Dispatch, Turkiye: A golf tour in Belek

BELEK, Turkiye — In 2013, Tiger Woods made the trip to Turkiye’s Antalya province to play in the Turkish Airlines Open, an event on what was then called the European PGA Tour (now the DP World Tour). 

Woods played well that week at the Montgomerie Maxx Royal golf course in Turkiye’s unofficial golf capital of Belek, recording a bogey-free 63 in the second round and finishing in a tie for third place. 

Though he didn’t win, that appearance, the second of two Woods made in Belek over consecutive years, still resonates. I could feel it tangibly as I toured Montgomerie Maxx by golf cart with its young teaching professional, Orkunhan Kaplan, whose pride about his course’s history was infectious. 

Later that day, I played nine holes at Antalya Golf Club’s PGA Sultan course, where Woods, Rory McIlroy and others had lost in 2012 to English star Justin Rose in an event called the World Golf Final. 

If it surprises you that this section of Turkiye’s Mediterranean coastline has golf courses that draw stars like Woods, McIlroy and Rose and inspire a young man like Kaplan to make a career out of the game, I don’t blame you.

American travelers mostly know Turkiye for its extraordinary historic and cultural sites. Golf isn’t on the radar. But, in fact, Belek and surrounding areas of Antalya are home to 16 golf courses, all built over the past three decades with tourism in mind.

Hosted by Turkiye’s tourism-marketing organization, GoTurkiye, I got a taste of what Belek has to offer golfers in early June, playing 54 combined holes on four courses over two busy days. I was impressed. 

Day one brought me to Cornelia Golf Club, where English golf legend Nick Faldo designed 27 challenging holes through mature corridors of stately umbrella pines. 

The umbrellas, there and at other courses I played in Belek, create an appealing, old-school feel, reminding me of the cypress tree-lined fairways found on some classic California golf courses such as San Francisco’s Harding Park and Olympic Club. They also offer a substantial challenge.  

At Faldo’s Cornelia, umbrella pines line both sides of many fairways, a design that would surely favor the famously straight-hitting architect himself. 

The final hole on the Prince nine is especially memorable and challenging. At 455 yards from the white tees, the par-4 requires threading a drive between water on both sides. I accomplished that, only to be faced with an approach of some 200 yards over water. I avoided the lake, but didn’t steer clear of a bogey five. 

The Cullinan Links Golf Club, where I played nine holes at the newly redesigned Olympos course, differs from the other courses I experienced due to its relative lack of trees. The course is framed on opposite sides by the Mediterranean and the Aksu River. It also runs along the beach of the Cullinan Belek resort. 

Music from the resort, coupled with the frequent boat tours on the river, create a distinctly different atmosphere than the typical golf course. Coupled with the course’s relative ease, golf at Cullinan was a fun and relaxing change of pace. 

The following morning, at Carya, I was greeted ominously by giant lettering imprinted in the turf above the first tee. “Good Luck,” it read. 

My game in disarray, I found little of that. The course, though, was stunning, well-conditioned and fair. It offered gentle doglegs, traversed rolling sand dunes, and featured several perilous water hazards. 

The shortish par-4 fifth, for instance, doglegs right and requires an approach over water. A lone umbrella pine on the right edge of the fairway adds to the challenge by requiring either a tee shot in the left half of the fairway, or an approach that navigates the pine. (I found the right side of the fairway and failed to navigate said pine.) The 10th and 11th holes, meanwhile, run parallel to one another, both bordered hard on the left by a long running water hazard. 

My final golfing experience in Belek was nine holes at the Antalya Golf Club Sultan course. Especially interesting to me was the short par-4 ninth, which offers golfers a choice of shortening the hole by going left, but only if they are willing to take on an ominous water hazard. A safer shot to the right lengthens the hole, and also brings a series of fairway bunkers into play. 

Meanwhile, the lengthy par-3 eighth requires golfers to avoid a partially hidden wetland to the right of the green. 
While Belek remains largely unknown to American golfers, that’s not the case for Europeans, most notably British and Germans, said Gulsah Yilmaz, golf director for Montgomerie Maxx Royal, during a lunch on the clubhouse veranda one afternoon.

Nearly 600,000 rounds are played annually in Belek, she said, bringing an economic impact to the region of $130 million. 

The courses are mostly located adjacent to one another, making multi-course access, even on the same day, easy. The area, meanwhile, is easily reached via Antalya’s airport, approximately 30 minutes away. 

Generally, the courses are associated with beachfront resort hotels, and visitors tend to book hotel and golf packages through tour operators, Yilmaz said.

During my Belek visit, I stayed at the all-inclusive Cornelia De Luxe Resort, enjoying a spacious room with a balcony that overlooked the Mediterranean a few hundred yards away. A series of pools and elaborate waterslides sat between my room and the sea. The resort also offers a spa, as well as buffet and traditional dining. 

Yilmaz said the build-up of destination golf in Belek has enabled hotels in the area to remain open year-round rather than closing for the winter when the beach crowds disappear. The area has a temperate climate for most of the year, with average winter highs of around 60 degrees. 

An unusual offering at Carya and Montgomerie Maxx are lights, which allow the facilities to extend the golfing day during peak periods in the fall and winter, when daylight isn’t ample. 

A couple times during my Belek visit I was asked whether I thought Americans would travel all the way to Turkiye to play golf. I responded that I don’t think many would make the long journey only for golf. 

But, I said, Belek’s excellent roster of courses could certainly be part of a broader itinerary to Turkiye and the Antalya region. Aside from golf and beaches, Antalya has an extraordinary array of ancient sites, among them the Roman Aspendos Amphitheater, which is largely considered the world’s best-preserved amphitheater from antiquity.

According to my guide for the trip, Cengiz Aykota, some 81 ancient city sites are located within just a couple hours of Belek. He and I have already begun discussing a return visit. If I go, I’ll be bringing my golf shoes.