Golf is still a young sport in Bulgaria, a work in progress. We decided to spend a long weekend to see how far the country has come since the humble beginnings at the turn of the millennium.
Around Sofia
So far, there are only seven courses in the country, concentrated in two areas: one group of courses on the Black Sea coast and the other around Sofia and the interior. We flew into Sofia to try the second group of courses.
After landing in the early afternoon, we headed directly to St Sofia Golf Club, just a stone’s throw from the airport. St Sofia is the oldest course in the country, founded 20 years ago.
Still early in the season, we found the club to be pretty quiet, but the facilities were nice, and the pro shop was very well stocked with everything you would need, including rental clubs if you didn’t bring your own.
The course was designed by Paul McGinley. I think he did a good job, given that the terrain is pretty flat. The fairways were nice and wide, and the holes laid out nicely, especially the par-threes. Since it was still early in the season, the rough was kept pretty long, making it quite difficult to recover, but again, the fairways were mostly wide, and you really shouldn’t be in the rough too much. St Sofia is definitely a good introduction to Bulgarian golf and well worth a stop if you fly into Sofia.
Sofia nightlife
Being in the middle of May, the sun didn’t set until 9 p.m., so after checking into the majestic Sofia Balkan Hotel, we had plenty of time to explore the city center. We took a self-guided walking tour along the expansive boulevards and monumental buildings like the National Museum and the Central Cathedral.
We were surprised by the amount of nightlife on a regular Thursday in the middle of May. Plenty of bars for thirsty golfers and a good choice of restaurants, from the upscale Wine Restaurant to the more relaxed Happy Bar and Restaurant. Something for every taste and budget. Prices in Bulgaria are among the lowest in Europe, and the local red wine is quite good. As is the beer.
Pravets
The next morning, we set off to the Pravets resort, about an hour northwest of Sofia. The Pravets Resort is much more than a golf course, with soccer fields, tennis, and many more sports and recreational activities. All of it anchored by a big Hyatt Regency Hotel. Apparently, the franchise holder for the seven Hyatt Hotels in Bulgaria was born in Pravets, hence the enormous hotel located in what first appears to be an unlikely location.
Just in front of the hotel is a lake, and on the other side of the lake in the foothills of a mountain range is the 18-hole golf course.
The course is a parkland layout with a little bit of water here and there, but mostly the water is not in play; it just makes the course more beautiful. We found the course in good condition, if a little bit wet. Understandable since the days before our visit had the most rain in a long time. The greens were in very good shape with a stimp of around 9 or 10, a good challenge but by no means impossible. Once you figured out that everything slopes from the mountain towards the lake, things got manageable.
The signature hole is the xxth, hitting down towards an island green with the hotel and lake as the backdrop. A beautiful hole, and as island holes go, not too difficult since the green is very big.
Most players should have a very good time at this course, and for long hitters, the back tees looked to provide enough of a challenge, especially the xxth hole, which had a very narrow opening between the trees for the uphill tee shot.
Golf is still an upscale sport in Bulgaria, with less than 3000 golfers in the country, so the clubhouses are opulent with first-class restaurants and bars. Pravets was no exception.
Pirin Golf Course
After playing Pravets, we headed south to the ski resort town of Bansko, two hours south of Sofia.
Bansko has long been known for its excellent downhill skiing. Those of you old enough may remember the famous Alberto Tomba barreling down the hills to capture yet another of his many trophies.
But we were here to play golf. The Pirin Golf Course in the foothills just outside town was designed by Ian Woosnam and opened in 2009.
The course is beautiful, and the surrounding snow-capped mountains provide the perfect backdrop, making it an almost serene experience. Until you start playing, that is.
There was a members tournament on our first day, and they graciously allowed us to participate. However, the tournament was played from the back tee, a tough challenge.
Woosnam did an excellent job designing a tournament course, and most, if not all, of the holes are very well laid out and beautiful. Unfortunately, especially from the back tees, that made the course quite difficult to play. Add to that a wet spring, which had made the grass in the rough go wild, and you have a course that is just too hard for the average player. It was near impossible to find the ball in the rough, and once found, the wet grass made it very hard to recover. If you hit the rough, you almost automatically lost a shot, unless you are a very strong player.
