Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Is Building The Tallest Luxury Golf Course In The Middle East

Saudi Arabia’s $500B NEOM project adds an 18-hole golf course in Trojena, perched 2,100m above sea level, the Middle East’s highest.
Designed by Dusenberry, the 80-hectare mountain course features 300m of elevation change, wide fairways across ridgelines, and views unlike any other golf destination.
The course complements NEOM’s ski resort and Saudi’s broader $5B golf push, linking luxury tourism, LIV Golf, and spectacle amid growing environmental concerns.

In the mountains of NEOM, where desert heat gives way to thin air and overzealous spending, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has decided that skiing isn’t quite ambitious enough for the region’s luxury developments.

His $500 billion Trojena ski resort, already raising eyebrows over delays and ballooning budgets, is now getting a golfing sibling: an 18-hole luxury course perched 2,100 metres above sea level, the highest in the Middle East.

Trojena’s futuristic ski village NEOM — Trojena’s futuristic ski village sits below NEOM’s new mountain golf course, a playground of luxury carved from desert peaks. Image: NEOM

Dubbed “golf with a vista,” the 80-hectare course designed by Dusenberry, whose designs regularly feature among the Top 100 in the world, is a lesson in scale, drama and royal opulence.

Carving through the region’s picturesque, albeit challenging terrain, the development promises 300 metres of elevation change across its routing, wide mountain fairways stretching across sheer ridgelines, and scenery that look less like St Andrews and more like an epic IMAX special.

The Prince’s plan to transform a barren mountain range into a sporting playground was as audacious as it was complicated. But what else would you expect from one of the world’s most flushed royal families.

Trojena is already slated to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games, a proposition many still find laughable in a region more famous for sandstorms than snowflakes.

Yet rather than ease doubts, MBS has doubled down with a course that seeks to silence the critics; because nothing signals ambition quite like hitting a drive at altitude.

The 18-hole Dusenberry design Golf Course NEOM Saudi Arabia — The 18-hole Dusenberry design stretches across ridgelines with 300 metres of elevation change, offering a golf experience unlike anywhere in the Middle East. Image: NEOM

This project is also part of a broader golf empire that has seen The Public Investment Fund (PIF) pour billions into LIV Golf, with reports suggesting Saudi golf spending will top $5 billion by the end of 2025.

Trojena’s mountain course is both a continuation of the long-term vision held by the Saudis, and a calling card for luxury tourism, designed to lure jet-setters who find Dubai too crowded and Courchevel too predictable.

Of course, the environmental and financial critiques are valid. Building an alpine golf course in a desert kingdom that struggles with water scarcity requires resources that make even the most hardened mega-project veterans wince.

But MBS has already dismissed “sportswashing” accusations, saying sport adds measurable GDP growth, and if that means critics cry foul, so be it.

What’s undeniable is the spectacle. An 18-hole course carved into NEOM’s mountain slopes, within view of a ski village and futuristic architecture, is a vision only Saudi Arabia could greenlight. The Crown Prince has once again swung for the fences, and in the rarefied air of NEOM, the ball may just carry a little further.