Lorraine Kelly
If you thought golf’s future was being shaped quietly behind the gates of Augusta or somewhere deep in the Scottish Highlands, think again. The real seismic shift is coming from the desert—specifically, from the heart of Saudi Arabia.
On 6 August 2025, the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Golf Saudi yanked the tarpaulin off PIF Future Fairways—a grandiose, high-tech swing at the sport’s next chapter. This isn’t just some pie-in-the-sky PowerPoint with a few drone shots. It’s a full-blown reimagining of golf, with blueprints drawn in pixels, bulldozers already humming, and turf laid down like a royal carpet.
Announced in London only yesterday, this new platform is less announcement and more declaration: PIF Future Fairways isn’t whispering about change—it’s grabbing the game by the collar and pointing it toward three show-stopping courses that might just redraw the global golf map.
Using advanced 3D mapping and immersive tech, the platform offers a preview of what golfing in the Red Sea and NEOM Highlands might look like by the end of the decade.
But this isn’t just another corporate nod to sustainability and sport—it’s a fully teed-up statement of intent.
Driving into the Future: What Is PIF Future Fairways?
At its core, PIF Future Fairways is part digital dreamscape, engineered, earth-shaping roadmap—Saudi Arabia’s declaration that it doesn’t just want a seat at golf’s top table, it wants to build the table, host the dinner, and redesign the clubhouse while they’re at it.
This isn’t a vanity project with a few palm trees and tee boxes thrown in. It’s stitched straight into the fabric of Vision 2030—a national pivot from petrol to prestige, where golf becomes the unlikely poster child for tourism, sustainability, and jaw-dropping architecture.
Three courses headline the platform: Shura Links and Laheq Golf Course on the Red Sea coast, and Trojena Northern Golf Course high in the NEOM mountains.
Each one reflects a radically different interpretation of the sport, but all are united under the PIF’s banner of immersive, sustainable, and globally aspirational development.
Course One: Shura Links – The Coastal Crown Jewel
Set on the shimmering shores of Shura Island, Shura Links is being billed as a championship-level course that manages to walk the line between rugged links tradition and new-age flair.
Winding through mangroves, coral dunes, and wide fairways that invite both amateurs and professionals to play their game, the course finishes dramatically beneath a stunning Foster + Partners-designed clubhouse.
It’s a course where nature and architectural daring go hand in hand—every shot framed by sea breezes, sun-bleached sand, and a sense that you’re playing golf on the edge of the world.
And make no mistake: this course is major-ready. The 7,601-yard layout is sculpted for tournament play. With Platinum TE Paspalum grass for salt tolerance, a Toro irrigation system for water efficiency, and a two-acre putting course designed to rival the best in the world, Shura Links isn’t dipping its toe in the water—it’s diving headfirst.
Opening: September 2025
Developer: Red Sea Global
Designer: Brian Curley (Curley-Wagner Design)
Operator: Golf Saudi
Course Two: Trojena Northern Golf Course – A Mountainous Marvel
Up in the Sarwat Mountains of NEOM, Trojena Northern Golf Course takes the game to heights—literally—never before seen in the MENA region.
Perched at over 300 metres of elevation, the course plunges and climbs like a rollercoaster, with each hole etched into natural canyons, cliffs, and ridgelines.
The first tee is a modest starter’s hut, while the final hole concludes at The Cloud—a panoramic clubhouse suspended among the peaks
Between them? A labyrinth of alpine terrain, ski-slope views, and strategic design that rewards creativity over brute force. It’s golf for the modern adventurer, wrapped in a tech-driven experience of simulators, augmented reality, and comfort stations that put your average halfway hut to shame.
Opening: TBD
Developer: NEOM
Designer: McDowell & Dusenberry Design
Par: 71 | Yardage: 7,063
Trojena is also the first in the region to employ cool-season grasses, offering year-round play in a climate 10°C cooler than sea level. It’s not just a course; it’s a sustainability statement and a tourism magnet rolled into one.
Course Three: Laheq Golf Course – Desert Minimalism, Elevated
While the other two strut across the stage with all the flair of a peacock in full feathers, Laheq prefers a quiet round in a linen shirt and soft spikes.
It doesn’t shout; it murmurs—with just enough swagger to let you know it’s been places. Built on restraint and a deep respect for its surroundings, Laheq lets the Red Sea’s coral crust and wind-swept dunes carry the conversation. You’re not playing over the land—you’re dancing with it, one hushed step at a time.
Forget manicured bunkers and manicured rough—Laheq’s natural sandscapes and native vegetation dominate. It’s a walking course. A thinking course. A course that challenges you to play the ground game, think your way around, and appreciate the quiet harmony between sport and setting.
It’s no slouch on sustainability either, with Platinum TE Paspalum turf and water-saving irrigation. This is a course that won’t just be played—it’ll be studied.
Opening: Estimated 2028
Developer: Red Sea Global
Designer: Brian Curley (Curley-Wagner Design)
Par: 71 | Yardage: 7,327 (Tournament) / 6,679 (Championship)
Beyond the Fairways: The Bigger Play
Of course, PIF Future Fairways isn’t just about signature layouts and dreamy views. It’s about economic impact, tourism growth, and national transformation through sport.
Saudi Arabia isn’t just dipping a toe into golf—it’s cannonballing into the deep end. By 2030, the Kingdom plans to more than triple its number of golf courses, and it’s not waiting for the world’s approval slip to do it.
Through the Saudi Golf Federation’s Mass Participation program, over 50,000 locals have been handed clubs and told, Go on, give it a whack, since 2022. And it’s working—the number of registered golfers has surged by 30% in just four years. Not bad for a nation where sand traps used to be… well, the whole country.
And the macro data doesn’t lie:
- Saudi Arabia welcomed 29.7 million international visitors in 2024.
- It ranked #1 globally in tourism revenue growth in Q1 2025.
- The tourism workforce has grown to nearly 1 million strong.
All this isn’t just happenstance—it’s a concerted, top-down push to put Saudi Arabia on the map.
With events like the PIF Championship (Centurion Club, August 2025), Aramco Houston Championship, and Aramco Shenzhen Championship, the country is also embedding itself into the international golf calendar.
A Fairway to the Future
PIF Future Fairways is less of a marketing slogan and more of a mission statement. It’s the concrete, grass-seeded embodiment of a nation not just joining the golf world, but aiming to lead it into a new era.
These aren’t just courses—they’re launch pads for tourism, paycheques, prestige, and a proving ground for greener thinking.
In a sport that still polishes its trophies to the hymns of yesteryear, Saudi Arabia is taking a full-blooded, purposeful swipe—and the rest of the golf world would be wise to keep its eye on the ball.
