Chatting to Turkish Airlines today reminded me of my last golf holiday to Turkey in May 2019. From the moment we boarded the Turkish Airlines flight at Dublin Airport to Istanbul and onwards to Antalya to our return flight one week later, I can recall, with fond memories, one of my great golf experiences ever. I stayed at the five star Cornelia Diamond Hotel in the resort town of Belek, in the resort complex is a 27 hole Nick Faldo designed golf course which is literally on your doorstep.
The hotel is all-inclusive as are all hotels in the resort. The Cornelia Diamond is stunning, facilities include, 5 swimming pools [one indoor], 2 leisure centres with all the facilities a top-class centre offers, 4 different A La Carte restaurants [Italian, Steakhouse, Japanese, and a traditional Mediterranean fish restaurant] along with a superb self-service menu. The hotel has5 bars serving free drinks 24 hours [Yes you read correctly all drink and food is included), the resort has its own private beach with its own beach bar and restaurant.
Along with The Faldo courses, we played Carya, home to the last three Turkish Opens, which were won by Tyrrell Hatton and twice by Justin Rose, the Montgomery, hosted the Turkish Open 2013/2014/2015, winner Brook Koepke and the Sultan which also hosted The Turkish Open World Golf Series, again won by Justin Rose – beating Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood in the process. All the courses are within a five miles radius of each other and all transfers to and from the hotel/golf courses are complementary.
Recommended Golf Courses:
SULTAN
The Sultan course is the longer and more demanding of the two at Antalya Golf Club.
Opened in 2003, plays a premium on both length and accuracy with water coming into play on 11 holes. I lost half a dozen balls which tells its own story. Brilliant experience.
CARYA
We played at night and being my first time to play golf under floodlights, I found it a very enjoyable experience. The free drinks and dinner at the clubhouse added to the days entertainment.
FALDO
It was great to spend time at the David Leadbetter Academy and while David wasn’t there we still got that much-needed lesson before we tackled the course. It worked for me as I won the money.
A Golf Holiday to Turkey is one for the bucket list, Freddie