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Editor's note: This article was originally published in LINKS Magazine. Visit the magazine website here.
By Brian McCallen
For decades, the only intersection between golf and turkey was a club sandwich in the grillroom. But Turkey, the country that sits at the timeless crossroads between East and West and has been a cradle of civilizations, is now embracing another culture-crossing endeavor: golf.
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The only question is what took so long. Turkey's Mediterranean coast, first colonized by the Greeks and later controlled by the Romans, fronts an azure-blue sea long popular among sun-starved Europeans.
They have been arriving to eat tasty kebabs at outdoor cafes overlooking the sea, to savor aromatic tea or strong Turkish coffee with the ebullient locals, to peruse local markets for hand-woven kilims and other handicrafts, and perhaps most of all to see the imprint of history. The world's first agrarian settlers put down roots in the south of Turkey in 9,000 B.C. Other visitors have included Alexander the Great, who wrested the Anatolian peninsula from the Persians in 334 B.C., and St. Paul, who traveled to the south of Turkey on his first missionary journey.
Nowadays, it's the people who are the big attraction. Unfailingly courteous and welcoming, modern-day Turks consider hospitality both a civic duty and a source of pride. While predominantly Muslim, Turkey, a longtime NATO member and strong American ally, is a modern secular republic. As such, the nation is very tolerant of Western lifestyles.
So the Tourism Ministry pointed to Belek, 25 miles east of the walled port city of Antalya, as the area to develop for visiting golfers. It was a good choice. Set back from the shore beneath the Taurus Mountains, which rise to more than 10,000 feet and are snow-capped in winter, sits rolling, sand-based terrain covered in umbrella pines and eucalyptus trees.
The obvious comparisons are to Spain's Costa del Sol and Portugal's Algarve. Belek lacks their inventory of courses, but the region's well-preserved classical sites outshine those of any golf destination in Western Europe. Each site in this area, an hour's flight from Istanbul, opens a window to a lost world, offering an unforgettable outdoor history lesson.
At present, Belek has nine courses open for play; five will open soon, with several more on the drawing board. Many are attached to resort hotels strung along the beachfront. With each new course opening, Turkey, with one foot in Europe and the other in Asia, raises its profile as a winter golf destination. It's not quite the Myrtle Beach of the Med, but it is a land that gave Alexander the Great a tussle and delights those who enjoy retracing history's footsteps.
As for golf, it's a modern golfer making history of his own who fascinates young Turks keen on the game. Tiger Woods is their idol; once they find out you're an American, they ask you what he's like. Not as a golfer. As a person.
Mainstays
Debuted in 1994, Belek's first course was the National Golf Club, by the Irish duo of David Jones and David Feherty. A clever blend of British and American features, the gently rolling layout wanders through a forest of eucalyptus and pine, with several natural lakes in play. The distant Taurus Mountains loom into view at several holes. It's a subtle, lay-of-the-land design with small greens and enough length at 6,896 yards to keep better players honest.
Host of a European Seniors Tour event in 1996-97, National sets the standard for the area. The courses that have cropped up since, all within a 20-minute drive of each other, range from very good to excellent. Tat Golf Belek International Golf Club (Tat means "taste" in Turkish) is a relatively flat 27-hole layout by Englishman Martin Hawtree, a third-generation designer. Opened in 1997, it offers a diverse mix of inland, tree-lined holes as well as links-style holes stretched along the beachfront, with a river in play at roughly half the holes. Tat's only failing is its conditioning, which can be iffy.
The region's sleeper course is Robinson Club Nobilis, which occupies the site of a former Roman settlement. English course architect Dave Thomas routed holes through tall umbrella pines near the Acisu River, the landing areas and slick bentgrass greens staked out by rolled-down, grass-faced bunkers. And just in case you neglected to remember where you are, there's a colonnaded clubhouse and a statue of Julius Caesar swinging a club atop a Roman arch to remind you.
