Jumeirah Golf Estates (Earth course)

Jumeirah Golf Estates' Earth course opened in November 2009 coincident with staging the European Tour's first Dubai World Championship. Earth and its companion layout, Fire, are the first Greg Norman designs in the Gulf.

Earth's natural undulations are home to a relatively open layout, where good-width, at times very generous, fairways lead you into large and audaciously sloping greens. The bleached white sand in the stylish fairway and greenside bunkers was imported from North Carolina; the shifting sands of the Arabian Gulf not being suitable for this particular project. Beyond the fairways and not overly penal rough, swathes of earthy red wood chippings make for easy ball finding, but also some tricky recovery shots.

As with the other Jumeirah courses, housing lines much of the perimeter of the course, but is usually set well out of harm's way. Perhaps the most challenging hole comes at the end, with a rock-lined stream meandering up the middle of the fairway on this long par-5, which gently climbs to the final huge and undulating green. At 7,706 yards, you'd be well advised to leave the back tees to the tour professionals who contest the finale of the European Tour's Race to Dubai on this course.

Inspired by the natural elements, the four championship golf courses of Jumeirah Golf Estates are set to take their place among the world's most prestigious residential golf developments. Earth and Fire have been open for play for several years now. Water and Wind are still slated to follow.