If you want to experience the very best of Dubai’s famous hospitality, you head for The Address Montgomerie Dubai. Opened in 2002, the hugely enjoyable layout designed by Ryder Cup legend Colin Montgomerie winds through the extravagant Emirates Hills estate and combines the best qualities of resort golf with a championship test from the back tees.
Although Address Montgomerie Dubai has evolved into one of the Middle East’s most luxurious and desirable golfing destinations in recent times, the key to its success has always remained contingent upon the quality of the golf course that would become the focal point for one of Dubai’s most exclusive residential communities, Emirates Hills.
The course covers 265 acres which consist of 123 acres of turf, 49 acres of 14 man-made lakes, 93 acres of landscaped gardens and is scattered with 81 large bunkers.
The golf course provides the player with undulating “links land” style fairways with generous landing areas which challenge and intrigue all levels of player. Although large in size, the greens can be very misleading, especially as they are consistently rolling above 9.5 feet. Plenty of shape throughout the greens can result in some very trying putts.
One of the signature holes is the par 5 fourth, dubbed the Snake hole for its saddleback fairway which doglegs towards the green, with two bunkers behind forming the eyes of the snake. Further on, the par 5 ninth, with water down the left, is a tough finish to the opening half.
The par 3 thirteenth, a hole designed in the shape of the UAE, boasts a 360 degree teeing area around an island fairway and green, allowing for a completely different golf hole to be played every time. However, it is the par 5 eighteenth that offers a more classic test. At 656 yards it is a monster and, with water protecting the front of the green, it defies even the best player to hit the green in two.
Address Montgomerie offers two very different seasons of golf. During winter, the golf course is over-seeded whilst the summer season has the course back to a full stand of Bermuda grass. The turf growth is vigorous during the summer resulting in a very challenging rough.
