By Shiv Kapur, Special to Gulf News

I am a proud and loyal member at The Els Club in Dubai. When I moved to the city many years ago, from day one I had a few golf club options on where to be a member.

I looked at all the facilities at the clubs in Dubai and plumped for The Els. I am always made so welcome by General Manager Tom Rourke and all his , and I have been ‘adopted’ by the club in a mutually beneficial relationship.

The Els Club is a genuine member’s golf club that has a nice vibe. I feel part of the club and it is my home from home, living with my family just around the corner in Motor City.

Day in and day out, in my opinion, it is the best conditioned golf course in the UAE. The greens especially are always in tournament condition and a decent speed. It also has arguably among the best practice facilities in Dubai, the UAE globally. The practice facilities are very important to me as I work hard to be ready to play on the Asian Tour as I travel around the world in my job as a tournament professional.

It has a great interactive and welcoming membership with a lot of low handicappers, who I also play a lot of golf with. They all seem very competitive and a few of them deserve their handicaps being looked at by the authorities.

An example of the club spirit is the match on Friday in a Ryder Cup-style clash of 16 pros against 16 amateurs.

I played along with the likes of Ryder Cupper Nicolas Colsaerts, his Belgiam compatriot Thomas Detry, France’s Joel Stalter and Gary Stal, winner of the 2015 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, Paul Dunne of Ireland, Canada’s Richard Lee and completing the field, players from the DP World Tour, Asian Tour and Challenge Tour all preparing for the season ahead.

India’s Shiv Kapur plays on the Asian Tour and travels to Singapore on Sunday to play in the final two events on the 2020-2021 Asian Tour, the Singapore International January 13-16) and Singapore Open (January 20-23).