Madinat Makadi Golf

Designed by John Sanford of Sanford Golf Design, the luxurious Madinat Makadi 1.4 million square-meters, 18 hole Championship Golf Course will be launched by end of 2007. 18 holes, par 72, 6 sets of tees and a 9 Hole Short Course with par 27, makes it strategically designed and built o USGA standards , and can host international championships at any level all yea round.

Overlooking the magnificent Red Sea and hotels, the Madinat Makadi Golf Course is a significant 7,500 yards in length making it one of the longest in the region. The course is encircled by residential units, lagoons, striking scenery, as well as 3 salty water lakes coming from the beach wells which are connected by 2 cascades, which are considered as hazards well positioned and waiting any stray shots. With 5 of our 18 holes overlooking the Red Sea – 3 of them having a view of the lakes – our Golf Course will be the perfect retreat for the Golf lovers.

Website: http://www.madinatmakadigolf.com

Katameya Heights Golf and Tennis Resort.

With the pioneering vision to turn the desert sand into lush green rolling hills, Katameya Heights became the first commercial venture to combine golf and real estate in Egypt. It is one of the most impressive Golf resorts in the Middle East and North Africa. With its beautifully designed golf course, its majestic clubhouse around the pool on the top of the hill and its luxurious villas, Katameya Heights has influenced the corporate landscape of Cairo.

The course is a championship design as all Bureau’s courses where pros are used to play their national PGA qualification competitions. Each hole is designed to test and challenge the golfer's skills. There are no two holes alike and the changes in elevation provide for spectacular views of the surrounding scenery. It also provides for challenging stances that demand creative shot making.

A breathtaking view from the highest point of Katameya Heights gives a complete portrait of the whole estate project. In the distance, the Pyramids of Giza highlight the horizon and can be seen from the tee-off spot.Katameya has also a 9-hole for higher handicaps and all golf facilities for beginners. The club-house with a large pool and wide bars and restaurants serving good food is very convivial for the 19th hole.

Mirage Golf Country Club

Opened in November 1999, under the Marriott International management, this course is located at less than 15 minutes from the airport in the same business and residential suburb than Katameya. Mirage City Golf club has been designed by Peter Harradine in the Floridian style with palm trees even cactus around ponds but with some hilly desert slopes offering golfers constant choice and challenge with every shot.

Due to very careful placement of four tee boxes, the course suits both beginners as well as scratch players. It has and deserves its reputation of excellence not only for its design but also for its consistent maintenance.

Hole 12, par 3 over a pond surrounded by a stone wall with vegetation and flowers is considered as the signature hole but some other like hole 8 offers spectacular view of a narrow fairway squeezed between water on the right and rough or even out of bonds on the left. The 18th has the green on a top of a sloppy hill and a par is a triumph! Mirage has a golf academy with different clinics and programmes.

Mena House Obroi

18 holes played on 9 fairways par 68, 5250 yards, rating 66 with 2 tees.

The Mena House Oberoi is certainly one of the finest, if not the finest hotels in Egypt, and perhaps the world. It is the only grand hotel we know of that has a close view of the Great Pyrmaids of Egypt.

The hotel itself has great facilities, including conference centers, fabulous restaurants, a casino, tennis and swimming, and of course, the golf course.

The hotel has 40 acres of jasmine scented gardens, beautiful arabesque furniture inlaid with mother of pearl, hand-crafted mosaic tiles, exquisitely carved brass-bound wood doors, original works of art and magnificent antiquities. And while it has been serving guests since 1869, it is modern in every respect that counts.

The golf course overlooks the Pyramids, and is one of the oldest and most mature in Egypt.

Golf City
Located on the Ismaïlia Road at 35 kms East from Cairo, Golf City is also a championship 18 holes which has been designed by the same successful architect than Katameya Heights, the French Yves Bureau. This par 72 measures 6350 meters from the black tees to only 4714 meters from the front tees which tells enough about the concern of the architect to make it playable for any kind of golfers.

And really it is, even if some holes like the 9th or the 10th are more difficult due to a water environment but, so spectacular, more over for those who sip a fresh drink sitting quietly in a comfortable chair at the terrace of the club-house!In fact the 9th is a wonderful signature hole: superb view point from the tee boxes to the Cairo city horizon and very protected green between water and bunkers. Par on this hole is a success even for low handicap.
The Australian pro Peter Partridge manages the golf in a very professional but convivial way which is largely appreciated by the members as well by visitors.

