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Choosing a Dubai golf club
I played my first round of golf of my adult life (about 22 years after my first, and only previous, round) last week at The Montgomery. My host reckoned I'd be lucky to break 135, but in the event I scored 116 and apparently showed some decent potential. My wife was more what our host expected of a beginner, but we both caught a bit of a bug for this golfism business.
So......we went out and bought clubs, booked some lessons and we're raring to go. We just need to find a club to join now! Arabian Ranches is on our doorstep, but apart from the course the facilities are limited, it must be said. It's also more expensive (thanks to the cart fee) than The Montgomery or Al Badia. The Montgomery numbers a few colleagues among the membership, so at least some of the time we'd have some ready-made partners. Facilities and atmosphere are somewhat grander than AR. They also have a deal with 2 months free at the moment. Al Badia has no joining fee and costs about the same as TM. We haven't seen it yet but it sounds good, and there are a couple of friendly colleagues with memberships. Dubai Creek is getting further away still from AR where we live, but is significantly cheaper, at least in the second year once the joining fee is out of the way. It also appears to have better facilities than the ARGC. I've said to the ops manager at ARGC that I wouldn't expect to pay more than 2/3 the membership fees of The Montgomery given the lesser amenities, despite the convenience of being on our doorstep, and he said he'll get back to me when he can work out how sharp a pencil he has.... Does anyone have any recommendations? As well as a course which we won't get bored with, we'd also like a club atmosphere which makes it easy to join other couples, and preferably not too much pressure to speed around the course (this is where TM may fall down a little - it's a popular course and if we're playing badly, we'll likely have to let others play through quite a bit). Comments please! |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Originally Posted by Clay Buster
(Post 8000695)
I played my first round of golf of my adult life (about 22 years after my first, and only previous, round) last week at The Montgomery. My host reckoned I'd be lucky to break 135, but in the event I scored 116 and apparently showed some decent potential. My wife was more what our host expected of a beginner, but we both caught a bit of a bug for this golfism business.
So......we went out and bought clubs, booked some lessons and we're raring to go. We just need to find a club to join now! Arabian Ranches is on our doorstep, but apart from the course the facilities are limited, it must be said. It's also more expensive (thanks to the cart fee) than The Montgomery or Al Badia. The Montgomery numbers a few colleagues among the membership, so at least some of the time we'd have some ready-made partners. Facilities and atmosphere are somewhat grander than AR. They also have a deal with 2 months free at the moment. Al Badia has no joining fee and costs about the same as TM. We haven't seen it yet but it sounds good, and there are a couple of friendly colleagues with memberships. Dubai Creek is getting further away still from AR where we live, but is significantly cheaper, at least in the second year once the joining fee is out of the way. It also appears to have better facilities than the ARGC. I've said to the ops manager at ARGC that I wouldn't expect to pay more than 2/3 the membership fees of The Montgomery given the lesser amenities, despite the convenience of being on our doorstep, and he said he'll get back to me when he can work out how sharp a pencil he has.... Does anyone have any recommendations? As well as a course which we won't get bored with, we'd also like a club atmosphere which makes it easy to join other couples, and preferably not too much pressure to speed around the course (this is where TM may fall down a little - it's a popular course and if we're playing badly, we'll likely have to let others play through quite a bit). Comments please! The RAK golf course is decent enough. There's also one in Sharjah but I don't know it. Jebel Ali also could be worth a look (is cheaper I think). Here's a list for Dubai and RAK/Sharjah ... http://www.dubaifaqs.com/golf-dubai.php http://www.dubaifaqs.com/golf-uae.php Good work on getting 116. That's not bad for a first ever round. We'll see you give Tiger Woods a scare yet :). |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Originally Posted by Clay Buster
(Post 8000695)
I played my first round of golf of my adult life (about 22 years after my first, and only previous, round) last week at The Montgomery. My host reckoned I'd be lucky to break 135, but in the event I scored 116 and apparently showed some decent potential. My wife was more what our host expected of a beginner, but we both caught a bit of a bug for this golfism business.
