71 ground game approach when the wind kicks in. “This meant greens that allow balls to run in, rather than playing to perched surfaces,” he says. “Formal greenside bunkers are mostly pulled away and flanked. The greens are large and feature big movement in lieu of a lot of immediate bunkering, but there are also large expanses of pinnable zones.” The result is holes that encourage and reward imagination, rather than an aerial game as default. “Given the seaside setting and being subject to wind, my main push was to create width and a ‘find your ball’ experience,” says Curley. “Too many courses in the Middle East are now surrounded by dense landscaping that make for slow play. My goal was to incorporate the seaside environment without extensive demand of tee shots.” Generous fairways give golfers options from the tee, with the best angles into greens earned through thoughtful positioning rather than simply finding short grass. Curley says one of his favourite tee shots is at the twelfth, where a dramatic sandy gouge divides the landing area and creates both visual interest and strategic choice. Similar moments appear on the fifth, seventh and fourteenth, where carries over dunes introduce uncertainty. “Without these, tee shots could become repetitive, but the slightly blind aspect brings a very distinct visual,” says Curley. Hundreds of thousands of plants, shrubs, flowers and trees have been introduced across the site, relying more on varieties of ice plants than standard ornamental grasses. “The plantings are needed to create the dunescape we desired,” says Curley. “Without these, the sandy expanses would be overwhelming. That said, most of the density is behind tees and greens.” In line with the entire vision for the island, Shura Links has sustainable principles at its core. Developed using the OnCourse platform by GEO Foundation, the course features just 70 acres of irrigated turf, a drought- and salt-tolerant Platinum TE paspalum grass supplied by Atlas Turf Arabia. Bio-organic nutrition is used to avoid risk to marine life. Toro’s Lynx Control System manages irrigation, while the POGO turf management platform uses GPS-guided sensors to monitor soil moisture, salinity and canopy temperature. Energy requirements are met by a solar power infrastructure. “Precision agronomy, real-time data, and off-grid infrastructure aren’t future concepts anymore,” says Jon Brook, general manager at Shura Links. “They’re essential tools for building golf courses that can exist responsibly in tomorrow’s environments.” Saudi Arabia has bold plans for golf tourism, with at least five new courses expected to open in the next five years, representing an increase in its current stock of around 33 per cent. Shura Links, which has immediately vaulted its way into the Middle East’s must-play list, is an impressive marker of the country’s ambition. SHURA LINKS Photo: Brian Curley With a windswept, seaside setting, one of Brian Curley’s design priorities was to create width (pictured, hole two)
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