Turkey’s OVERWHELMING Golf Coast | Adventures in Golf Season 9

Turkey’s OVERWHELMING Golf Coast | Adventures in Golf Season 9

Hi, I’m Eric and this is Adventures in Golf. For this episode, we’ve traveled to Turkey, a land filled with dichotomy, where old meets new, east meets west, and golf has both already been here and is just beginning. The modern Republic of Turkey was established just over a hundred years ago. A blink in time for a region spanning millennia. A cradle of civilization located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, Turkey has a rich Islamic history. And while observance varies significantly, most of the country identifies as Muslim with its largest city, Istanbul, right at the center. An ancient city straddling the Bosphorus Strait, Istanbul has always been a focal point for trade and culture since the early days of the Silk Road. Today, Turkey remains an international metropolis with a large expat community. As for golf, the game was first introduced in the late 1800s by British and American merchants. This led to the establishment of Istanbul Golf Club in 1895, the oldest club in Turkey and one of the oldest in continental Europe. Originally built within the city limits, the course has had a number of location, size, and name changes. How’s it going, man? Good morning. Hey, Eric. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you, Andrew. Nice to meet you. This is something that we’ll learn more about from Andrew McNab, who is Istanbul Golf Club’s director of golf and our guide for today. How long have you been here? 24 years. Okay. I I made the move out here when I was how old? I don’t know, 23 years old. Young golf professional. I took a risk, I guess. Uh I was not thinking about going to make a career. I was thinking about going to travel, you know, and uh working along the way, right? And then by chance, a job opportunity came up in Istanbul. And then yeah, here I still am today. While Istanbul Golf Club may have had a long history, only a handful of other courses have been built since, and golf remains a game merely for the wealthy elite from here and abroad. It wasn’t until the ’90s that Turkey realized the tourism potential that golf had, and they began creating professional quality courses and promoting international tournaments. This is the bridge that Tiger hit across. So when he was last here for the Turkish Airlines Open uh before the tournament, he landed right here uh in a helicopter uh and the he was hitting balls from this side to the other side and it was all planned um of course in advance, but the deal was the whole bridge would be closed for like 10 minutes. And just before Tiger landed, the local Istanbul uh council uh decided it’s impossible to close the bridge. So, you know, fortunately, Tiger agreed to continue with the stunt, but there was traffic all going down one side. So, you imagine standing on the bridge. I mean, I mean, there was like 30 mph winds from uh left to right and he’s hitting with traffic going down the other side. So, he was standing on the bridge just trying to hook the ball to hold it against the wind. I mean, uh, it could have been a disaster, but anyway, in true Tiger style, he pulled it off. So, yeah, it was an amazing thing. It was it was the narrowest, uh, fairway in the world. So interesting is like that’s a big effort to bring golf to Turkey. It sounds like that’s, you know, hosting a tournament. So, essentially, you were here before golf was really part of anything of the culture or the ecosystem. Yeah. The city is population of 20 plus million and there’s a lot of concrete, not a lot of green areas. So there’s, you know, there there’s nowhere for golf courses to really happen. Even if people want to build a golf course, there’s nowhere to build one. And that’s just one reason Istanbul Golf Club’s current home is 30 minutes north of the city in Reva. The club changed places until 1920 from Okme to Beck etc. But basically after 1920 it was established uh in Maslac and it stayed there for a very very long time. This is Nison Ozelen the current president of the IGC who tells us about the club’s unstable past. Founded with 12 holes as Constantinople Golf Club in the Akmeduno district in 1895. It moved to Bevc in 1911 and became the 9-hole Bosphorus Golf Club before relocating again in 1920 to Maslac with eight holes, which eventually expanded to 18. In both instances, the land was rented and the leases were not renewed. Then 92 years later, they would once again lose their lease, leaving their courses future fully unknown. There was a period where we had no golf course. We just had a simple driving range, a clubhouse, a few greens in a place where we rented from. So for 10 years or more, we were there waiting. In 2015, looking to resolve their land issues once and for all, Mustafa Coach, the club president at the time, purchased the land where the course sits today. And on May 1st, 2024, the Mustafa V Coach Golf Course was opened. Unfortunately, he passed away in 2016 before this place was built, but it was already started. His wife Caroline decided to pursue his will and this place was built and now we’re lucky to be here. Until last year, this was a a dirt track that took us all the way to the golf course. I feel like we’re in Italy or something. Winding road here. Be careful. Sometimes you come around the corner, there’s a herd of cows crossing the road or something. So, you can’t go too fast on this. Well, that sounds like on this road. