In just 10 years, it has gone from its original three standard-bearers to almost 20 top-class golf courses – with many more under construction or planned. The courses are spread right across the country. You can tee off in the historic hearts of the capital, Cairo, and Cleopatra’s home city, Alexandria; play on courses which are part of huge, self-contained leisure complexes in Cairo’s suburbs; swing away on a pristine stretch of the Mediterranean coast; send a drive soaring towards the Luxor mountains where the pharaohs of ancient Egypt were buried; and sink putts on Red Sea Riviera courses from the Sinai Peninsula to the northern and western Red Sea coasts.

It is golf of the very highest calibre, too. Famous names including Gary Player, Fred Couples and Karl Litten have already put their stamp on Egypt’s courses. New projects will bear the hallmarks of such luminaries as Nick Faldo, Greg Norman, Robert Trent Jones Jr, Jack Nicklaus and five-time Open Championship winner Peter Thompson.

With such a pedigree, it is little wonder Egypt’s golf is no longer a secret. Having won the prestigious accolade of Undiscovered Golf Destination of the Year from world golf tourism organisation IAGTO in 2006, Egypt’s international reputation for golf has grown rapidly, as has the number of visiting golfers coming to Egypt.