Now, this may be a temporary condition. From what we heard, they started mowing the rough the day after we left, and if they get it down to a manageable length and with a first and second cut, the course would be a delight to play, especially if you move up a tee or two.
Other than the long rough, the course was in excellent condition given the season and the heavy rain preceding our visit. The fairways were much drier and better drained than the previous day’s courses, and the greens were in excellent condition.
Notable holes were number three, a downhill par-3 with water surrounding the front of the green. A small waterfall and some traditional tiny farmhouses by the pond, and the mountains in the background made for a stunning hole.
The signature hole is number 15, also a par-3 with a lake to the left. From behind the green, you have a nice view of the village and the mountains, as you can see in the cover image.
On the 18th hole, and also on a couple of other holes, Woosnam has decided to let the rough cross the fairway. The first time you play the course, you have no idea that this is the case, and you are, in my opinion, unfairly penalized.
All in all, this is an excellent course. Given that they properly mow the rough and maybe remove the rough crossing the fairways, this is a course we would recommend. But don’t expect to score well on your first attempt. We played the course a second time, and moved to a tee further forward, and our scores dramatically improved with more knowledge of the layout, and shorter but straighter drives.
Village concept
Next to the golf course is a village that looks much like a ski resort. The buildings are made of wood and look like they have been taken from an alpine village in Austria. Most of the buildings are apartments, but there is also a full-service hotel, where we stayed. The hotel had an indoor and an outdoor pool, and a spa with everything you could think of. If you are not a golfer, you could come here just for the spa and maybe some mountain hiking.
The village is car-free and has a central promenade lined by shops and restaurants. Our hotel package was all-inclusive, and not only did that include food and drinks at the hotel, but also at all the other restaurants, including the excellent clubhouse restaurant.
Skiing
There is about a month of overlap between the ski season and the golf season. If you come in March or April, it is often possible to combine golf and skiing. With that in mind, we went to Bansko to explore.
Unfortunately, in mid-May, the ski season was over, and the gondola to the top was closed. But we drove up to the base of the lifts and the after-ski restaurants and bars. There was still some snow left on the slopes; the highest elevation is about 2600 meters (the base is 900 meters, which is also the golf course altitude). Greeting us was none other than Batman, dressed up and ready to ski.
Should you play golf in Bulgaria?
As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, golf is a work in progress in Bulgaria. But they have already come a long way. We have previously visited some of the courses on the Black Sea coast, and now after we have seen some of the inland courses we can only encourage you to come take a look yourself. If you have the time, sample both the coastal and inland courses, as the experience is quite different. Both areas offer excellent golf at very reasonable prices.
———-
A special mention
One of the most rewarding aspects of a golf trip is the opportunity to make new friends. On this trip I for the first time met Esa Mäkinen from Finland. As it turned out, he had something special to celebrate when we were at Pirin: It was the 1300th golf course he had played. That in itself is quite a remarkable number, but even more impressive is the number of countries he has played golf in: 190!
(England, Scotland, and Wales count as separate countries, as do some possessions like French Guyana, so the total number of countries you can play in is around 210, give or take.)
Esa started playing fairly late in life, when he was 26 years old. Everything was pretty ordinary until one day in 1993 when, on a flight from Hong Kong, he started comparing notes with one of his good friends, and from then on, the “race” started. The two of them started sending postcards to each other from golf trips, where the only text on the cards was two numbers: how many courses and how many countries.
The rest is history in the making. The competition started. Sometimes they traveled together, like when they played all 50 states in the US (in two trips), sometimes apart. Unfortunately, Esa’s friend can no longer play, but Esa is continuing the quest. The goal is to play in 200 countries. He plans to add five more countries this year, including Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Ivory Coast, leaving him only five more countries to reach his number. The plan is to complete the quest in 2025.
I asked Esa which countries had been hardest to get to play in, and the answer was a surprise to me: Venezuela and Ecuador. The reason is that golf clubs are just very private, and it is hard to get invited to play. But Esa succeeded, of course. I would have expected countries like Bhutan would be more difficult, but apparently that was easier (but not easy) to arrange.
I am an avid golfer myself, and when we left Sofia in the late afternoon I had already booked a tee time at my home course for the next morning. I asked Esa when he would play his next round, and his answer was that he had a tee time at 9.30 AM tomorrow morning. In San Marino. Country 191.
