Bubbling Belek
Translated by AI
It was getting dark on the 15th. Would this be the last hole of the day?
“If you give up, you get minus two points on each of the remaining holes,” said Norway.
In other words, we had no choice. Losing to Norway was not an option.
We were at The Pasha in Belek, Turkey, on a beautiful February day. The match was best ball/worst ball, Sweden against Norway.
On to the 16th, a short par 4 of 338 meters (370 yards). We look at the course guide; we can’t see a flag. The tee shots seem to go reasonably straight, and although we can’t see where they land, we find all the balls, locate the flag and finish the hole quickly. Score unchanged.
The 17th is a par 3, with the green on a small peninsula surrounded by water. We can barely see the flag just 117 meters (128 yards) away. All four of us tee off, but we can’t see where the balls go. We drive quickly up to the green. Three balls by the flag, and one on the apron! Three pars and a bogey. The match is still alive.
Now it is completely dark; all we can see is the glow of the lights from the clubhouse. A par 4. The green must be by the clubhouse, surely? We tee off. See nothing. We drive along the fairway and come across a ball. It’s one of the Norwegian balls. We drive on. Two balls lie by the 100-meter marker. They’re both Swedish. Norway is now out in the rough, looking for its other ball with the help of a cigarette lighter!
Norway gives up. One ball lost, and the other too far from the flag to risk hitting in the dark. Sweden glimpses the silhouette of the flag against a lit window and hits onto the green. Two bogeys. After 36 magnificent holes, all we can say is: Seier’n er vår! Victory is ours!
What did we win? Since we were staying at the all-inclusive Sirene Golf Hotel, there wasn’t much point playing for a beer. So we decided the losers would wait on the winners for the rest of the evening instead. And Norway behaved impeccably, sneaking out into the kitchen during dinner, dressing up in aprons and mixing two excellent strawberry daiquiris. Elegantly served, along with a long speech in front of the whole golf group praising us as “some of Sweden’s best golfers.” A perfect end to a perfect day of golf. Bravo, Norway!
All inclusive
In recent years Belek in Turkey has developed into a real tourist and, above all, golf paradise. The town lies about 30 km (19 miles) from Antalya on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean coast. A long row of first-class hotels lines the beach, and just inland from the hotels are 14 equally first-class golf courses. You can literally walk from course to course. Many hotels own the course next door and offer discounted green fees to their guests. That was the case at our hotel, Sirene Golf Hotel, which together with its five-star neighbor, the Kempinski Dome, owns Antalya Golf Club with its two courses, PGA Sultan (a little harder) and The Pasha.
Sirene is typical of Belek. A good, perhaps four-star, all-inclusive hotel. Large, spacious standard rooms with a separate seating area. Four à la carte restaurants where you can eat for a small extra charge, plus a large buffet. The main building is surrounded by a number of smaller buildings and “villas,” perfect for families. Every activity imaginable is available on the grounds, which most guests probably never leave for long during their beach or golf vacation.
The season in Belek is year-round. In winter it’s a little too cold for swimming but perfect for golf. The opposite is true in summer, when it’s too hot to play golf in the middle of the day.
Golf and skiing on the same day
If you want a slightly different vacation, try combining golf and skiing.
Sirene has added a ski hotel in Davras to its golf hotel, about 1.5 hours by car from the coast, not far from Isparta. The chairlift from the hotel takes you up to 2,000 meters (6,560 feet), and from there two more lifts take you up to 2,250 meters (7,380 feet), with reliable snow in the winter months. Not many runs, but some for skiers of every level, and a nice break from the golf vacation. And if the weather doesn’t cooperate, the hotel has a full-service spa and indoor pool, plus a couple of bowling lanes on the ground floor.
Turkey, this year’s winner?
Everything suggests that Turkey will be even more popular this year than before. The Turkish lira has been stable for several years, while the euro has only grown more expensive, up almost 20% since the financial crisis began. Together with the already low price level, that makes Turkey even cheaper than the euro countries around the Mediterranean, and a hard destination to beat for golfers or families on a beach vacation.
Turkish Airlines flies to Belek/Antalya via Istanbul. With Turkish Airlines you can also bring both ski equipment and a golf bag free of charge, something very unusual these days.
This article by Bo Sjosten was originally published in Swedish on our sister site Golfjournalen.se. It has been translated by AI.
