Address Montgomerie Dubai

The verdict

Dubai golf is usually a choice between the flagship Majlis at Emirates and the Norman desert course at Jumeirah, but the Montgomerie has long held its own as the city's most distinctive layout. Opened in 2002 to a design credited to Colin Montgomerie working alongside the inventive American architect Desmond Muirhead, it sits in the manicured villas of Emirates Hills and channels the look of British links and heathland golf into the desert, with rumpled fairways, pot bunkering and big bodies of water.

It is a par 72 of around 7,400 yards, and its calling card is the par 3 thirteenth, which plays to what the club bills as the largest single green in the world, an island of putting surface ringed by sand and water that runs to roughly 58,000 square feet. Quirks and all, the Montgomerie is a serious test, well conditioned year round, and an easy course to pair with the Majlis and the Earth course for a classic Dubai golf week between November and March.

The holes worth the trip

The Montgomerie does not look like the rest of Dubai. Muirhead's earthworks give the fairways a heaving, links like roll, the bunkers are deep and revetted in the Scottish manner, and the lakes are placed to make you commit to a line rather than sit there for decoration. It rewards the player who can flight the ball and work it both ways, which is exactly the game its headline designer built a Ryder Cup career on.

The signature is the par 3 thirteenth, a long one shotter to an island green that the club promotes as the largest single putting surface in the world. Even three putt territory aside, it is a genuine card wrecker when the wind gets up off the desert, the kind of hole that defines a round. The closing holes tighten the screw with water down the stretch, a finish built for the matchplay and corporate golf that fills the Dubai winter calendar.

Conditioning is the constant. The greens are quick and true, the fairways immaculate and the whole property maintained to the standard the emirate expects. Add floodlit evening golf in the warmer months and the Montgomerie earns its place on any serious Dubai itinerary.

Where to stay nearby

The course sits in Emirates Hills, minutes from Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Beach, so the natural bases are the marina and beach hotels rather than anything on site. From there the Majlis at Emirates Golf Club and the Earth course at Jumeirah Golf Estates are both a short transfer, which makes a multi course Dubai week easy to build.

For a golf and city trip, a marina or Palm Jumeirah hotel keeps you close to the courses, the restaurants and the beach. The airport is around 35 minutes away, with Dubai's two terminals connecting almost everywhere, so the emirate works as a long weekend or a full week.

Looking for a base? See our recommended hotels and resorts near Emirates Hills and Dubai Marina.