A friend's suggestion that we play a round of "night golf" in this Disneyland of the Desert was greeted with wide-eyed excitement and disbelief on my part. But quickly remembering this Arab nation, one of the hottest places on Earth, is where they created a ski hill with real snow that's open all year round, well, I was ready to believe anything.

"And night golf is perfect for your game," my friend told me "because then you won't see where your bad shots go." Ignoring his wisecracks, we piled in our rental car and headed in the direction of Media City, an area of Dubai where the world's biggest and best hi-tech companies have congregated thanks to generous tax breaks. That's also where many of the country's best and most unusual golf courses are located — built for the high-paid ex-pats who work and live in and around Media City.

The course we were looking for was the Ned al Sheba, a layout, according to club propaganda, "that draws similarities with St. Andrews in Scotland." You can't miss Nad al Sheba, especially at night — it's the place bathed in spotlights powerful enough to light up a small city. It's also located right next to Dubai's famed Nad al Sheba racetrack, home of the world famous $6 million Dubai World Cup.

The entire 6,630-yard, par 71 course is illuminated by over 300 massive spotlights (15 metres high) that are equipped with innovative 60 degree optics, which allows players to follow the ball more clearly along the fairway from the tees.

As for being St. Andrews-like, well, let's just say Nad al Sheba is as flat as the world's "first" golf course and there's lots of deep pot bunkers (110 in all) like at the Old Course, but that's where the comparisons end. Let's just agree that Nad al Sheba is a Scottish-links course offering lots of challenge — day or night.

Elevated tees on the back nine provide a great view of this beautiful course. The treeless landscape means that the rolling fairways are unprotected from prevailing gulf winds. And, you might ask, how do they keep a golf course so well groomed in the middle of a desert,? With lots of water — 1 million litres of water is poured on the course each night and the results are remarkable.

The round under the stars was delightful. The course, which features four lakes, offered a variety of challenges. We both shot in the mid-80s and were impressed with the wide fairways and slick but fair greens.

Wanting to sample as many of the golf courses Dubai has to offer, we decided to venture to the highly-touted Montgomerie Dubai, designed by Colin Montgomerie and renowned for its eating establishment as well. "Golf is as much a social event as a game in Dubai," Peter, an ex-pat accountant from London, told us later. "So, all the courses here have great restaurants."

Most also offer accommodation — The Montgomerie Dubai has over 30 rooms with great views of a course that features 14 lakes, 93 acres of botanical-like gardens and 81 desert-sized bunkers.

Over one of the tenderest steaks I've ever enjoyed, members described the Montgomerie (it does not offer night golf) as a great test and our new friend Peter offered: "the Snake (the par-5 fourth) and the par-3 13th (an island hole shaped like the United Arab Emirates), are two of the most exciting holes in the world." The Snake gets its name because of its saddkeback fairway which doglegs towards the green, with two bunkers behind forming the eyes of a snake.

There seems to be a new golf course being built on every corner of Dubai these days — some say the Arab nation will soon have over 100 and has enough oil money to build thousands more. There's a lot of virgin desert waiting to be developed in these parts.

To find out more about golf in Dubai, go to www.Dubaigolf.com

Marc is the former Travel and Golf Editor of Canada's largest daily newspaper, The Toronto Star. More of Marc's stories are also available on www.tnnworld.com