We’ve been ranking golf courses in Turkey for fifteen years, starting with a Top 10 before the listings were expanded to a Top 15 in 2016. When you consider there are only around 33 golfing layouts in the country then we think our coverage is adequate. Most of the golf played in Turkey is by incoming players to Antalya, which has year-round flights bringing visitors in from all over Europe, many of them attracted by all-inclusive stay and play golf packages.
Carya
A very prominent destination for incoming golfers is the 18-hole layout at Carya Golf Club, which remains our #1 for Turkey. Host club for the Turkish Open from 2016 to 2018, the course was laid out by Tim Lobb when he worked in the same design firm as Peter Thomson and Ross Perrett, with holes routed through tall stands of pine and eucalyptus trees on a very sandy site.
Montgomerie Maxx Royal
Another Turkish Open venue, the , leaps five places up the new chart to the runner-up spot, surpassing the #4 position it held in 2010. Colin Montgomerie is credited as the headliner designer here, working with architect Gary Johnson from European Golf Design to fashion the fairways across a landscape that was previously nothing other than government-owned forest.
Antalya
Another nearby European Golf Design production – this time built in collaboration with David Jones – is the 36-hole facility at Antalya Golf Club, where the Pasha course rises two places to #6, reclaiming the position it held in our inaugural Turkish chart in 2008. Often unfairly overlooked in favour of the PGA Sultan course, the Pasha more than holds its own against its higher-ranked sibling.
Gloria
The Old course at Gloria Hotels & Resorts climbs two rungs of the ladder up to #7. Designed by Michel Gayon, this 18-hole layout was one of the first of the new wave of courses to appear in Belek around the end of the 1990s. The 18-hole New and 9-hole Verde courses have since been added to create a wonderful 45-hole golf facility at Gloria, cementing its status as a “must play” for the many golfers who return here annually.
Robinson Nobilis
Next door to the Gloria resort, at the eastern end of the Belek golf strip, lies the Dave Thomas-designed Robinson Nobilis course, advancing two places to #12 in our Turkish standings. It’s another late 1990s design, set next to where the Acisu River empties into the Mediterranean Sea, with holes occupying a sandy coastal site. Conditioning has been suspect in that past but that’s no longer true, thanks to ample investment in recent years from parent company TUI.
Cullinan
The highest new entry into our standings (at #13) is the Aspendos course at Cullinan Links Golf Club at the west end of the Belek strip, where the Besgoz River enters the Med. The old Titanic 27-hole setup – which started out as TAT International in the late 1990s – has recently been reconfigured by Gary Johnson to form two exciting new 18-hole courses, the Aspendos and the Olympos.
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Jim McCann
Editor
Top 100 Golf Courses
