Dubai Creek was the second golf course ever built in Dubai. The Majlis came first in 1988, Dubai Creek opened in 1993, and everything you see on the current Dubai golf map came after that. I mention this because when you play Dubai Creek today you can feel it. The course has a patina the newer clubs don't have. The trees are mature. The water has that lived-in look you only get from thirty-plus years of the creek doing its tidal thing.

I count Greg Norman among my favorite designers. The Bluffs at Ho Tram Strip in Vietnam is one of the best tracks I've ever played. It's brilliant. If you're a real golfer and you haven't been there, you need to go as soon as you can. Norman's designs have become something I'm more aware of, and for the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates, it's the place where the Shark did his Dubai stuff.

The first thing that hits you about The Els Club is the colour. Not the skyline, not the bunkering, not the clubhouse. The colour. You stand on the first tee and look down the fairway and what you see is this ridiculously vivid green strip of grass cutting through waste areas of pale yellow sand, and the contrast is so sharp it almost looks like a photograph that's been oversaturated by someone who doesn't understand colour theory. Except it's real.

Usually I like Nick Faldo courses. The Cornelia in Belek is great. I've played his courses in Vietnam and Thailand and those were good too. Solid designs, proper bunkering, routings that make you think. So when I booked the Faldo at Emirates Golf Club in Dubai for the first time I was expecting more of the same. I was wrong.

I've played the Majlis a handful of times now and every time I leave the clubhouse I think the same thing, which is that this has to be one of the best golf experiences on the planet. Not the best golf course. I'll be honest about that. There are courses I've played that are better designed, better conditioned, better sited. But the Majlis isn't really about any of those things on their own.

On the western side of Yas Island, you can find Yas Links on your way to the course. You will get to see the Ferrari World and the Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit. As you drive, the sound of the cars will be heard before the course's clubhouse comes into view. This will be important later.