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THE itinerary had us salivating, even a little breathless:
“Visit the Pyramids and the Sphinx; see the Valley of the Kings at Luxor; have lunch aboard a yacht on the Red Sea and dinner at a Bedouin desert camp; enjoy a cocktail cruise down the Nile; see Cairo by night.”
For once, the realisation was equal to the anticipation, I’m glad to report. Add outstanding hotels and daily golf which included a round on a memorable desert course designed by Gary Player, and you’ll see why a bunch of wizened old golf-travel writers gave the trip top marks all round. It had every ingredient for the holiday of a lifetime.
You didn’t know Egypt had golf? That’s not surprising. They caught the bug only in recent times but now they’re building courses at a frantic rate and no expense is being spared. Like many tourist destinations, they’ve discovered the value of the Royal & Ancient game and the type of people who play it. They like the cut of our jib, it seems.
In fact Egypt has something of a history in golf, albeit a chequered one. In the old Colonial days, when Cairo was a major diplomatic nerve centre, there were half a dozen courses scattered about, some dating to the 19th Century. They were all nationalised in the catharsis of the traumatic 1950s. With the exception of nine holes here and there, they either disappeared under building construction or fell into disuse.
But the wheel turned full circle in the 1990s when eight new courses were opened, most property-driven and with resort hotels in situ. The fuse had been lit. There are now ten courses under construction around the country, with plans for others, some the focal points of de luxe resorts with top flight hotels and convenient for airports only four hours’ flying time from most European capitals.
A major point in Egypt’s favour is that at the coastal resorts, those near the Red Sea for instance, it is possible to play year-round. And holidays here are not expensive, considering the standards of presentation and the quality of the hotel infrastructure.
Then, of course, there are the apre golf attractions: the culture, the gentle people, the desert and the incredible residue of 7,000 years of recorded history bringing sights to die for. It’s a unique destination for a holiday.
EGYPT is an expansive country and its golfing centres are linked only by long journeys. Unless you have a couple of weeks to saunter I would suggest that you restrict yourself to two centres at most. Make one of those Cairo, where we began our tour, and you’ll start on the right foot.
An aside here: while the Valley of the Kings at Luxor is an hour away by air, Cairo is not lacking in historical attractions. I was astonished to discover that the Sphinx and some of the nation’s 85 pyramids are only a few minutes’ drive from the city centre. Initially they were in splendid isolation in the desert: the spread of the metropolis has brought them to the doorstep of the city.
There are five courses scattered around the city suburbs and we played two of them, the Dreamland Golf & Tennis Resort and Katameya Heights. The former is a 2,000 acre resort, complete with theme park, hotels and every facility. It’s quite a sight, a big, sprawling emerald oasis.
The course, designed by Karl Litten of Dubai renown, is one of the highest quality in design and presentation, with some of the finest greens I’ve seen in Africa; they’re large, gently undulating and slick as a knife edge. They’re of bent grass, with fairways of fescue and light rough of Bermuda. It’s an unusual combination for Africa but it works well. It’s eminently playable, with a pleasing tempo and movement, and it looks as good as it sounds.
There are five sets of tees stretching from 5,530 yards (for the belly dancers) to 7,205 yards (for the head sheiks), a big driving, par-72 course with water in abundance, some big two shotters, four par-5s in excess of 550 yards and a quartet of solid par-3s. Resort courses don’t come a whole lot better than this.
There are good facilities, too: a grand clubhouse with outstanding catering, an expansive practice area and there are knowledgable caddies to be had for about £45 Egyptian, which equates to £9 sterling.
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