The clubhouse offers a large range of facilities, bars and restaurants and the casual "Bistro 18" serves drinks and snacks or full meals which are promptly prepared (it not the case everywhere).

Dreamland Golf & Tennis resort
18 holes, 7205 yards, Par72

This nearest golf to Cairo is located on west side in the new

residential settlements of the 6th of October CityHis manager

Ayman El Faransawy pretends his course to be the only one

with a view to the Pyramids. It is true… on the last 9 holes!

The course, property of Bhagat Group which owns also the

nearby Dreamland entertainment Park, can be played by golfers

of all skills. The 18 holes championship course meanders on

the sloping hills around lakes bordered by palm trees. It has

also a nine holes and a large practice range with golf school.

The new club house is a sort of mysterious construction which could have been built for “Indiana Jones”. A 19th green has been managed on the surrounding rocks to organize pitching contest: the winner pays the bill! Isn’t it? Indeed!

The Pyramids Golf complex

As Cairo, Alexandria has benefited from the British occupation the creation of a centennial golf course which still exists under the same name: Sporting Club. It is still the only one in the city of Alexander the Great. Was that the reason why an investor decided to create a golf complex between Cairo and Alexandria? The Pyramids golf complex. But don’t believe in its name. It is far from the Pyramids, along the Alexandria desert road, at more than one hour drive from Cairo, in the middle of nowhere. Over 99 holes which are planned in the full project, four 9-holes have been marked out (better than designed) in the desert nearby an entertainment park.

East and West are easy playground for beginners. South called Executive is more difficult due to immoderate water hazards and lengths and the green of the last hole is an island in a pond surrounded by camping and fishing huts! And there is a floodlight 9 holes called Moonlight course!!!

Aiming to attract people to discover golf game is good idea. But golf needs real professional designers, managers and green keepers.

at Luxor : The Royal Valley Golf & Country Club

18 holes, 6735 yards, Par72
This course has been designed by Arthur Davis and created at the same time as Katameya and Mirage in the same spirit: turn desert sand into lush green rolling fairways. And the slogan was “Tee time with ancient Kings and Queens”. It is located on the East bank of the Nile, near the Luxor airport, in the desert just away from the Nile green zone.This championship course has narrow rolling fairways bordered by large waste areas of natural desert between numerous water hazards, and well dispatched sand bunkers. It is a long par 72 of 6735 yards with some very long par 4 as holes …….

But there are four tees boxes and the forwards positions offer an equally enjoyable experience for the high handicappers as for the low from the King Tut tee deck.Unfortunately the projected development of the Royal Valley Golf resort has been stopped just a few days after its opening, by the terrorists attack of November 1997 against foreign tourists in the Kings Valley.
Nowadays Egyptian tourism is coming out from the tunnel and the unfortunate Luxor managers invigorate the golf course to bring the players back on the fairways; it is just a problem of green keeping to get the Bermuda grass in good shape.

Anyway the course design of Royal Valley Golf remains of great quality and in the centre of the course the Nubian style club-house is still majestic.

Along the Red Sea :

In the last ten years, brand new tourist hotels and resorts have sprung out from the desert sands and stones along the coasts of the Red Sea beginning around Hurghada on one side and Sharm el Sheikh on the Sinaï side. Long sandy beaches, blue (and not red) sea water with famous underwater natural museum of corals and marine fauna, year round sun (rain is exceptional) have been the first attractions. Nowadays golf is part of the development at El Gouna, Soma Bay, and to morrow at El Soukhna, Sal Hasheesh, …

 

Jolie Ville Golf Resort at Sharm el Sheikh

18 holes, 6585 yards, Par72
Between the mythic Sinaï mountain and Tyran island in the

Aqaba Gulf , the Jolie Ville Golf Resort at Sharm el Sheikh

with its18 lakes and ponds is a stopping point for more

than 15 different species of migrant birds. Not only for birds!

It is now a favourite playground for more and more golfers

who have decided to buy a residence in this paradise

along the beaches of the Red Sea.
Located near the airport at about 5kms from the main hotels zone

, the Bermuda grass and the numerous palm trees lie their green

mark in the sandy desert colour. The Mövenpick Hotel Group has

been the instigator of the Jolie Ville Golf Resort designed by

Sanford Associates from Florida (USA). They have brought their

specific style which fits well with the very specific environment between Sinaï and Red Sea.

It is a par 72 championship course American way of 6021 meters from the black tees with five different boxes which make the course playable for golfers of any skill. Water hazards are more or less present on 14 holes but on three different places on the 18th which is the signature hole in front of the white house of the club. Karts are available but walking is very easy.

