Going for Golf

The Cascades at Soma Bay

Just 45km from Hurghada airport is Soma Bay, which features 27 Gary Player-designed holes. The Cascades at Soma Bay was the first championship course in the Middle East designed by one of the ‘Big Three’ – Player, Jack Nicklaus or Arnold Palmer. Player holds the desert ‘links-style’ course in high regard, describing it as “the next Pebble Beach” and a “Red Sea treasure”. Marketing rhetoric aside, it is a high-quality course, measuring 6,991 yards off the tips in an extended figure-of-eight configuration and blending links-style holes with lush fairways and a rugged desert milieu.

It was ranked the best course outside of Europe three years in a row by readers of the German magazine Golf Journal and it is a popular destination for Germans. Five of the 18 holes are located on the coast and the 425-yard first gives a good indication of what to expect throughout: it’s a dog-leg right around one of the many lakes and features ‘magnetic’ bunkers. Arguably the most memorable is the 207-yard, par-three fifth – The Pebbles of Soma – which features an ‘island’ green protected on three sides by a continuous narrow bunker and the breaking waters of the Red Sea. Even with the wind blowing you don’t travel all the way to Egypt to lay up in the landing area on the left…

The Cascades at Soma Bay is the focal point for the community based at the award-winning, five-star La Résidence des Cascades resort – a colonial-style hotel atop the highest point on the Soma Bay peninsula, affording spectacular views of both the golf course and the sea.

Egypt isn’t yet on the radar of many in Britain seeking winter golf in the sun. But it should be and especially Hurghada. These three courses offer splendid holiday golf, with stunning views of the Red Sea and are situated reasonably close together. It won’t be long before Egypt will be attracting British golfers by the plane-load and Hurghada may well lead the charge.