So......we went out and bought clubs, booked some lessons and we're raring to go. We just need to find a club to join now! Arabian Ranches is on our doorstep, but apart from the course the facilities are limited, it must be said. It's also more expensive (thanks to the cart fee) than The Montgomery or Al Badia. The Montgomery numbers a few colleagues among the membership, so at least some of the time we'd have some ready-made partners. Facilities and atmosphere are somewhat grander than AR. They also have a deal with 2 months free at the moment. Al Badia has no joining fee and costs about the same as TM. We haven't seen it yet but it sounds good, and there are a couple of friendly colleagues with memberships. Dubai Creek is getting further away still from AR where we live, but is significantly cheaper, at least in the second year once the joining fee is out of the way. It also appears to have better facilities than the ARGC. I've said to the ops manager at ARGC that I wouldn't expect to pay more than 2/3 the membership fees of The Montgomery given the lesser amenities, despite the convenience of being on our doorstep, and he said he'll get back to me when he can work out how sharp a pencil he has.... Does anyone have any recommendations? As well as a course which we won't get bored with, we'd also like a club atmosphere which makes it easy to join other couples, and preferably not too much pressure to speed around the course (this is where TM may fall down a little - it's a popular course and if we're playing badly, we'll likely have to let others play through quite a bit). Comments please! 116 isn't bad........ keep practising. The ultimate challenge is to shoot a round lower than your age, so keep working on your game, and when you're 83....... |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Hmmm.....I don't think I'm likely to shoot lower than 38, other than on crazy golf... Thanks for the encouragement anyway! :)
We can golf for free at RAK with our Emirates Bank credit cards, and we certainly will from time to time, but we'd like to play once or twice a week somewhere closer to home. Within 25 minutes of Arabian Ranches is about as far as we'd like to go, which encompasses all the clubs I've mentioned - only just for Dubai Creek I suppose, and assuming they don't lower the threshold speed on the cameras on the Emirates Road. We also want to be able to hit the driving range a couple of times a week, probably the gym too where there is one, and have "our club" to take visitors to. |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Hmmm.....I don't think I'm likely to shoot lower than 38, other than on crazy golf... Thanks for the encouragement anyway!
No, silly............... the idea is you play for the rest of your life, so that when you are, say, 86, you shoot an 85, and so on........... Off you go ;) |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
What about the Eimirates Golf club ? - probably got the most clubby feel to it, has sports facilities, resturants, bars, etc.?
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Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Why do you want to "join" a club as a beginner?
You can (correct me if I'm wrong here) use all the facilities at all of the clubs as a non-member and just pay a green fee to play. OK, the green fees are expensive but there are lots of offers at the moment and that way you can try out all the clubs before committing to join. Anyway, back to the original question - Jebel Ali is a great 9 hole course for beginners and intermediates and there are new courses just up the road from AR (a course I don't like) at Sports City although I haven't visited these yet. The 9 hole course at the Emirates is a nice beginners course too. |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Originally Posted by Sessou
(Post 8002215)
Why do you want to "join" a club as a beginner?
You can (correct me if I'm wrong here) use all the facilities at all of the clubs as a non-member and just pay a green fee to play. OK, the green fees are expensive but there are lots of offers at the moment and that way you can try out all the clubs before committing to join. Anyway, back to the original question - Jebel Ali is a great 9 hole course for beginners and intermediates and there are new courses just up the road from AR (a course I don't like) at Sports City although I haven't visited these yet. The 9 hole course at the Emirates is a nice beginners course too. |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Originally Posted by Sessou
(Post 8002215)
Why do you want to "join" a club as a beginner?
You can (correct me if I'm wrong here) use all the facilities at all of the clubs as a non-member and just pay a green fee to play. OK, the green fees are expensive but there are lots of offers at the moment and that way you can try out all the clubs before committing to join. Anyway, back to the original question - Jebel Ali is a great 9 hole course for beginners and intermediates and there are new courses just up the road from AR (a course I don't like) at Sports City although I haven't visited these yet. The 9 hole course at the Emirates is a nice beginners course too. For about 200dhs a year you get the same but not the handicap maintenance. http://www.emiratesgolffederation.co...p/benefits.asp |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
the entertainer website has a 2-4-1 offer for al badia...fyi...
MM, xx |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Good point Sessou.
