The Week That Was, september 18, 2011

turkey Arrested Development?

Mostly because its golf properties attracted 450,000 rounds in 2009, an increase of 17 percent over 2008, KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice has dubbed Turkey as a place with “great development potential.”

No doubt, golf is well-regarded and well-supported in Turkey. The government has identified the sport as a key element in its plan to boost tourism, and several years ago, you may recall, the Turkish Golf Federation outlined a plan to build 100 new courses. (It won’t happen in our lifetimes, but it’s the thought that counts.)

These days most of the nation’s roughly 15 golf properties are located in one of the Mediterranean’s favored vacation destinations, the Belek region of Antalya Province. The heavily populated Istanbul area has just three golf properties, and there’s virtually no interest in golf anywhere else, as Turkey has just 6,300 “registered” golfers.

Without indigenous demand, it’s hard to predict when -– or even whether -– Turkey will realize its potential as a golf market. Until it develops golfers of its own, it seems likely that Turkey will remain “a golf market in infancy,” as KPMG describes it, that “relies heavily on international golf tourism.”

bulgaria Gary Player's Cliffs-Hanger

The partnership between Gary Player and Krassimir Guergov continues to go forth and multiply.

In 2009, the duo opened their first golf course, at BlackSeaRama along Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, and a couple of months ago they opened their second, at Thracian Cliffs Golf Resort & Spa in nearby Cape Kaliakra.


“I’ve been playing golf for 56 years and have never seen a site like this anywhere in the world,” Player said of the property at Thracian Cliffs. “It is truly incredible.”

Player’s 6,747-yard “signature” course is the centerpiece of a 410-acre community with hillside and golf-view houses, a marina village with stores and restaurants, a couple of hotels, meeting space, and a spa.

Thracian Cliffs is being developed by Guergov, an ad man and media mogul (he brought CNN to Bulgaria) who founded the Bulgarian Golf Association and currently serves as the president of the nation’s board of tourism. Before teaming up with Player, Guergov built St. Sofia Golf Club in suburban Sofia.

Without question, he’s become the face of golf in Bulgaria.