Praia d'el Rey

The short par four 4th features a monster blow-out bunker that tempts you to flirt with it off the tee

The 6th green sums up the character of the inland holes

It doesn't get more picturesque than the par three 14th

The sweeping beachside terrain of the par four 15th is among the best on the course

Course name: Praia d'el Rey
Location: Peniche, Obidos, Portugal
Four Word Course Review: Top-notch resort golf

Praia d'el Rey is a beachside course - with some claim to being a links of sorts - within a residential development about an hour north of Lisbon, the Portuguese capital - and very close to the magical medievel walled town of Obidos.

It has some weaknesses, and many people will immediately point to the housing, but I think its positives far outweight the negatives, and of the housing, I'd say it only becomes overbearing on a few holes (2, 10, 12 - which incidentally are all very strong holes, which helps to overcome the jarring of all that concrete).

The greens are a fantastic set, heaps of internal movement and some great sites, with a few strong constant slopes to add variety.

I really liked the fact the man-made movement didn't fight with the natural slope and shape of the land. The shapes might not have been 100% natural, but they fit the land really well. I also noticed that quite a few are also extremely narrow, generally on the shorter holes.

From the tee, almost all of the two- and three-shotters made you think about lateral placement (with a few "go for it over a major landform" moments), but the impediment to a poorly-placed shot changes: a longer approach, an awkward angle across severe green slopes, a pine tree that forces you to hit a cut from a hook lie, blindness - you don't find yourself thinking "I've hit this shot already".

If there was a point of sameness it would be that eight of the greens are raised above the approach area, but there is enough variety in the other features to overcome that.

Some of the geometric bunkering seemed at odds with the natural, rolling, wild site. I allowed myself to fantasise and "see" some wild Doak-style traps on a few holes and I believe it would be preferable to so many perfect circles of sand.

The routing was another high-point, in my opinion, two side-by-side clockwise laps that expose to to the wind from every angle, albeit with a couple of stretches where your bearing doesn't change (4-7 and 13-15). It also took you in and out of the pine forest and the open dunes several times, also giving you that glimpse of the ocean you came to see on both nines.

But in doing that, and in taking advantage of that stretch along the beach in the middle of the back nine, designer Cabell Robinson ended up with the 15th green a very long way from the house - and the result is three stern holes to finish: My last three approaches were 5i, 4i and 4i and all followed well-struck drives.

It also seemed to me that as you moved inland, the architectural merit also peaked, as if to overcome the lack of thrill as you left the seaside.

The par threes and fives tended to be good to very good, but lacked that X factor that the greats have, while the par fours offered as much variety as you could hope for.

Of the holes you'll remember most fondly, it may be the two short par fours that burn brightest.

The 4th may be the best hole on the course. Driveable at 304m from the tips and 274m/286m from the more mortal men's tees, it's dominated by the massive natural blow-out bunker that flanks the left. The further you hit your drive, the more you need to hug it to get the plum angle in to the green, which is both steeply angled and narrow, with a few really ugly spots if you miss by as little as a few metres. In concert with the modest length, that's probably fair.

The flat, beachside 13th is 300m from the tips, but 285m/256m from the tees most golfers will play. It has a wicked, narrow, front-to-back sloping green that sees to it that driving the green is no guarantee of a birdie. Every golfer loves an eagle/birdie chance, and I think it was clever of Robinson to put this hole on perhaps the most memorable patch of dirt on the property. Into the wind, you'll have to consider if you can carry the RHS fairway traps, but otherwise this is your chance to create a story to tell your mates after the round.

Pria d'el Rey has some flaws, for sure, but I defy any golfer to walk away without having thoroughly enjoyed the four hours. It's well worth the trip, and with advance bookings with green fee websites getting you a start in summer for 65-70 euros (rack rate is about 120 in summer), the value is unusually good for European resort golf, especially resort golf worth playing.

On top of that, nearby Obidos and Sintra are two of the most enjoyable places I have visited in the world, and Lisbon is a fun city worthy of two or three days of your time as well.