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So, before the golf course, this is there was no trees or anything cut on the golf course. It was literally where the forest stops there. It was just like a plane until the river. So all of these animals were grazing across the the golf course but and they’re still around today. Before he passed, Mustafa enlisted architect David Jones, a former European tour player from Banger, Ireland. James had already designed Turkeykey’s first regulation 18hole golf course in Bell. A fan of his work, Mustafa wanted a forward-thinking approach for the club’s new 9-hole course, now at its permanent home. The original Istanbul Golf Course in the city was also nine. Of course, we wanted 18. Uh, but you know, Mustapa um didn’t want to rent any land. So, this land was purchased. There was an opportunity to rent some land to extend it to 18, but uh he he didn’t want to rent anything, especially after what happened. Yeah. I mean, this is amazing. I mean, it looks like a par 36. Is it 35? 36. 36. 3600 yards. Yeah, you’re you’re good guesses. I’m known for my guessing. I’m known for my guessing. Well, but I mean it does seems like a standard championship nine, right? Like two fives, two threes. Exactly. Sick, man. There’s a mosque down there. Is that what that is? You don’t see that every day. Great little par three here. This is a par three about 150 m something like that. So add 10% and that’s the yards. Exactly. Yeah. 165. Exactly. Exactly. Any hole in ones? Not yet. Not yet. First hole in one. I mean there’s not even a lot of divots. No. No. This is the back tea though. See, not many not many guys play from back here. Really? Not. How many members? Approximately 500 members. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. Even when we didn’t have the golf course for 10 years, it stayed united and it helped also people to you know start golf to introduce golf to the society. So we’re of course we’re very small in terms of numbers but the influence of golf club in golf in Turkey is much wider than that is seen by the wider golf community which is now existent in Turkey as the father of everything in golf in Turkey. Oh yeah, I’m excited to play it. Got my pitch mark repair tool and ball marker that Nazam gave me. But I don’t have any clubs. Um, you know, in hindsight, I should have flown Turkish Airlines. But, uh, you both end up Thank you. Yes. But ended up, uh, flying another carrier who lost my clubs after they canceled my flight. Luckily, Andrew here has been kind enough to share. It’s about to have the first shot here in Turkey. This is a big deal. How many countries have you played golf in, Andrew? Uh, I’ve traveled to 94 and I think I’ve played golf in maybe I don’t know, 72, I think. Something like that. Wow. Quite a few. 94 countries is a lot. Yeah. Yeah. So, when you get to 94, you’re basically at half. What’s left? Like, where do you Maybe not the places that you are on your radar to visit, but you know, when you get there, there’s golf everywhere, isn’t there? Might be different, but it’s golf. Golf is golf. So, just right of the bunker there. Yeah. Yeah. It’s okay, right? Is there water over there? Yeah. I mean, I didn’t expect you to hit it that far. I’ given you the 3-wood. I didn’t think you were going to run out of fairway, but You think so? Close. Okay. Close. He’s just saying that. He’s just being a gentleman. You caught it more in the center. Thank you, sir. Hey, cutting. Yeah. So, what brings you to what brings you to the Sunbull Golf Club? You’re on business or pleasure to a little bit of both. We can just drop them if you want. Yeah, sure. Nice shot. Maybe. Go on. Great shot. Oh boy. Little thin. Thin as a winners. I lost my first ball and ever hit in Turkey. Was a one and done. Yeah, because of the caddy. Caddy C is misinformation. Yeah, this course is really nice. And you can see how when it’s prime season, it would just be paradise out here. So, we need another 6 weeks and the temperatures will will raise up and it’ll it’ll change completely. And here is also difficult because in Turkey we don’t have the green keeping staff and the team that understand golf. So we have we have a very good head green keeper here. Uh but all of his team have come from the village. They’re not even gardeners you know. So they’ve come in here. It’s a totally new industry. Yeah. So for them if it’s green it’s good. It makes it more difficult. It’s a more of a challenge but at the same time it’s also uh