El Gouna Golf Resort

18 holes, 6902 yards, Par72
North of Hurghada lies the most important Egyptian tourist resort of El Gouna, with dozen hotels and hundreds guest houses, villas and apartments. El Gouna has its own championship 18-hole golf course designed by Fred Couples and Gene Bates. Under the wise management of Rolf Boehmer, the course has been rated by the German Golf Federation. The course meanders along and between the internal lagoons so that a dozen of holes are along the water. Sea winds blow sometimes so hard that woods shots are needed on long par 4 (14th) or 5 (17) to reach (or try to) the green in the prevailing wind. Signature hole is 15th, dogleg right with lagoon on the right and a bunker in the centre of the fairway which is sloping down to the lagoon… Aqua driving range, pitch, chip & putt, gacademy. Minimum handicap 45. A second course in the future developments.

Soma Bay : the Cascades Golf

18 holes, 6646 yards, Par72

At 45 kms south from Hurghada, the Gary Player 18 holes championship called the Cascades at Soma Bay, is not only the number one course in Egypt but also one of the most spectacular links courses in the world. As much as the famous Pete Dye’s Teeth of the dog at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic. And maybe more. The coast line holes 4,5,6, 13,14, 15 are similar to Teeth of the dog with sea tide and winds in the cricks but the hinterland holes

are more spectacular at Soma Bay in the windy desert.

Its all beauty and tranquillity.

At the Cascades Golf Course, wide fairways and elevated greens are defined by the natural rolling sand hills and 77 strategically placed bunkers. Waste bunkers accentuate almost every fairway creating a barrier between the natural desert and the manicured fairways. A series of landscaped lagoons, flowing streams and the Red Sea coast have been combined to create obstacles to challenge amateur as well as the professional. Holes 9 and 18 ending by a cascade water feature for which the course is named.

Every Tuesday morning, the pro manager Mr Mansour, organizes a par-3 challenge for all guests with or without handicap. Very successful.

Definitely Soma Bay Golf resort is all-year sunshine golf destination built on a unique 10 million square meter peninsula surrounded on three sides by the turquoise blue water of the Red Sea.

New projects :
El Soukhna : South of Suez, El Soukhna new tourist resort on the Red Sea is the nearest from Cairo (120 kms). It takes about an hour drive (when the brand new highway is not closed to tourists access for military exercise!!! Which causes a detour of at least two hours). A garden park golf course has been enclosed in the real estate so tightly that only ten meters separates each greens from its next tee box. Fooore!!!

Sahl Hasheesh : Behind the hills at the south end of Hurghada’s bay is another bay of 11 kms sand beaches. There two new championship golf courses are planned to take place in a billion dollars Pharaonic project comprising a dozen of hotels, villas, apartments, marinas, commercial centres, hospital, etc… Opening in 2006.

Gazella : Nearby the famous desert city of El Alamein where the German Marshal Rommel’s army was defeated for the first time by the Allies during the Second World War, there is a resort project along the Mediterranean seashore. Four hotels including the already existing Mövenpick are involved in the development of a golf course. Date of opening has not been disclosed.

Golf courses :
- Alexandria Sporting Club - Alexandria
Telephone +203 543-3627/8/9
- Cascades Golf Resort & Country Club - Soma Bay/Red Sea
Tel & Fax: 065-54 49 01 - Email: cascades@hurghada.ie-eg
- Dreamland Golf & Tennis resort – Cairo
Tel 2011 400 577-78 - email: dreamgolf@ie-eg.com
- El Gouna Golf & Firness Club - Red Sea
Tel 0020 65 580 009 - email : golf@elgouna.com
- Gezira Golf Club - Cairo
Tel +202 736-0434/735-6000 - Fax +202 736-7293
- Jolie Ville Golf Resort - Sharm el Sheikh
Tel +2062 603 200-210 – Fax 2062 603 225
- Katameya Heights Golf & Tennis club - Cairo
Tel +202 758 0512-17 – email katameya@egyptonline.com
- Mena House Golf
Tel +202 383 3222 - Fax +202 383 34544
- Mirage JW Marriott Golf Club - Cairo
Tel +2 (92) 412 5041– email : marketing@miragecity.com.eg
- Pyramids Golf & Country Club
Tel +201 1799 728 – email : pyramidsgolf@soleimaneyah.com
- Royal Valley Golf Club - Luxor
Tel : +(2012) 212-9204