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THE resort of Paradise Beach is about 10 miles in length with a pair of golf courses at either end and the 24 or so hotels, most of which offer a shuttle bus service, in between. An advantage here is that a rental car would be superfluous.
The long-established courses, National and Tat Beach, are adjoining, as are the two newest, Gloria and Nobilis. Those under construction on the 250 hectare estate of the Sirene Hotel are near the National Golf Club. All have a design pedigree and with multiple tees suit players of any standard.
National, the first to open and twice the venue for the PGA Seniors' Belek Open, was designed by the Irish duo of David Feherty and David Jones and a cracking job they made of it.
Transforming heavily timbered swamp land into a rolling course evocative of the Carolinas, they drained the water into lakes which influence six holes and retained most of the pine and eucalyptus trees that are a local feature.
It's a big site with lots of traditional touches, where every fairway is hidden from its neighbours but wide enough to forgive the odd indiscretion. The greens are modestly sized, some are elevated, most tightly guarded.
The par-3s will have you swooning and a couple of the two shotters are as good as most. You'll need to drive it passably well, particularly on the par-5s, but a sound short game and some imagination are prerequisites here. This is one the low markers will love, although it won't scare the rabbits from the front tees.
There's a rambling, traditional-style clubhouse overlooking a lake by the 18th green. Nearby is an open air waterside restaurant that's just grand for a 'tween-rounds lunch. For more formal occasions the clubhouse restaurant offers a la carte dining, although you'll need reservations.
Tat Beach has 27 holes designed by Britain's Martin Hawtree, who renovated The Royal Birkdale for the 1998 Open Championship. This one has two holes alongside the beach; several others are within an 8-iron distance.
So there's a touch of links here, although stands of timber form a backdrop to many holes and major trees frequently dominate the second shot, with water here and there, too. It's a course that was designed for resort play, but the ambitious will be stretched from the back.
Tat Beach is invariably pristine in appearance, with striped fairways and greens that glint when in full fig. Like National, the grass here is Bermuda 419, a hot weather species found at its best in summer but which becomes dormant in October. Then it requires over-seeding with rye grass, mainly for colour.
But this presents no problems: the new grass can be cut within four days, such is the rate of germination, and the three loops are over-seeded in sequence: 18 holes are always open and there's little to choose between the two loops in terms of degree of challenge.
The clubhouse is palatial, with acres of marble and a terrace for al fresco lunching. It's a fine spot to watch the golfing world go by and completes a handsome picture of the best of golf.
The Gloria course, which has staged the PGA Seniors Belek Open to great acclaim, is part of a major estate that includes a de luxe hotel and a sumptuous clubhouse with an acclaimed restaurant.
Designed by the French architect Michael Guyen, it's a big course, albeit one requiring finesse and imagination. It is flat, lush and moderately tight, with several lakes, major trees dominating critical points and fairways edged by some serious rough, as the senior professionals discovered.
As with most inventive architects, Guyen's signature is evident largely around the greens. Most are level with the fairway in the traditional style, creating problems of judgment and perspective which makes them small targets, even though some of them are huge -- one is a double green and 95 yards long!
It's well-named, too, ravishingly beautiful and, like the others, built to USGA specifications. It is owned by a major Turkish construction company and no expense was spared.
THE latest course, named Nobilis, opened in July 1998. It is a creation of David Thomas, the former British Ryder Cup player and now an esteemed architect. He was unrestrained in his appraisal of the site.
"The whole region is perfect golfing country," he said, "and the site at Nobilis is spectacular, with 80 foot pine trees, sandy soil and a high water table. I was thrilled with the result."
It helps that he was given virtual carte blanche by the owners, who are completing an opulent hotel and clusters of deluxe rental villas on the perimeter.
The course, which Thomas regards as the equal of any he has built, is wooded parkland with a hint of links on open land where six holes run down to a river, widened to create a lake.
The major feature, tree-lined fairways aside, are the greens, some of them 700 square yards in size, that are the Thomas signature. Here they are more undulating and angled, demanding precision and imagination.
Because of the size of greens and tees there's great potential for strategic challenge at both ends of the hole.
Wide tees afford disparate shot lines and most greens have five or six areas where a 10 foot putt can be level but a 30 footer borders on the lethal.
David raves about his creation and he's not alone: visitors go all poetic, too. Nobilis is destined for great things and its clubhouse is something to sing about.
It's all a purist's delight and a fine addition to a fledgling resort that's about to take flight.
Two courses now under construction for the Sirene Hotel group, one of which is scheduled to open in late autumn of 2001, are solid indicators of local ambitions. They will complete a five star complex with a palatial clubhouse and a golf academy, 18 holes for club players and one of 7,000 yards plus, par-72, for championships.
And that's not the cliché that is commonly associated with such new projects: they mean it. In time they'll be bidding for something big on the European Tour and make no bones about the fact that they have what it takes to achieve their objective.
Set in 230 beach-side hectares with a de luxe hotel and a village of villas already in place, they are even building a 250 roomed five star hotel specifically for golfers!
This will open shortly, as the two courses, under construction by European Golf Design, are growing in.
The opening will be the apogee of the Paradise Beach success story so far. But that won't be the end of it. There's much more to come before they call it a day.
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