Going for Golf

The heights of luxury

Taba Heights

Eventually I procured a ride in a campervan belonging to a group of hippies – one step up from the camels in the transport stakes but I still experienced many of the same odours – so it was with some trepidation that I returned to the north east of Egypt. But fears left my mind when I reached the oasis that is Taba Heights.

The course is of the standard you expect from a five-star resort and nestled in beautiful surroundings beside the Red Sea Coast – an errant wedge shot approaching the 17th could see your ball on the beach, while you’re afforded a view of the Arabian, Jordanian and Israeli coastlines – and flanked by an impressive mountain range which offers stunning backdrops on several holes and a natural and unforgiving hazard on others.

While the layout couldn’t be described as mountainous it does undulate between four and 70 metres above sea level, and once you factor in the heat it becomes obvious why players are not allowed to carry clubs and use of a buggy is mandatory. Temperatures get up to around 38 degrees in July and August and a mere 24 during ‘winter’ - sun cream and a few litres of water are a must for everyone.

At 7,100 yards, Taba Heights is long and challenging off the championship tees, although there are a further four tee locations which reduce the yardage to more manageable lengths for we lesser mortals. There’s no rough here, but if you stray you will most likely be in desert sand – a gravelly mix from which it is awkward to play and you’ll wish you hadn’t spent so much on your clubs.

One feature of an arid region that may intimidate is a stretch of desert which must be crossed before reaching the fairway. By no means does it make the green stuff unreachable, but it may be a little daunting for higher handicap golfers who might be used to bumping the odd drive down the middle of the fairway. There’s not a lot of bump here.

The course features four large man-made lakes, the most memorable of which comes into play on the third, a 171-yard par-three off the championship tees, where tee shots must carry the lake to reach a green situated so close to the water as to make you wince at anything bouncing near its front.

The last two holes provide a fantastic climax, with the beauty of the penultimate hole lifting your spirits before the potentially card-wrecking 18th. The 17th green is set beside the golden beach with your view punctuated only by palm trees. But then you have to take on the wadi. Although the rains come very rarely in this part of the world, when they do, they come in abundance, and large stone-lined trenches, known as wadis, designed just for these occasions, cut across the course, coming into their own when they carry the fast-flowing waters from the mountains to the sea. Around 15ft deep and 70ft across on average they run alongside several holes and provide an awkward obstacle even when dry.

The 18th fairway is bisected by a wadi and it takes an accurate drive to clear the bunkers and avoid bounding on into it. If you have judged your tee shot perfectly, you’ll have left yourself with a shot to the green, which is unhelpfully tucked around a rocky corner. Any error in your tee shot will be punished and those unlucky enough to find the bunkers would be well advised to aim short of the wadi once more or more than likely end up in it.

It will inevitably take you some time to become accustomed to the idiosyncrasies of the greens, with the lie of the grass, like the nap of a snooker table, affecting the roll of a ball so much that players often claim their putts broke uphill.

Having successfully evaded the wadi and holed out on 18, golfers are welcomed off the course with a lemon-scented towel. If you thought this was a welcome sight at the end of eating a curry, at Taba Heights you will realise this is surely the real reason the lemon-scented towel was invented.

Golfers residing in the resort’s Marriott hotel will have their clubs looked after for the duration of their stay, cleaned after every round and loaded on to a buggy ready for the next outing.

The rooms are spacious, clean and cool, the swimming pools large and inviting and the food reassuringly good. And a short walk along the seafront to one of a couple of nearby jetties will enable you to see the colourful, large tropical fish that inhabit the coastline.

While enjoying the stunning views I overheard several well-travelled golfers citing Taba Heights as one of the best and most challenging courses they had played. They looked tired, but content, and there was the fresh scent of lemons in the air.