Going for Golf

Lykia Links

Lykia Links, which opened in 2008, is actually half an hour’s drive from Belek (despite being only a few miles away as the crow flies), and is therefore set apart from the region’s other golf resorts. As with most links, the wind can make a huge difference to how this beguiling course plays. But even if conditions are still, the four holes running between the dunes and the sea – 13 to 16 – are guaranteed to take the breath away. So, too, will the long par-three 17th, with its small, shallow green that is especially elusive in a crosswind, and the 18th, which finishes, stadium-style, with a huge waste area on the right, mounds on the left and a turtle-back green that must be approached with extreme caution. 

Blessed with slick greens and fast-running fairways, thanks to its mixture of paspalum and other sea-shore grasses, and often requiring Scottish-style pitch-and-run approaches, Lykia Links is clearly aimed at accomplished golfers. And the quilted fairways, pot bunkers and ship’s-hull sleepers propping up many of the fairway traps are intentionally reminiscent of historic links like Royal West Norfolk (Brancaster) or Royal North Devon (Westward Ho!).

Lykia Links offers five teeing areas on each hole – thus providing enjoyment for golfers of all standards. Without exception every hole offers a spectacular view, either of the Mediterranean or the snow-capped Taurus Mountains inland. And while the sun can be a little overpowering on some of the inland courses in south-west Turkey, the cooling sea breezes at Lykia Links generally ensure a refreshing release from the heat.