The Class of 2020
A NEW ENTRY, THE DEMISE OF A CELEBRATED EUROPEAN TOUR VENUE AND PLENTY OF SNAKES AND LADDERS ACTION HIGHLIGHT OUR 6TH BIENNIAL RANKING
The sixth biennial ranking of the Top 10 Courses of the Middle East gets no easier to judge.
A new entry in our 2020 Top 10 Courses in the Middle East ranking is irrefutable proof of two things: the list is not a closed club but only providing you prove your worth in a region that is home to one of the finest concentrations of golf on the planet. ▶ But something has changed from the 2018 iteration. Rather than being a tough club to crack, the 2020 ranking proves it is now becoming increasingly difficult to hold station, or even remain in this elite collective altogether.
Like Doha Golf Club in 2018, Abu Dhabi Golf Club will sadly attest to that after slipping outside the 10 from what seemed a relatively safe eighth position in 2018. The disappearance of the European Tour venue and no place for elsewhere celebrated Dubai Hills Golf Club, among other notable omissions, will inevitably be met with incredulity in some quarters but speaks to the region’s quantity of quality. It also highlights the continual push for perfection by agronomy teams around the Middle East – even the slightest slip in playing conditions can see a club tumble given the high, region-wide quality of course design.
Indeed, just as the scoring is again incredibly tight inside the 10, those looking in from the outside aren’t doing so from any great distance. The Class of 2020 can’t say they haven’t been warned.
In short, the Middle East’s best courses remain extremely difficult to separate and just as tough to compare, borne out by a radically different Readers’ Choice Top 10 this time round; it’s not all gloom for Abu Dhabi and Dubai Hills.
The discrepancy is okay. There is nothing more subjective in golf that the apples versus pears ranking of courses; how do you measure a manicured hybrid of parkland and desert against a modern-day seaside layout, or an inland links wannabe for that matter? The most impartial way is with Golf Digest’s internationally trusted formula (explained overleaf). With new courses like Tiger Woods’ first Middle East creation in the pipeline, what is clear is that 2022 promises to be just as tough to judge, making the top 10 an even more coveted club of which to belong. How lucky we are to golf in the desert.