Dreamland (Pharaoh)

The first green sits surrounded by a mass (or perhaps a mess) of steel and concrete

The tee markers were sufficiently tacky!

The 8th hole calls for a mid iron to a false fronted green that will accept only a pinpoint shot

Course name: Dreamland (Pharaoh)

Location: Cairo, Egypt

Four Word Course Review: Second best pyramid views

I had arrived in Egypt planning to play at Mena Oberoi, a nine-holer in Giza that would be entirely unremarkable were it not, at its closest point, 219m from The Great Pyramid of Giza (also known as The Pyramid of Cheops).

I had not, however, made any plans because I knew I would be on a pretty tight schedule and would have to wait until the morning of my last full day in the country to be sure I would have the time to play.

In hindsight, I probably should have done a bit more groundwork.

The day comes and the time can be spared. A quick call to the hotel that runs the course reveals that it is being renovated (I had heard Robert Trent Jones Jr was touted to be re-designing it, but didn't know work was underway) and I won't be playing golf there.

Gutted, I jump on the internet, certain I have seen another course advertising pyramid views. I may not have planned my assault well, but I had built-up the notion of playing golf under the pyramids so much in my head that the idea, now that I had the time, of missing out was killing me.

My search reveals Dreamland's Pharaoh course has pyramid views and I phone to book a tee time in the afternoon, then set off for the Egyptian Museum. I get a call 10 minutes later from the bloke who arranged my trip to say the course is more than two hours from my hotel in Giza and it won't work because I can't take his driver (human, not titanium and graphite) for that long.

By this stage I am getting a bit frantic because the only Arabic phrases I know are "thank you", "let's go" and "I love you", and none of them seem likely to solve my dilemma. The driver thankfully knows enough English to understand what I need to find out, so he rings the course for me. They say they are only 25 minutes from the pyramids.

After I'm done, still far from convinced that a) the course is anywhere near Giza and b) the driver will be able to find it, we head for where we think the course might be. Finally something goes right and the Hilton sign and rollercoaster I was told to look for are visible for miles around.

In all the rush and stress of the day I hadn't eaten since a tiny breakfast at 6am, so by 3pm I am standing on the first tee starving, holding the ugliest set of rental clubs you have ever seen and rejoicing that Egyptian dress rules aren't as strict as back home at Cinque Ports!

But I was there, and that was all that mattered. By the second green I had caught some pyramid views and anything else would be gravy (though, in keeping with the comedy of errors and poor planning that got me to that point, a sand storm rendered the pyramids, though only six kilometres away, quite hard to see and nigh on impossible to photograph for much of the afternoon!).

As it turned out, the course was quite enjoyable with its even split of par threes, fours and fives, the highlights being the 7th and 8th.

The former is a 400-yard par four with a centreline bunker 150 yards from the green, to the left of which the fairway falls sharply away. To drive to the favourable right side you have to carry a water hazard, though bailing left leaves a mid or short iron from a near 1:1 sidehill lie. It was a really fun hole with a simple green that suited the challenge of the two shots it takes to get there.

The 8th is a par three over a quarry-style water hazard to a green perched on the edge of a small cliff featuring a steep false front that feels balls to the front-right of the green. For those who know it, the area that will welcome a ball and allow it to sit is about 2.5 times the size of the back tier on the 3rd green at Woking. Not huge, but with a seven iron or thereabouts in hand, not an impossible task.

Other than that, just a solid course with nothing overly scintillating but nothing too offensive - within the course at least. It's safe to say the global recession has not spared Egypt: half-finished mansions litter the perimeter of the course, with precious few workmen around to suggest they will be finished any time soon. It made for a particularly interesting backdrop to the first green, for sure!

So now I have played golf in Egypt, within sight of the pyramids, but probably took a year off my life in the process. Was it worth the drama, effort and cost? Of course it was. Golf always is!