Sueno (Pines)

The Sueno Hotel and Golf Club is one of Belek’s newer and more ambitious facilities. Located a few hundred metres from the sea and boasting its own private beach, 174-bedroomed 5-star hotel and two 18-hole golf courses, Sueno is a prize Turkish delight.

Bob Hunt, of Bristol based company, International Golf Design – formerly known as PGA Design Consulting – created both courses at Sueno Golf Club and they opened for play in October 2007. The Dunes is the shorter par 69 resort course, which measures a modest 5,643 metres from the back tees. It’s a decent resort course in its own right, but it’s the 6,413-metre championship Pines course that heads Sueno’s golfing bill.

Routed over a generous 300-acre site, both courses flow through the umbrella pines and over the rolling sandy terrain of Belek. The Pines course naturally features plenty of pine trees, but strategic bunkering (in conventional and blow-out style) and a healthy splash of water hazards are well and truly in the mix.

The opening hole is a par five appropriately named “The Big Easy” as its wide fairway allows golfers to get into their stride. The short par four 2nd is the first water hole called “Up and Over” requiring careful club selection from the tee to get as close as possible to the lakes in order to leave the shortest approach to a wickedly contoured green.

“Little Gem”, the 3rd, is a short but pretty par three and it requires a precise tee shot over a lake to a peninsula green. Don’t go too far left as the green cants left towards the lake that will gladly gobble your balata. Numerous solid golf holes follow on from here and there’s even a hint of Pine Valley at the short par four 12th which is set among the ancient pines where waste bunkers flank the right side of the fairway. The 13th, “Rugged Valley” is a cracking longish par three cut through a valley to a tricky tabletop green that’s ringed with pines.

The home hole is a clever mid-length par four that presents a visual illusion from the tee. Called “Mirage”, the drive seems impossibly tight to this dogleg right where two bunkers are cut into the elbow with a lake behind. There’s actually more room than you imagine but it plays an optical game with a golfer’s mind.

The Pines course at Sueno Golf Club is an excellent addition to Turkey’s burgeoning portfolio of top-notch golf courses and it has elevated the Belek region to a new level.