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'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.