Qatar: Doha's golf clubs tee up a fascinating destination, Scotland on Sunday travel

Heritage, hawks, gold and gourmet are also a hit in this Emirati capital

The National Museum, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, modelled on desert rose crystal formations

Destination Qatar

My vantage point on the terrace of yet another sumptuous Doha hotel – opened three weeks ago – overlooks the self-appointed cash cow of the Persian Gulf. In the early 20th century, Qatar was a desolate sandscape, a British protectorate with a handful of citizens barely sustained by pearl fishing in decline. Independent since 1971, it is a desolate sandscape with a current population of 313,000 Qataris and 2.3 million expats enriched beyond its wildest dreams by oil and natural gas. It’s still half the size of Wales.

Doha’s quixotic skyscrapers jut into the sunset, many walls emblazoned with a romanticised image of 39-year-old Sheik Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in desert warrior mode. On not very distant horizons, humped stadia announce that the controversial 2022 Football World Cup is no longer so far away. Below, Barahat Msheireb town square is lined with open-air restaurants. How come in a city where it’s almost always too hot to sit outside? Planet watchers beware: with money and gas jammed on flow, air temperature can be reduced from a savage 40 to a delicious 22 degrees centigrade, a perfect Scottish summer afternoon.

The Doha skyline and The Corniche, Doha Bay

Doha's golf courses

By comparison, creating golf courses out of sandscapes is on the easier end of the spectrum. Recycled water, desalination, grass seed, irrigation lakes and fountains, building blocks for a clubhouse resembling a palace in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Bingo. They’ve done it in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain. They’ve done it in Qatar, starting with the Doha Golf Club in 1998. It’s located between Qatar University and the lagoon overlooked by the Ritz Carlton hotel 10 miles north of the city centre. The course was designed by Peter Harradine, a Swiss who learned his golf architecture in America. He included 65 Arizona cacti among 10,000 trees and shrubs: predictably Doha turned out to be a home from home for big prickles.

The terrain is gently undulating, but Harradine’s 18-hole layout makes effective use of dramatic limestone formations; rocks in front of the 12th green and a drive over a huge outcrop at the 16th provide food for thought. In other parts, water is the main card wrecker, though the 9th, at 639 yards off the back tees, 516 off the front, will do the job for all but the most confident hitters. There is a tough, floodlit nine holer that stays open until 10pm. In line with the nation’s hunger for prestigious sporting fixtures, the Qatar Masters was inaugurated immediately the course opened; the first two champions were Scotsmen Andrew Coltart and Paul Lawrie.

Doha Golf Club and Education City Golf Club

Education City Golf Club, Doha

The Doha Club retains the tournament for 2020, but in future it will have to share hosting rights with the Education City Golf Club on the other side of town. The newcomer’s name is unappealing but appropriate: the club has invested in state-of-the-art technology for training future stars and all other punters. The Center of Excellence claims a holistic approach. For yin, a mercilessly honest Trackman driving range: it measures strike speed, loft and distance with no hiding place from the realities of shot dynamics. For yang, a seductive professionalism designed to make you believe you may improve. Not that the futuristic putting studio, its light beams indicating the line to hit the ball into the cup, provides much encouragement. Maybe better to start somewhere else.

The championship course is another notch in Jose Maria Olazabal’s belt: his portfolio must be reaching bursting point as he accepts commissions around the world. For this one, he has used an ancient wadi (dry river bed) as the focus; a strategy to manage it on both nines is essential for success. There is also a six-hole track, plus a three-hole par 3 floodlit sequence to cater for addiction after dark.

Oil fuels a 24-hour traffic jam

As befits any 21st century Emirati capital, Doha uses fuel without limit to create a 24-hour traffic jam. The Corniche promenade and twin carriageway that rings the great arc of Doha Bay is the only artery for 2.3 million citizens, all of them as car dependent as their circumstances allow.

Falconry is a popular sport, with hooded falcons on sale at Souq Waqif

Beyond golf

Getting around is pain but get around you must because there are things to see. Number one is the National Museum of Qatar, opened in March 2019. This wonderful building is modelled on the desert rose, a distinctive crystal formation found in large numbers in Qatari deserts. French architect Jean Nouvel, a global superstar after his triumph with the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, has excelled himself with a wide spread of interlocking petal-shaped disks in muted tones that glow in the hot clear air. As a nod to heritage, he has incorporated the palace built by the Al Thani sheik of the day in the early 20th century. His interiors are equally mind-blowing, with dramatic videos and displays to illustrate connections between humans and fauna on Qatari land and sea.

Souqs, camels and falcons

Next up, Souq Waqif, an anthill of commerce with lane upon lane of shops selling tat and plastic. On the fringes, camels doze peacefully in a walled compound, determinedly unready to embrace careers as mounts for robot jockeys or tourist joyriders. The falconry section, 30 shops with birds displayed on long racked perches, offers anything you could possibly need for a new hobby. The Falcon Hospital is impressive, with a list of test departments the NHS might envy.

Souq Waqif has lane upon lane of shops selling souvenirs, and is good for gold and gourmet discoveries

Gold and gourmet

Souq Waqif is also good for gold – pick your own – and gourmet. Parisa is an Iranian restaurant, with an atrium and an upper gallery, an Aladdin’s cave with chandeliers, mosaics, stained glass, tiny mirrors and intense paint work. The menu is equally romantic, headed by taj bareh kebabs, racks of succulent barbecued lamb prepared with lime and homemade spices that stretch the length of the table. Leave room for them while grazing Persian appetisers served with traditional flat bread straight out of the oven. Don’t expect alcohol. The Parisa is owned by Ritz Carlton, which serves any drink on earth in its Doha hotel, but imposes strict teetotal rules downtown.

Dune Drive

Signing up for a dune drive is the most popular way of exploring the rest of the Qatar peninsula. As the South Pars/North Dome natural gas field, the world’s largest owned jointly by Iran and Qatar, is offshore, the landmass offers the odd refinery surrounded by sand, sand, sand. From the driver’s point of view, the dune jaunt is an opportunity to scare silly passengers sillier. The more “oohs” and “ahs” the better, ideally accompanied by screams of genuine terror. His cavalier mien suggests he wouldn’t care if he flipped the 4x4, though he would because he’d lose his job, if not his life.

By the time we reach the point that has views of Saudi Arabia – more of the same – across an arm of the sea, quivering passengers stumbled out to paddle in the warm waters of the gulf. The driver’s grin widens in appreciation of a job well done. Afterwards a broad flat highway whisks us home in time for tea.

FACTFILE

Doha Golf Club: 18 holes, 7,437 yards, par 72, green fees £170 (Sunday-Thursday), £222 (Friday-Saturday) [phone], dohagolfclub.com

Education City Golf Club: 18 holes, 7,306 yards, par 72, green fees £140 (Sunday-Thursday), £190 (Friday-Saturday) [phone], ecgolf.com.

Qatar Airlines Edinburgh-Doha return (March) £435, qatarairways.com.