Montgomerie Maxx Royal

Following on from the PGA Sultan and Pasha courses at Antalya Golf Club, the Montgomerie Maxx Royal (formerly known as the Papillon Golf Club) is the third European Golf Design project in the Belek area with Colin Montgomerie marketed as the course’s attention-grabbing headline designer.

Monty's 18-hole layout is part of a multi-million euro golf and hotel development that includes a world-class golf academy and a 5-star hotel.

The course opened for play in 2008, quickly establishing itself as one of the best in an area that’s not short of quality new golfing facilities. Many of the fairways play through mature pine forest and with eight lakes on site there are several water hazards to be avoided during a round.

A word from Monty who, at the course opening, spoke of his creation as one of the top tracks to play on the Mediterranean coast: “During my many visits over the last two and half years I have been most impressed with the hard work put in to enhance what is a relatively young resort, and help turn the Belek region into a must-visit golfing destination.”

In November 2013, the Montgomerie Maxx Royal hosted Turkey’s inaugural European Tour event – the Turkish Airlines Open by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Frenchman Victor Dubuisson hung on to win the 2013 event, securing his maiden European Tour title by two shots from Jamie Donaldson with Justin Rose and Tiger Woods finishing two strokes further behind. Montgomerie Maxx Royal has since staged three other Turkish Opens, most recently in 2019.

Gary Johnston – Designer from European Golf Design writes:

Along with Colin Montgomerie, EGD was introduced to the project in 2006 by the Papillon Hotel Group who were looking to create their first golf resort. The site, which had previously been used by the Turkish Government’s Forestry Department as a commercial forest, had been earmarked for golf as part of a tourism initiative for the area. Although densely covered by pine trees it was clear that sandy, rolling landscape below the tree canopy was ideal for golf.

Right from the start the environmental impact and sustainability of the development was a major consideration and resulted in a design philosophy which combined the natural features of the site with the strategy of the golf course. The result was a golf course which utilised the natural sandy areas as hazards which come into play on more than half the golf holes and also provide a buffer between the maintained areas and the native vegetation. Since the completion of the golf course the club has followed up with this environmental commitment and has recently become a registered participant of the Golf Environment Organisation (GEO) certification programme.