While golf courses were virtually empty in the UAE during the summer month of August, golfers from all over the world flocked to the US to take part in the Golf.com World Amateur Handicap Championship at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina.

Women's Golf Middle East (WGME) represented the UAE in the 28th Annual event, which took place between August 29 and September 2. Nearly 4,000 participants took part in the event, represented by 50 US States and 25 countries, which included both men's and ladies divisions, based on age, gender and handicap.

Sandy Meyer (PGA Professional) and her team played the 72 hole Individual net stroke-play event over four days on four different golf courses around Myrtle Beach, which boasts up to 60 courses in and around the area, of which over 30 are four-star ratings.

The players were divided into six different divisions and nearly 70 flights were organised with roughly 48 competitors per flight, of which the top five participants received prizes. All flight winners (and ties) advanced to the fifth round, where a single golfer emerges as the World Champion.

The first of the golf courses drawn for the WGME team was at Thistle Golf Club, which was rated one of the top courses by Golf Digest. This 27-hole layout introduces the player to rolling fairways, stacked-sod bunkers, bent-grass greens, abundant landscape and wildlife. It reflects a Scottish heritage with the new clubhouse featuring an authentic Scottish pub with one of the finest private collections of golf memorabilia in the world. The course is designed for the ladies to place their shots rather than worry about distance and provides a very good opportunity to post a good score.

The second golf course was the Arcadian Shores Golf Club, which proved very challenging for the ladies with its tree-lined Bermuda fairways, strategically placed bunker and inter-woven lakes. It was the hardest of the four courses played by the flight, penalising off-centre tee shots and providing a challenge for the short game. A great test of golf and a course well worth playing again.

Pete Dye design

The Barefoot Resort & Golf (Peter Dye Course) was the third round and was a well balanced course having both easy and hard holes to contend with. The distance for the ladies was fairly short, but well placed driving was the key to scoring a very good round. Small greens, surrounded by well-placed bunkers made any approach shot important, a fun yet challenging course, typical of a Pete Dye Design.

The fourth and last round was played on the Burning Ridge Golf Course. This course was voted Myrtle Beach Golf Course of the year in 2006, and also honoured as the South Carolina Golf Course of the year. It was the easier of the four courses and playing from the ladies tees, the distances for the many Par 4s and 5s in comparison to other length courses was extremely short. This made scoring easy, however, even though the distances were short, any off-line tee shots were punished and making a double or triple bogey was inevitable. The greens were cleverly protected by bunkers and in between some well placed water-hazards made for tricky choices.