you know satisfying to get these guys now. Now they can cut grass, you know, where you can see it looks like a golf course, which of course it should look like a golf course, but when you have guys involved that they’ve never seen a golf course before, so for them it’s grass. It takes a village. Like quite literally, it takes a village in this case, but um you know, and then and just how golf is for many places in the world a tremendously foreign game. Definitely. I mean, you know, hitting a white ball into a hole. I mean, what you know, why why are people so passionate about that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is this uh is this Mustafa here? Exactly. Yeah. This was one of his good swings. Well, I was going to say, so this icon is Mustafa. It looks like he doesn’t quite have a full turn going. No, no, he uh No, he had a full turn. Uh he uh just didn’t get his hands up there, should we say? But he had an on plane back swing and he could hit the ball pretty good. Yeah, he played to around the best he got to was around six handicap. Okay, good. So he could he could he could go off the ball. assuming you got to spend a lot of time with him. Yeah, I mean um I I met Mustaper after being in IstAnul just a couple of weeks and uh and I had a good relationship with him because of because of golf and he was one of the only at that time one of the only Turkish guys that okay he played golf but he followed golf. He never used to waste a minute in a day. I mean he used to be in in the States on business. He would send me a message and say I’m landing at 5:00. I’ll see you at home at 6:00 cuz you had a Trackman simulator at home. Let’s play golf. Nice shot. And I’m thinking, well, you’re not jet-lagged. You’re not tired. Or, you know, I’m landing from here. I’ll see you at the golf club. Let’s play nine holes. He, you know, he he didn’t waste one minute. He passed away when he was I think 55 years old. So, he was young. But in 55 years, he lived like anybody with like 100. Really a great guy. A great guy and an inspirational guy for uh for life really. That’s beautiful. Yeah, I never heard the uh call to prayer on a golf course before. Not sure how many places in the world that would exist even. Istanbul is such a large city, right? Why aren’t there more golf courses and golf clubs? That’s a good question. I guess it’s because the land in Istanbul is too precious and there’s a hype of construction going on all around. It doesn’t seem to be a priority at the moment, but it’s growing. That was awesome. We have four golf courses in Istanbul and you know when golf came into the Olympics you know that that really helps something like Turkey not not in the states you have lots of golf courses but you know the Turkish uh people the Turkish you know government maybe golf’s not on their radar but when it comes into the Olympics everyone wants to host the Olympics and then all of a sudden it changes so their eyes open to golf so in the future I’m sure there’s going to be more golf courses The next morning, we head to the airport for a short trip to the southern Mediterranean coast. Our destination is Bellic, a town in the Antalya province that in the last 30 years has rapidly grown into a premier golf destination. Along with stunning beaches and luxury hotels, Bellic now has 16 courses, adding up to over 300 holes of golf. After finally connecting with our luggage, we grab our car and get ready to play as much golf as we can before returning to Istanbul. We have 15 miles of like rural kind of habitat. This is quiet. This is kind of the more peaceful pace of life in Turkey. It’s super cool. There you go. When you get a car to car wave, you know you’re in a small town. It’s great. I think a big thing about traveling is you got to have a choice over where you’re going in a micro way. You know what I mean? Whether it’s a bicycle, a moped, walking, rent a car, you know? And you got to be able to just choose your route in a moment, right? Like, oh, that looks cool. Take a left. Tourists want to see this, blah, blah, blah. But really, you don’t know what you want to see. That’s the whole point. That’s the whole point of having an adventure. You know, it’s that whole definition is that it’s not planned. Like, we weren’t even really planning to come here and then Andrew suggested we go to Bellic. Uh, which, you know, made a lot of sense given that it’s the Gulf Mecca. Yeah, I mean you better believe we are heading somewhere beautiful. That’s for sure. It’s 3:50 sunset in 4 hours. If we really press our luck, we’ve got like 12 hours. And so what are we going to do in those 12 hours? The real problem is how much golf there is. Yeah. I mean, the number I last I think heard you say was 16 courses, close to 300 holes. It’s like a all you can eat buffet here, but also out there. While we won’t have time to play at all, it’s immediately clear that the country’s investment in golf tourism is paying off. The lobby is bustling with golfers from before and after