko, the midnight sun. In Lapland, Finland, on the edge of the Arctic circle, and one of the last true wildernesses in northern Europe, the summer sun never sets. A massively popular ski resort town in the winter, Levi attracts a different kind of sport enthusiast in the summer: the golf nut. To be able to play incessantly is precisely what most golfers love to do on golf holidays and at The Levi Golf & Country Club, you can get a round in the morning, one in the afternoon, and a bonus game after dinner.
Don’t expect Augusta National. The greens are slow, the fairways patchy. Reindeer wander on to the course, their indifference to the game a reminder that you’re a long way from civilisation. But the setting is unparalleled. Towering pines, the scent of pine needles and damp earth, and the silence, broken only by the occasional sound of a golf ball hitting timber. Lose your ball in the woods, and you might find yourself face-to-face with something wilder than a wayward tee shot. Pays to stick to the fairways here. It’s a surreal experience, playing golf in Levi.
Meraj Shah is a Delhi-based writer, golfer and television producer.
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