njc1973
Head Pro
Recently went for a weeks golfing holiday to Turkey so I thought I'd do a short review for anyone thinking of going there.
Booked to play Sultan & Pasha courses twice each and the Montgomerie once and stayed at the Sirene Belek on an all inclusive basis, cost was £780 each (would have been about £100 less if there were 8 of us).
Courses:
Pasha: relatively short course with quick undulating greens, some great holes and all played better the 2nd time when we thought our way round the course.
Sultan: cracking course with some scary tee-shots between avenues of trees or water hazards on both sides (18th is a great hole where you need to cross the water twice to hit the green & the 9th the water comes into play all the way to the green), greens not as tricky as the Pasha but wouldn't recommend short-siding yourself.
National: another great course, not as well conditioned as the other 2 but had to think about virtually every shot (we played this instead of the Montgomerie due to a mix-up by the local agent)
Unfortunately the average round was at least 5.5 hours long due to them overpacking the courses, the 1st nine at the National took us over 3.5 hours & after teeing off at 13.40 we had to walk in after 12-13 holes due to it being dark. It seems the policy is to get as many people on the courses as possible no matter what the ability, at the risk of sounding ageist it definitely looked like a Saga holiday & not the ones who could play golf either.
All the nightlife is in the hotels so not a trip for those who are looking to party, but food & beer were good.
All in all it was a good trip but I wouldn't book a tee-time after noon if you want to finish & prepare to wait on every tee (played one round at 8.30, another mix-up, and got finished in 4.5 hors so that might be the way to go).
Booked to play Sultan & Pasha courses twice each and the Montgomerie once and stayed at the Sirene Belek on an all inclusive basis, cost was £780 each (would have been about £100 less if there were 8 of us).
Courses:
Pasha: relatively short course with quick undulating greens, some great holes and all played better the 2nd time when we thought our way round the course.
Sultan: cracking course with some scary tee-shots between avenues of trees or water hazards on both sides (18th is a great hole where you need to cross the water twice to hit the green & the 9th the water comes into play all the way to the green), greens not as tricky as the Pasha but wouldn't recommend short-siding yourself.
National: another great course, not as well conditioned as the other 2 but had to think about virtually every shot (we played this instead of the Montgomerie due to a mix-up by the local agent)
Unfortunately the average round was at least 5.5 hours long due to them overpacking the courses, the 1st nine at the National took us over 3.5 hours & after teeing off at 13.40 we had to walk in after 12-13 holes due to it being dark. It seems the policy is to get as many people on the courses as possible no matter what the ability, at the risk of sounding ageist it definitely looked like a Saga holiday & not the ones who could play golf either.
All the nightlife is in the hotels so not a trip for those who are looking to party, but food & beer were good.
All in all it was a good trip but I wouldn't book a tee-time after noon if you want to finish & prepare to wait on every tee (played one round at 8.30, another mix-up, and got finished in 4.5 hors so that might be the way to go).