Oitavos Dunes (which I was prevented from playing by a hurricane that arrived from Madeira!), Troia, Penha Longa and Golden Eagle are the other top established courses in the region and Bom Sucesso, which has recently opened, and Royal Obidos next door to it (under construction) will add even more to the region's credentials as a destination where golf, culture and weather unite - and at a lower price than other Euro destinations.

Swinley Forest

The Redan 4th, played from a tee visible in the left centre of the picture, climbs the hill, before the par five 5th - the only three-shotter on the course - heads back down, doglegging to the right

The par three 13th is a slight drop shot, with the par four 14th then heading away towards the left

The 450-yard 15th climbs a steep rise as it approaches the false fronted green, with no shortage of hazards to consider when planning your route to the green, whether in two shots or three

The 17th calls for a thrilling mid iron shot to a pulpit green where short is the only place to miss

Course name: Swinley Forest
Location: Ascot, Berkshire, England
Four Word Course Review: Golf in purest form

They say if you walk off the 18th green and want to head straight back to the 1st tee, you've just played a very good course. So what does it say that I walked from the 36th hole of the day thinking that if I headed back to the 1st tee I might get manage another two or three holes before darkness fell?

Swinley Forest is simply a special place in golf. If religions have cathedrals, mosques and synagogues to celebrate their traditions and faith, golf has courses and clubs like Swinley Forest. If the Old Course at St Andrews is the St Peter's Basilica of golf, then Swinley Forest is Sainte-Chapelle: smaller, less well-known, but no less spiritual.

Harry Colt's course might not look daunting at 6019 yards (5504m) with a par of 68, but a brilliant set of par threes (probably the best I have ever played), a mixture of par fours measuring between 285 and 455 yards (the shortest and longest played back-to-back at the 11th and 12th) and some wonderful greens combine to thrill and test the golfer in equal measure.

Among the course's many strengths is the fact that the similar holes are spaced perfectly: long par fours at the 6th, 9th, 12th and 15th; par fours with a downhill tee shot and uphill approach at the 1st, 9th and 18th; holes along flat ground at the 3rd, 6th, 11th, 14th and 16th; par threes at the 4th, 8th, 10th, 13th and 17th.

Ample heather provides a penalty for missed fairways, and while many holes are isolated in their own corridor through the towering pines, the trees rarely interfere with play. Yet despite the fact the course is carved through a forest, there are many wide open vistas to be enjoyed from high the high points on the site.

The bunkering is also a masterstroke, from those short of the 7th and 10th greens that cause distance gauging issues to the fairway bunker at the 1st that obscures your view of the green and on to the severity of those on many of the par threes.

As well as the fantastic and at times downright cruel sand bunkers, Colt's beloved grass bunkers are also well used here - as at Canterbury and Royal Wimbledon - ranging from narrow, snaking channels to large "bathtubs". The course also draws on some unconventional hazards in the form of narrow heather-clad ridges set perpendicular to the line of play at the 7th, 9th and 15th.

While a glance at the scorecard shows some similar distances on certain holes (the 2nd, 14th and 18th all measure within two yards of each other and the 6th, 9th and 16th have less than 20 yards separating them), Colt's routing of the course up, down and across the rolling slopes ensures each has its own character and challenge.

The 12th and 15th holes - at 455 and 450 yards (uphill) - are two of the best half-par holes you will ever play, with two of the trickiest sloping greens on the course.

The variety of the par fours is a real strength of Swinley Forest, but it's the one-shotters that steal much of the glory: the Redan 4th with its left side defended by caverns of sand, the 8th - played to a green set beside a fearsome 15-foot slope that somehow tempts you to flirt with it, the 205-yard 10th over a valley of heather to a hogback green boasting some vicious pin positions, the drop-shot 13th defended in front by sand to catch the golfer who underclubs and - perhaps best of them all - the wonderful 170-yard 17th, with its pulpit green and deep bunkers.

They combine to call for a range of shotmaking skills, with greens that can be approached wisely by a golfer happy to play short or wide of the green in the right place and try for an up-and-down par.

I commented as we were ushered from the clubhouse at closing time: "I'm like a kid at his friend's birthday party, who doesn't want to go home, even though it's over!" You can have your modern 7000-yard par 72 "championship" courses: Swinley Forest is golf as it was meant to be played.

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!