Egypt is an entirely different case altogether. For over one hundred years the only two grass courses in Egypt were Gezira and Mena House. The course at the Gezira Sporting Club is the oldest golf course in Egypt, dating to 1888; it is located in Cairo, on a small island in the Nile. The Mena House course (now part of the Oberoi Hotel (
http://www.oberoimenahouse.com/en-US/Hotel/Spa_Fitness.aspx)) is a storied nine-hole course, with two sets of tees to play as 18; it has occupied the shadow of the Great Pyramid of Cheops for over a century. (Supposedly Mena course is getting an RTJII make-over.)
Three "desert" courses also survived into the mid-20th c. The Heliopolis course, designed with input from JH Taylor, had gravel and sand fairways that were watered and rolled, and "greens" made up of a special white sand brought in from the desert that created a "medium-paced" putting surface. Sands of different coarseness were also used to imitate "rough" and its effect on ball movement, while bunkers were ringed with sedge to trap the ball inside their limits. Courses at Maadi (1920) and the course at the sulphur springs at Helouan-les-Bains were constructed in a similar fashion -- that is, all-sand courses, like Heliopolis, with Helouan considered the finest and most difficult sand course in the world. A few nine-hole courses sprung up with the influx of shipping and the work on the Suez Canal (eg. Port Said, Suez, and Ismailia) -- and then disappeared.
After Nasser took over in the '50s, most clubs were nationalized or appropriated for public land use.
As of '95, only three courses remained in play -- Gezira, Mena House, and Alexandria (1898).
Now within the last 10-12 years, as many as three dozen golf courses have either opened for play or are in planning or development. Ron Fream designed the Pyramids GC (maybe Ron will see this and comment); Madinat Makadi, Jolie Ville Movenpick, and Taba Heights were all completed by John Sanford; Gene Bates and Fred Couples, the Golf Club at El Gouna; Gary Player at Cascade Somaa Bay; Thomson, Perrett and Lobb at Ein Bay and New Giza (
http://www.tpl.eu.com/current-proj-02.php); Greg Norman and Troon at Allegria; Peter Harradine at Mirage City Heliopolis; Karl Litten at Stella di Mare and Dreamland Golf (a project that received a lot of press); and etc.
The most rapid development is taking place along the Mediterranean, to the west of Alexandria, and at the Red Sea, to the southeast of Cairo.
If anyone is currently working on a project in Egypt, please tell us about it.