Secret Valley - Cyprus

3rd Cyprus Ranking
Secret Valley Golf Club,
Ha Potami - Kouklia,
8101 Paphos,
Cyprus

  • +357 262 74000

  • Not known

  • Iacovos Iacovou, Hans-Georg Erhardt and Snorri Vilhjalmsson

  • Paul Dyer

Visit Golfbreaks.com for a golf holiday at Secret Valley

The delightful Secret Valley holiday course opened for play in 1996 and local Cypriot Iacovos Iacovou originally designed it.

Voted the best course in Cyprus for two consecutive years by Golf Digest back in the late 1990s, Secret Valley Golf Club enjoyed all limelight in those early years when golf was still a fledgling Cypriot sport. At that time, the island only had two courses to choose from and the Cyprus Golf Federation hadn’t yet been founded.

Home course of Nicosia Golf Club (founding member of the Cyprus Golf Federation), Secret Valley is situated not far from Paphos and even closer to Petra tou Romiou, where according to folklore, Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, stepped ashore. Not surprisingly, Secret Valley plays through a valley, but this is no ordinary valley. It really is quite spectacular, with brightly coloured rock formations, which change colour in different lights.

The setting really is a delight and it's definitely worth playing Secret Valley early in the morning or late in the evening when the shadows are lengthening. It's also cooler at either end of the day. In the middle of summer Secret Valley can get rather hot and sticky.

It’s true, Secret Valley was a relatively ordinary members course, but everything changed in 2013 when the layout reopened after a complete redesign by Hans-Georg Erhardt and Snorri Vilhjalmsson of Golf and Land Design, with Tony Jacklin as the headline architect.

The new Secret Valley layout is an integral part of the Venus Rock project, which is mooted to include another golf course, a five-star hotel and luxury private homes. The project aims to become one of Europe’s largest luxury beachfront residential developments.

The Secret Valley layout itself is routed thoughtfully using the natural topography of the valley to great effect. Mature trees and shrubs are a feature within the lower valley while the steep hillside terrain of the upper slopes has allowed dramatic tee locations, which afford lovely views over the valley and to the distant sea beyond.

What was formerly a pleasant golfing experience is now a must play golf course. It’s even quite possible that Secret Valley could once again become the No.1 course in Cyprus. Watch out Elea and Aphrodite Hills.
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Reviews for Secret Valley

Av. Reviewers Score:
Description: What was formerly a pleasant golfing experience is now a must play course, it's even possible that Secret Valley Golf Club could once again become the No.1 course in Cyprus. Rating: 3.4 out of 6 Reviews: 5

The redesign of Secret Valley has turned a pleasant holiday track into a must-play. Having visited Cyprus recently (also played Elea and Aphrodite Hills) I must say this was my favorite of the three. It may be short (5700 yds from the backs) but it’s great fun and very engaging.

5 / 6
Secret Valley
January 10, 2018


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Basically a good holiday layout spoilt by poor levels of maintenance. Not a long course but shot placement required particularly off the tee where trouble awaits on both sides of the fairway. Sadly a potentially playable course is spoilt by its condition, as with other contributors we found heavily sanded greens and poorly maintained bunkers, a pity because it could be really pleasant to play. Another potential problem for some is that almost everywhere on the course you will find "beware of snakes" signs, if like me you are scared witless by the little sliders then you don't go in looking for a ball as the vipers on the course are reportedly very venomous.
3 / 6
Secret Valley
October 13, 2015


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A beautiful setting to a golf course that i would generously describe as mediocre. Whilst the greenkeeping team are not keeping things green they do appear to have plenty of sand available from the local beaches. Unfortunately the sand is being placed on the greens (rather than in the bunkers) as a substitute for grass. As my first putt of the day pulled up in sand some 15 feet short of the hole (on what began as an 18 foot putt) I knew this round would be tricky. There are a couple of average holes amongst the poor ones but overall the condition was such that I won’t be rushing back.
2 / 6
Secret Valley
August 25, 2012


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Fantastic location, a very scenic course with some excellent holes, but I agree the greens were very average, at least when I visited. Many of them had large sandy patches on them covering bare earth beneath, and consequently the gloss was rather taken off my round. That said, Secret Valley has the potential to be a really good venue, and at 40 Euros it is well worth a visit.
4 / 6
Secret Valley
May 05, 2011


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A very pretty course, with some interesting holes through the valley, the only downside is five hour rounds and gardeners for greenkeepers. The course seems to lack some investment, the fairways were very patcy and if you could find some grass needed cutting, and the greens were very shoddy with bare patches all over them. This is such a shame because potentially it has the makings of a very good golf course.
3 / 6
Secret Valley
March 15, 2011


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Ailsa
March 21, 2011

The course does lack investment for the simple reason that a new development has been on the backburner for the best part of 10 years. However this should hopefully change soon. With two brand new courses.