their latest round. And I can’t help but notice the diversity of players. I’m just curious, where are you guys from? Ireland. Ireland. Wait, you come from Ireland to play golf here? Yeah. Why is that? Um because also because cuz they’ve organized it. These guys are in from Ireland. Is this your first time visiting Turkey for golf? Yes. Would you come back? Yes. Why? It’s an amazing place. Look at the facilities here. It’s wonderful. A trip organized by this guy. How unique is what we have here in southern Turkey? Yeah. I’ve not seen anything like it in terms of, you know, that kind of one-stop shop feeling, right? And that’s what my guys like. That’s why they like coming here. Yeah. You know, it’s almost like the Mall of America. Well, every place is connected the to every place else. So, you could probably play golf from here right up to the end if you if you could cross the fences and cross a couple of roads. Golf in Bellic is never ending. The courses all border each other, creating what looks like from the sky, an infinite golf hole. Now that we’re talking about this, feels a lot like Las Vegas to me. I think so. I’ve never been to Las Vegas, but I kind of I could imagine been that same feel. It’s like Las Vegas except if all the courses were in one hole and all of the correct hotels were around it, but instead it’s like got the casino thing, type. Yeah. To be honest with you, this place is so sick. I haven’t even seen the golf and I’m already just like freaking out to play because I’m already completely sold. You know, it’s such a cool idea to just put everything together and make it easy. And what’s funny is like I guess it seems a bit elementary for me on some level because like it is kind of American in the sense that it’s like easy, it’s catered to you, but you know when you’re playing golf in Europe, it’s like such a different story. You know, it’s kind of uh more challenging. So, let’s go tee it up. It seems like every person I meet in Bellic is from a different country. Where are you guys from? Norway. You guys play a lot of golf in Norway? Turns out I’m actually conducting an accidental social experiment to find out who is coming to this country that isn’t high on the list for golf, if it’s on it at all. How many of them are you? Six. Okay, cool. Where are you visiting from? Germany. From Germany. Oh, okay. Cool. Just curious. Where are you from? Yeah. You’re from Turkey. Some are very good and some are very bad. That’s like the whole world. Yeah, you’re fine. You see, like me, I’m quite unserious. You’re a lefty, too. That’s interesting. Yeah, that makes it more complicated. Is it your first time? Yes, absolutely. What do you think so far? Uh, we still uh tried the driving place, so we still didn’t s the uh the place. Okay, cool. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we are playing. Tomorrow. So, you live here? How for how long? Yeah. Okay. But you are French? Yeah. And you’re Russian? Oh, really? We mostly play in uh in Spain in Gran Canaria. What brought you here to live here? I have been working in Turkey for 15 years as a golf instructor and I came here to retire simply because there are 18 golf courses here. There is the sea. There are 330 days of good weather a year here. But people have difficulty coming to Turkey because they think we are in a dictatorship. Say very cool. Madame is alive. Yeah. Amazing. So far we’ve got Norway, Ireland, England, uh, France, Russia, Germany, and now by way of Austin, Texas, the United States. Time for a few holes on the old course. This is all taking place. Alame Pochen, which means um next month actually, but that’s the only thing I don’t know how to say that much in French. That was a super cool interview. This is cool. It makes me feel like I’m um kind of better than I am. And it also kind of keeps you from hitting off the back tea box because you’re not going to hit from there. But we have a driver. Looks like this hole wants to fade. Man, this is so cool. I mean, it’s a beautiful golf course. One T-shot down. Uh, 295 more to go. I wonder how many people have actually played all the courses. But it’s a rare number. I bet it’s a rare few. Wow. 168 yards. No slouch over here. Not a bad putt. Second hole is a nice little par three with two beautiful swans on the green. I don’t I think it might be plural is actually just swan. Nice 20 ft for birdie. Bingo. I haven’t seen a feature like this um really I don’t think anywhere in the world. I mean I’ve seen things kind of like it but super interesting how they kind of created like internal rough around a hazard. I wonder if that was part of the original design or what it was. Anyway, we just just missed it. Man, I am loving golf in Turkey. Since I’m playing by myself, I’m not even sure if I’m on the same course that I started on. Oh. All right. A little par three over water here. Could be a signature hole. Kind of love that a lot of the holes here are very good. I mean, this is a great golf hole right here, right? Like 195 