My answer would be that..... 1. if we play 3 times a month or more, especially now that winter rates are in force, we'll save money by having a membership. We plan to play more like 7 or 8 rounds a month, so even with one (free) trip to RAK and maybe one round eslewhere, it still saves money. 2. there definitely an intimidation factor, however irrational it may be, in being a beginner in any sport. A sense of belonging to a club helps alleviate that, giving confidence and experience for trips afield. 3. we're better able to return the favour of a round as a member's guest. By Sports City, do you mean Jumeirah Golf Estates? I have a feeling it's be expensive, though I've emailed them to find out. What few pictures I've seen of the Earth and Fire courses look quite stunning. One of my colleagues plays at Jebel Ali regularly, though for us it's quite a drive - getting across Jebel Ali Industrial is the time-sapper. We have an offer on the table from ARGC - single weekday membership for me at their current "deal" rate with 10 free rounds for my wife, until the end of the year. That might be a decent start, allowing us to go elsewhere in January if they don't come up with a realistic family weekday rate by then. In the meantime, we're off to visit Al Badia and Dubai Creek today. The Dean - I was getting, but just being obtuse. This is the forum for that, isn't it? ;) |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
I, personally, would wait a while before rushing into paying out shedloads of money for a sport that you've apparently only played once. It might have been a one off or beginners luck and the next times you play you could be crap and you could get bored, fed up, not improve fast enough, golfers elbow blah blah blah and then you've wasted all that lovely money.
JMO as someone who has 'fads' - bit like joining a gym really - best of intentions and all that! N |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Nic1 - you would have been spot on when I was a teenager. Alas, I'm a long way from still being one, and fads are no longer an issue. Then again, my wife joined a gym for three months recently, and went 4 times... We both feel the need to do this golfism some justice though, and if we end being duffers then duffers we shall be.
We did quite a tour today, from Al Badia to Dubai Creek to The Montgomery to Emirates GC. Al Badia gets the nod from my wife, though for now the club atmosphere is lacking. That's something they intend to change now that they aren't the Four Seasons golf resort. The only real downside is the lack of an on-site gym - it's provided at the Intercontintal suites hotel nearby. The membership manager took us round the course in a cart, despite our showing up unannounced, and my wife signed up for a series of 8 lessons plus coffee mornings at half the price of my 10 lesson package at AR! Dubai Creek had everything of course, though getting there through Deira traffic is a major faff. They were happy for us to look around but no one offered to show us the sights or talk turkey. The Montgomery also has everything on site, and in a more Scots baronial style. It would suit me down to the ground, though Mrs Claybuster has a bad vibe about it thanks to her rental shoes removing several layers of skin last week. The Emirates GC is just too expensive though I like the idea of having two courses to choose from. The joining fee and the cart fee push it someway over the edge of affordability. |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
Originally Posted by Clay Buster
(Post 8003449)
Nic1 - you would have been spot on when I was a teenager. Alas, I'm a long way from still being one, and fads are no longer an issue. Then again, my wife joined a gym for three months recently, and went 4 times... We both feel the need to do this golfism some justice though, and if we end being duffers then duffers we shall be.
We did quite a tour today, from Al Badia to Dubai Creek to The Montgomery to Emirates GC. Al Badia gets the nod from my wife, though for now the club atmosphere is lacking. That's something they intend to change now that they aren't the Four Seasons golf resort. The only real downside is the lack of an on-site gym - it's provided at the Intercontintal suites hotel nearby. The membership manager took us round the course in a cart, despite our showing up unannounced, and my wife signed up for a series of 8 lessons plus coffee mornings at half the price of my 10 lesson package at AR! Dubai Creek had everything of course, though getting there through Deira traffic is a major faff. They were happy for us to look around but no one offered to show us the sights or talk turkey. The Montgomery also has everything on site, and in a more Scots baronial style. It would suit me down to the ground, though Mrs Claybuster has a bad vibe about it thanks to her rental shoes removing several layers of skin last week. The Emirates GC is just too expensive though I like the idea of having two courses to choose from. The joining fee and the cart fee push it someway over the edge of affordability. |
Re: Choosing a Dubai golf club
I think I know you |
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