The 10 Best Golf Courses in Turkey

Few nations have experienced a golfing boom in the last 30 years quite like Turkey has. The Constantinople Golf Club was established in 1895 and claims to be the oldest sports club in the country but we have to step forward 100 years to reach more familiar ground. The Turkish Golf Federation was founded in 1996 and, from there, the nation has rapidly become a hotspot for golf tourism. 

With ground only being broken on Turkey's first modern courses in the late '90s, golf's rate of growth in the country is such that no one can quite seem to put an exact figure on how many golf courses it has in 2025. A conservative estimate would put it around the 30 mark, with more seemingly being started and finished every year. Most of these, including all of the courses widely accepted as the nation's best, reside in one area where we'll be focusing here: Belek. 

There are many reasons for Belek's popularity. Located just a stone's throw from Antalya Airport and not much further from the city proper, Belek literally puts the entirety of the nation's golfing bounty on offer just a four and a half hour flight from the UK.

Belek has something like a population of 10,000 and a coastline of just 10 miles, yet there are over 30 four or five-star hotels, many of them all-inclusive and offering a ridiculous amount of eating options. This 'Turkish Riviera' has become a town designed to cater for golfers looking for value golf in the sunshine.

In July and August it can get very hot but the months around that are ideal and it offers pretty much year-round golf which is a very tempting proposition for the golf-mad Europeans whose winters can be pretty grim.

The overall standard of courses is high and, while there is the obvious similarity between the courses given the land they are all built on, there are plenty that stand out for being excellent in every regard. Sir Nick Faldo and Colin Montgomerie have been involved in designs here but otherwise it's a mix of creative minds who have helped piece together the abundance of courses. Also, there is the option for floodlight golf at multiple venues.

It's bizarre to think quite how golf has taken off in the relatively short space of 30 years. When I first visited here in the spring of 2005 there were billboards everywhere, promoting the next course on the block and, within the next three years, the new batch were open and which now make up many of the best courses in the area.

The sand-based terrain covered in umbrella pines and eucalyptus trees make perfect sense to house all these courses and the backdrop of the Taurus Mountains tops it off.

Even if you're not here for the golf you won't tire of Belek. If you are here with your clubs, however, then you're in for a treat. So let's get to it.

The best golf courses in Turkey

Carya Golf Club

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €200

For an area so dense with golf courses, you might think Belek would warrant a sterner debate about the very best in its vicinity. Carya, however comes out on top far more often than not, with its Thomson Perrett & Lobb design routinely drawing comparisons to the very best heathland courses in South-East England. Attached to the stunning Regnum hotel, it's also the nation's only fully-floodlit course, further adding to the splendour.

For all these reasons and more, Carya stands head and shoulders above the rest on the country's Southern Mediterranean coast, and as of the time of writing, easily the best golf course in Turkey—something recognised with the DP World Tour choosing it as the host of this year's Turkish Airlines Open return. 

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Montgomerie Maxx Royal Golf Club

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €230

With golf courses tending to be fairly conventional in variation of length, Colin Montgomerie's decision to lay the Maxx Royal course with six par 3s, six par 4s and six par 5s is a refreshing change. The Maxx Royal is a bona fide Tour stop, with an outstanding layout and an overall experience more than worthy of its designer’s name. There's a reason it was chosen to host the nation's inaugural European Tour event.

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Antalya Golf Club

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €190

Antalya's PGA Sultan and Pasha courses combine to form what might be the nation's premier 36-hole layout, leaving little room for guessing just why the PGA decided to lend its name to the operation. The Sultan course is certainly the more grown up of the two, but the neighbouring Pasha course is shorter, tighter, and every bit as challenging as its bigger brother.

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National Golf Club

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €160

Designed by renowned architect David Feherty, National was the first course to break ground in the Belek area. Thanks to some tidy investment and a welcome upgrade to its practice facilities, the course that started a golfing revolution in Southern Turkey is once again well worth revisiting — especially if you're new to the area or haven’t been for a few years. 

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Lykia Links

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €95

While most of Belek's golf courses straddle the Southern Turkish coast in some way or another, a unique combination of land, hotels and infrastructure have conspired to keep links golf away from the region up until now. Lykia Links changes that with the region's first ever true links layout, and when the weather is right and its condition is on song, this vast 7,500 yard track is truly spectacular.

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Cornelia Golf Club

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €95

The only course in the nation designed by the legendary Sir Nick Faldo, Cornelia borrows a little bit of its geography and philosophy from Melbourne's Sandbelt, winding its way through dense pine woodland and over sandy, undulating soils. Cornelia spans 27 holes, each named after Roman Emperors, with the final two loops combining to form the Prince course—the club's best layout.

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Gloria Golf Resort

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €105

It only opened its doors in 1997, but Gloria Golf Club's Old Course still stands as one of Turkey's most historic courses—which goes to prove just how rapid the expansion of the game has been in the country. Both it and the New Course, built just over a decade later, rank firmly among Turkey's 10 best courses, while the additional 9-hole Verde course takes the total offering at Turkey's largest Golf resort to a massive 45 holes.

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Sueno Golf Club

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €79

True to form for the region, both the Pines and Dunes courses at the sprawling Sueno golf club wind their way through picturesque pine woodland, combining to provide a test of golf that will appeal to a wide range of golfers. Meanwhile, the huge 5-star hotel that also sits on the property makes for about as spectacular a 19th hole as they come.

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Cullinan Links

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €150

It shares its name with a Rolls-Royce, and Cullinan links delivers a truly luxurious 36 holes of golf on the eastern tip of the Belek coastline. While it's branded as a links, Cullinan's two 18 hole courses are more varied than the name on the gate suggests, winding from open coastline to more tree-lined inland routes with a selection of water hazards. The golf is fairly free and open throughout, however, with each of the four nine-hole loops ending back at the clubhouse to keep traffic flowing well at its busiest.

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Regnum Bodrum

Location: Belek, Antalya

Green fees: from €79

It's unfair to let the Belek visitors have all the fun, and our pick for the most impressive Turkish golf course outside the region sits near the Port City of Bodrum. Here, luxury resort company Regnum (which also runs Carya) have created a fantastic course that runs through foothills and olive trees. Designed to leave as light a footprint on the surrounding area as possible, the property has been developed organically and biodynamically, with the surrounding foliage still harvested for herbs, honey and olives.

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