One title to defend, one gala dinner, and a dress code that makes no mention of shorts.
For more than three decades, Tee Times has been sending golfers off to play somewhere sunnier than home. This week the team gets a taste of its own medicine. From 5 to 7 November, the golf tourism industry gathers at Madinaty Golf Club, on the edge of Cairo, for the 13th World Golf Awards — and Tee Times is on the guest list, nominated once again for Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator. The sun cream is packed. The pyramids are optional.
A First for Africa
Established in 2014 and part of the World Travel Awards family, the World Golf Awards recognise the courses, destinations and tour operators that make golf travel work. This year’s edition is the first ever held on the African continent. (Daily News Egypt via RTJ II)
It is not all speeches and canapés. Delegates get a networking golf day on 6 November and the World Golf Awards Classic on the morning of the 7th, before the gala ceremony that evening. Golf first, envelopes later — the correct order of things. (World Golf Awards)
The Host: Madinaty Golf Club
Madinaty is a Robert Trent Jones Jr. design set within the master-planned city of the same name, on the eastern edge of New Cairo. It is owned by Talaat Moustafa Group and managed by Troon. (Golf Business News)
The hosts are no strangers to the trophy cabinet. Madinaty has been named Egypt’s Best Golf Course five times and Africa’s Best Golf Course three times at the World Golf Awards, and in 2022 it staged the Asian Tour’s first visit to Egypt, where Andy Ogletree claimed his first professional title. (World Golf Awards; Troon) A home advantage, then, for the club if not for the rest of us.
Defending the European Title
Tee Times arrives in Egypt as the reigning champion, having been named Europe’s Best Golf Tour Operator 2025 at last year’s awards. Retaining a title, as any club champion will tell you, is considerably harder than winning one.
The trophy cabinet back home is not exactly bare. Before taking on Europe, Tee Times was named Portugal’s Best Inbound Golf Tour Operator in 2020 and 2021, and Portugal’s Best Outbound Golf Tour Operator in 2022. Not bad for a business that started out in Vilamoura in 1993. (Destination Golf)
Thank You for Your Votes
Voting has now closed, so to every client, partner and loyal reader who took a moment to back us: Thank You. The nominations belong as much to the golfers who keep coming back as to the team in the office.
The winners are announced at the gala on the evening of 7 November. Whatever happens in Cairo, we will report back — suitably sunburnt.
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