One of the largest and best-known residential developments in the Middle East, the Jumeirah Golf Estate is situated in what’s known as new Dubai, a few miles from Dubai Marina and the iconic Burj Al Arab hotel. Among the high-end leisure amenities available to residents and members, are two Greg Norman–designed golf courses, Earth and Fire. The Fire Course is the more rugged of the two, while the Earth was designed as a clean-cut, championship–ready test. Opening in 2009, it has already established a level of notoriety as host of the season ending championship on the European Tour.

While the virgin landscape of the United Arab Emirates could hardly be described as fertile for golf, large budgets enable design companies to give their courses an almost-instant sense of maturity. So it was at Jumeirah, where a flat desert landscape was transformed into a golfing oasis through the abundant planting of mature tree species and the complex shaping of heavily-bunkered golf corridors. On the Fire Course, these corridors are generally lined by large, rugged bunkers rather than, as is the case on the Earth Course, clean-cut traps that deviate into the actual fairways to block a direct passage to the green.

The style and strategy of the bunkering is the chief difference between Earth and Fire, along with the fact that there is more design variety and fun on the Fire Course, and a greater number of holes that the average amateur can successfully overcome. The greens are also more low-set, and down on the ground with subtle contours rather than elevated and protected by nasty, deep bunkers. As with Earth, there aren’t enough high-quality holes here for this to be regarded as an elite course, but it’s a famous development and sure to attract visitors to Dubai given the high profile.