Yas Links Golf Club Abu Dhabi celebrates its first Anniversary as best in the region
Yas Links Abu Dhabi, the critically acclaimed championship course and the UAE’s newest golf course, celebrates its first anniversary this week with a top ranking in one of the Middle East’s most prominent newspapers, The National.
The new Yas Island development has, in its first year of operations, not only added another fine example of a high quality destination to the UAE’s roster of golf courses, but has also been decorated by a record number of highly regarded international publications as one of the region’s must-play golf courses.
In the initial ten months since its opening, Yas Links was recognised as the ‘best golf course in the Middle East’ by Golf Course Architecture magazine, classified 5th in a Golf Magazine USA ‘Top 10 New International Golf Courses of 2010’ ranking, and placed at No. 2 in the Top 10 ‘professional-level’ Golf Courses of the World classification of one of the Middle East’s most prominent newspapers, The National, which has since awarded it top marks in its recent UAE ‘Top 10 Courses’ rankings.
These accolades are supplemented by the 2011 Middle East Golfer Awards honours – Best Golf Course and Best Club – which, for the first time ever, were won by a club that was less than a year old.
Chris White, General Manager of developer Properties (Golf Division), said: “We couldn’t have asked for a better first year. We have been fortunate to have such a great product to work with – Kyle Phillips designed a spectacular course that has made headlines around the world as a golfing masterpiece that offers a very unique experience to its visitors.”
Yas Links is the first project in the region for Kyle Phillips, who didn’t just design the course, but was also responsible for shaping the three-kilometre long coastline. During the construction stage he employed some of the 1.8 million m3 (cubic metres) of fill dredged from the sea to construct the golf course, creating dramatic links holes with no less than nine seashore greens.
“We are always very grateful for any accolades we receive and William Johnson’s latest rankings in The National is another strong endorsement for Yas Links," continued Chris White. "To come out as ‘the best of the best’ and the country’s No. 1 golf course is the icing on our birthday cake.
“Accolades aside, however, we were very pleased to be chosen to host this year’s Emirates Invitational Pro-AmTournament which attracted a wealth of professional players, including World Number One, Lee Westwood, and eventual winner, Retief Goosen, and to receive such amazing feedback from the competitors.”
Yas Links hosted, in January, the first of what is set to be a series of professional events when the Al Naboodah Invitational moved to the venue from its previous Dubai Creek home.
The championship course has benefited from a strong membership base since it opened last March and has a full tournament schedule that will seeprofessionals and amateurs take to its fairways to test their golfing skills.
