Neom, Saudi Arabia
Trojena Golf Resort
A Golf Resort Written into the Mountains
status
Ongoing
client
McDowell & Dusenberry Design
expertise
Hospitality + Entertainment
services
Master Planning Landscape Architecture Civil Engineering
Where the Mountain Sets the Course
Trojena Golf Resort brings championship golf into a mountain landscape where the terrain becomes part of every shot, view, and guest experience.
Located in the NEOM region of northwest Saudi Arabia, Trojena is a year-round mountain resort set among steep slopes, natural wadis, and expansive views. Within the larger destination, Trojena Golf Resort will extend across 100+ acres of sculpted terrain. Creating a cohesive golf experience in this demanding environment required the course, resort amenities, and supporting infrastructure to function as one interconnected landscape.
Drawing on experience with complex international destinations, LandDesign brought the multidisciplinary expertise needed to realize this vision. Our landscape architects, civil engineers, and horticulturists worked alongside the golf course architect and broader design team to connect grading, stormwater, utilities, irrigation, and planting to NEOM’s environmental conditions. The result will be a precedent-setting destination where the mountain is the organizing force behind the course, the guest experience, and the systems that make them possible.
NEOM’s mountain landscape gives Trojena its sense of place. The course was envisioned as a sequence of changing elevations, views, slopes, and natural wadis, giving players and guests a stronger connection to the terrain as they moved across the site. Achieving that experience required a careful balance between the needs of the championship golf course and the character of the high-country landscape. Grading, circulation, rockwork, and resort amenities needed to feel intentional within the terrain, while the landscape helped soften areas reshaped by construction.
Planting by Zone, Designed for Stewardship
NEOM’s commitment to environmental stewardship made horticulture a central part of the landscape strategy. Native and adaptive species, remediation planting, water-conscious design, and thoughtful nursery planning were considered together to support long-term performance. Across the switchbacks, planting methods were calibrated to site conditions, combining pocket seeding in reclamation areas with more structured container planting where greater intervention was needed. Horticulture was not a finishing layer, but part of how the resort could feel established, resilient, and connected to Trojena.
In Trojena’s high-country terrain, managing water was inseparable from shaping the course. The wadi was designed as more than a drainage feature. Along the cart path, it changes in character as it moves through the terrain, shifting from deeper channels and larger plant groups in lower areas to shallower channels and smaller-scale planting above. Wadi drops, crossings, retaining walls, perimeter fencing, motor access, and the pump station were coordinated with the landscape to manage water, support circulation, and integrate the infrastructure into the mountain setting.
Physical
Used grading, rockwork, remediation planting, and a native and adaptive palette to shape playable golf terrain
Functional
Coordinated grading, stormwater, utilities, circulation, irrigation, and service access to support golf and resort operations
Social
Leveraged changing views, elevation, landscape character, and resort amenities to connect guests to Trojena’s mountain setting
Physical
Used grading, rockwork, remediation planting, and a native and adaptive palette to shape playable golf terrain
Functional
Coordinated grading, stormwater, utilities, circulation, irrigation, and service access to support golf and resort operations
Social
Leveraged changing views, elevation, landscape character, and resort amenities to connect guests to Trojena’s mountain setting
