How Can I Play Abu Dhabi Golf Club?

The United Arab Emirates course and 2023 Hero Cup venue offers a tough but fair challenge, but how can you play it?

Abu Dhabi Golf Club with the clubhouse in the background
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Mike Hall
By
published

Abu Dhabi Golf Club was designed by Peter Harradine in 1998 and opened to the public in 2000. 

Set on 162 hectares, there are two courses at the site – The National, which is the traditional home of the DP World Tour’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship (and, in 2023, the inaugural Hero Cup), and The Garden, a floodlit par 36 nine-hole course.

Harradine was also called upon to implement some changes in time for the 10th anniversary of The National's hosting of the DP World Tour (then European Tour) event in 2015 and, today, the course, which is considered one of the best in the Middle East, offers a tricky but fair challenge. On it, players navigate lush fairways set among palms, with lakes on nine holes providing plenty of forced carries. Meanwhile, there is strategic bunkering around its generous greens.

Standout holes include the par-4 sixth, with water on either side of the fairway as you approach the green. Further on, the par-3 12th offers players another tricky challenge, as they play over water towards a green guarded by bunkers at the back and a wall beyond. 

The 12th green at Abu Dhabi Golf Club

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The 18th offers a suitably memorable conclusion to the round. It’s a 567-yard dogleg right par-5 with a sizeable lake to the right of the fairway and bunkers to negotiate on the way to the green, all with a backdrop of the imposing clubhouse - one of the most recognisable and iconic features of the venue thanks to its distinctive and memorable falcon shape.

The 18th hole at Abu Dhabi Golf Club

(Image credit: Getty Images)

The course is open to the public, and there are stay-and-play options at the Westin Abu Dhabi Golf Resort & Spa, with those interested invited to email the club for details. You can also book a tee time online, with prices from around AED785 (approximately £175 or $210). Meanwhile, several memberships are also available, with an individual premium membership costing AED36775 (around £8,200 or $10,000).

When Did Abu Dhabi Golf Club Open?

Peter Harradine designed both The National and The Garden in 1998, and the club opened to the public in 2000. It has hosted the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship since the tournament began, in 2006. It is also the host of the 2023 Hero Cup.

How Much Does It Cost To Play Abu Dhabi Golf Club?

There are several options to play Abu Dhabi Golf Club, including membership and stay-and-play. However, you can also book a tee time online, with prices from around AED785 (approximately £175 or $210).

Mike Hall
Mike Hall
News Writer

Mike has over 25 years of experience in journalism, including writing on a range of sports throughout that time, such as golf, football and cricket. Now a freelance staff writer for Golf Monthly, he is dedicated to covering the game's most newsworthy stories. 

He has written hundreds of articles on the game, from features offering insights into how members of the public can play some of the world's most revered courses, to breaking news stories affecting everything from the PGA Tour and LIV Golf to developmental Tours and the amateur game. 

Mike grew up in East Yorkshire and began his career in journalism in 1997. He then moved to London in 2003 as his career flourished, and nowadays resides in New Brunswick, Canada, where he and his wife raise their young family less than a mile from his local course. 

Kevin Cook’s acclaimed 2007 biography, Tommy’s Honour, about golf’s founding father and son, remains one of his all-time favourite sports books.

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