from the back te got this really unique horseshoe kind of green uh tea box that I’ve never seen. Never seen anything like this tea box. The the back te’s just have more water to cover. Let’s see if we can’t hit the green here. That felt right. I mean, on some level, you know, you’re you’re coming to Belellck not necessarily to play like an insane golf course, but it’s almost more of the quantity, right? You’re you’re getting a lot of very good golf. You’re getting very easy environment to travel around with your buddies, hang, eat, drink. You know, by and large, these aren’t like bucket list courses, but it’s sort of the concept of it overall is like a bucket list experience. You know, it’s kind of like the the the sum of its parts is greater than the individual. All right. So, we’re going to head out of here. Um, but you know, even though sun sets in about 20 minutes, the golf will live on because they got nightlights, baby. Dude, check this out. Dude, this is the home of the Rolex event, the DP World Tour, Turkish Airlines Open. So cool. Imagine if you had just a lit golf course at home. That was world class, you know, in Austin. This would be amazing. Yeah. Let’s go peek inside. Wo, this place is sick. This is like the Beth Page Pro Shop right here. This is massive. Kind of feel like this is like Christmas, you know? It’s like there’s just stuff everywhere. Like hats on hats on hats, shirts on shirts. These are fire. Sergio pants. Would you ever wear red? Who’s wearing red shorts? Dude, comment if you’re wearing red shorts and like send me some info on why. Talk me into it. That is incredible. Feel like I’m exiting the spacecraft. It’s so crazy how like it takes such a different shape at night. It’s so bright. Turkey is really proud of their golf and it shows. You know what I mean? Like this course is in great condition. They’ve invested like these lights are not cheap. Nice shot. He can make that pro birdie. Yeah, he’s stoked. Thanks for clapping. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s a good shot. You made it on the green. Yeah, it’s good. Where are you guys from? Holland. Holland. Oh, very cool. Add one more country to the list. What brought you here? Where can you golf? Good. Okay. This bale. Lots of golf courses of course in and around here. So, what are your thoughts of the the experience so far? Perfect. Love it. Yeah, it’s perfect with a flood license. Where can you see where can you do this? So, so you played the front nine with the sun up. Yeah. What was it like watching the sunset and the lights come on? Was it strange? It was a a strange experience. Yeah. Would you play at night again? Yeah, definitely. Cool. I will play any moment. Oh, he’s the golf pattern. That’s great. All right. Well, thanks for your time. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thank you. No denim, no tracksuits, no tennis clothing. Men’s shirts must have collar and sleeves. Shirts must be tailored. Ladies shirts worn without collars must have sleeves. That’s one of the strangest rules in golf. Is it a sleeve? Is it a collar? I mean, they’re not going to wear a tank top. That’s a big cut. It can’t stop feeling like Jurassic Park here. This is crazy. Try to cut a little nine around this tree. Little cut. Oh boy. Not bad. It’s one thing to play golf under the lights. Oh, but controlling them, that’s an entirely different story. So, you have on your phone the app that controls the lights to the whole golf course. Can I see it? Yeah, of course. Oh, wow. So, you can just turn the lights on on the second hole. Yeah, let’s see it. That is like a party trick. Can you turn them on and off very quickly? Can you go Can I do it? Which? Yeah, here. I do too. You ready? Watch. It’s okay. Oh, no. Uh, this one is We have a guest. Okay. Oh, okay. Okay. So, one is off. Okay. Oh, wait. I broke it. Oh god. I turned the Oh my god. Okay. Okay. Leave it. Leave it. Yeah. Oh no. I broke It’s like It’s like flickering. Oh god. If I broke the lights, you know, I broke a light in Dubai. Okay. Oh. Oh god. Yeah, I did tap it a bunch. I wanted to make it a strobe light. It’s interesting. This is good. I think it’s okay. We’re good. Okay. I’m sorry. No problem. Han. Um. All right. Let’s Let’s try to get a hold in one. You want to hit one with me? Hit a shot. Have you lived here your whole life? Yeah. In in Antalya? Yeah. Okay. I’m born in Antalya. Sorry. Okay. You’re born in Antalya. Yeah. Okay. Because you can really see the ball playing. It looks even more like a cut to me. Who comes here to play golf? Typically, it seems like all of Europe. All of Is that something that makes you proud? Yeah. I love getting up and up. All right, turn the lights off for for this one. Yeah, go ahead. Oh, wow. Now you can see the moon. So, this is the last call to prayer of the day. Yeah. Yeah. So, this is the last call to prayer of the day. So, I’m going to hit my last shot here. And uh I think I figured something else out. So, let’s see if I can get it to go straight. I