The National Golf Club - Turkey

The resort town of Belek on the Turkish Riviera overlooking the eastern Mediterranean, some 30 miles east of Antalya, has become the center for golf in Turkey. The National Golf Club was the first course built in the Antalya area, and bills itself as still the best, although it now has competition from a number of other fine layouts, including Gloria Golf Club, the Nobilis, and Antalya Golf Club. Designed by David Feherty and opened in 1994, the course is carved out of eucalyptus and pines and straddles a series of natural lakes, against the backdrop of the purple Taurus Mountains. Of the 450 bird species known to inhabit Turkey, 109 have been identified at the National, including the Tyto Alba or barn owl that is the symbol of the Belek region. Antalya, the capital of southwest Turkey, was founded in 159 B.C. by Attalos II, king of Pergamon, and subsequently occupied by the Romans, Byzantines, Seljuks, and Ottomans, each of whom left their architectural stamp on the city.

Emirates Golf Club - United Arab Emirates

The Emirates Golf Club hosts the Dubai Desert Classic, a popular event with pros on the European Tour. The original Majlis Course, with its lush green fairways, was the first grass course in the Arabian desert, and is now complemented by the Wadi Course. Designed by Karl Litten-in 1987, the Majlis Course takes its name from the Arabic for "meeting place." Large ponds were excavated and the fill used to create fairways lined with palms and casuarina trees, creating a golf oasis in the bare desert that consumes nearly one million gallons of water a day. The Dubai Creek Golf Club, which opened in 1993, has a course that flows through ship-mast high date and coconut palms along the shores of Dubai's saltwater inlet from the Arabian Sea. The clubhouse of the Emirates Golf Club is designed to resemble a series of Bedouin tents, while Dubai Creek's clubhouse is modeled after an Arab dhow, with soaring white sails.