Over the past decade, the Arabian world has become more and more a factor in international golf. Huge tournaments attract the best players in the world, men and women alike.
Which again attract golfers; from golf-nuts to the more laid back golfers. Now, there is even an alternative for golf purists at a fairly new Abu Dhabi course garnering significant worldwide attention.
LINKS STYLE: Yas Links 12th hole is sitting opposite the Yas Marina Circuit F1 racetrack and in view of the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park.
Yas Links name themselves «The Middle East’s only links golf course», and has been named one of the world’s top 25 by Golf Digest. The voting panel of experts have ranked the two-year-old course 24th in the world, making it the best new golf course outside the US.
Design by Kyle Phillips
Designed by one of golf’s most creative and innovative designers, Kyle Phillips, Yas Links is a testing par 72 course that measures 7,414 yards off the back tees. According to a press release it boasts one of the game’s most spectacular finishing stretches, sitting opposite the Yas Marina Circuit F1 racetrack and in view of the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi theme park.
The combination of Yas Links, Abu Dhabi Golf Club and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club (the emirate’s other two championship-ready courses) create a distinct and differentiated golf experience.
— Much like he did with Kingsbarns ten years ago, Kyle Phillips has created a golf course from scratch that feels and plays like a completely natural site he just happened to stumble upon, said Robbie Greenfield, Editor of Golf Digest Middle East.
— Not least of his achievements is that Yas Links has somehow managed to capture the mysteries and nuances of a classic links course in this very untraditional of desert environments. In an emirate famed for the high standard of its golf, Yas stands apart as a course featuring a stunning sequence of back nine holes, which demand course management and creativity in equal measure.
According to Chris White, General Manager Yas Links, the recognition is a major boost to both the course’s and Abu Dhabi’s international golfing credentials.
ON THE SEA: The wind is a major factor at Yas Links. Like here on the 13th.
This is the third golfing accolade Abu Dhabi has scooped in the past six months. In March, the emirate was named «Newcomer Destination Of The Year» by Germany’s Golf Journal while the International Association of Golf Tour Operators earlier voted it «Destination Of The Year Middle East & Africa 2012».
Each January Abu Dhabi Golf Club hosts the annual European Tour-backed Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship which Tiger Woods contested this year. Saadiyat Beach Golf Club is a golf hedonist’s paradise that hugs the crystal blue Arabian Gulf. It was designed by Gary Player, and rounds off the emirate’s trio of championship ready courses.
More information and bookings at www.golfinabudhabi.com