want to play more now. You know, when you get one inside, you just feel a little little trappy in there. Oh, man. That was it. I just I got right here. I got right here before impact and I just pulled the chain, you know? I It’s like you can’t take you can’t take the love of golf anywhere outside of you because as soon as you hit a good shot, it is literally like the best thing ever. Yeah, I don’t know what’s better. With nowhere to go until morning, I decided to take advantage of the lights and ride this high for as long as I can. The next day, we’re back in the car, back to the airport, and back to Istanbul. So far, we’ve seen a private golf club with a deep history. We’ve also seen the resort side of golf geared towards tourists. But what about the average Turk looking to give the game of golf a try? For that, we’ve come to Atasir Golf Club, located within the towering highrises of Istanbul’s financial district. Atir boasts six beautiful holes open to beginners and professionals alike. Such a beautiful sport must be available to everyone. This is Junet Sapmas, captain and general manager of Atashir. He explains that when the course opened in 2017 as Turkeykey’s first inner city golf course, there was one prevailing goal. The main point of this club was to make sure everyone was able to get into this game of golf. Make sure we showed that everyone is able to actually come and play golf. It’s actually reachable, attainable. It’s not something otherworldly. Um, anyone can come in and play. Is more public. It doesn’t have a lifetime entrance fee or anything. It’s just you pay and play because it’s on land. uh rented from the municipality. So it’s actually public land. It’s not a private land. That’s right. In some ways, this is a mun take this sport to a new level. We support this sport because we think that it’s much more beneficial for how kids grow up. So we want to support it as much as we can. A lot of young people and children started playing golf because Atachia revolt. It’s in the middle of the city, easily reachable. So I think it has added value to golf sport in a stumbles and it’s already working. After just 8 years, the club already has four members playing on the national team. And as the course continues to change and adapt, they expect that number to grow. Four indoor hitting bays. Was this part of the whole like idea about Tashir? Originally this was a big gymnasium and they had one place everybody wanted it and then they changed the gym into four track. Very cool. So their target is to build 10 of these. Oh really? Man that’s cool. It’s probably very popular in the winter. Yeah. Winter is the the benefit of having access to this course and these facilities is something Janate can attest to personally. So his daughter started golfing here. She’s 16. Look at this driver swing. How far? How many meters? Catch Metro. 255. 255. Yeah. M. She’ll be on le or LPGA. I mean, pro of the JWT. Yeah, that’s sick, man. That’s so cool. Janate is beaming with pride, which continues as we make our way out to play this sixhole golf course made up of five par 3es and one par4 spanning almost 750 yards. It’s like 200 m, 195 headwind. It seems like it’s a par three. Par four. Par four. Okay, that’s a nice ball. Nice shot. Ninewood. I want to hit the ninewood. I said I want to hit the ninewood. Go ahead. After you. After you. Am I being play? I’m going to call your daughter and she’s going to give you lessons. So, we got a ping 9wood 23 and 1/2° 425. I’m excited. Nice one. It’s nice. It just goes straight to the moon. Look nice. See what you got. Yep. That’s skyhigh. It’s taller than the buildings. Got it. Okay. Is this out of bounds? Technically, yes. Really? Yep. I mean, it’s a straight hole, so we got to keep it interesting somehow. Yeah. So, I need to go back to the tea. Technically, yes. Yeah. But you can play from here. You don’t mind if I play it just for fun? Thanks, brother. Gazelle. Nice one. Nice. Very cool. What happens if you get a hole in one in Turkey? Your drinks are on you. Champagne is the is the Yeah. Okay. I love it. So, this apparently is the junior driving range. I’ve never seen anything like this. Everyone goes inside. You know how they extracurriculars at school? Yeah. Um those kids who pick golf, they come here and then Ataser also sponsors some schools to you know teach kids who may not have the opportunity to play golf and they bring them here and they teach them golf. Wow. It makes sense. Chip here into the nets and they don’t even need like a a launch monitor or it’s just it’s sort of like just learning to swing. Exactly. Like an introduction to golf. Yeah. Oh, and there’s a range servant. Yep. That is so cool. Oh, and then there’s a putting green in the middle. Who designed this? Actually, uh, I’m not too sure. I know who built it. Oh, and then look at this. So, this is like some type of art studio. Like, it’s got a clay pottery spinning wheels. It’s like to totally a pottery studio in the middle of a golf course. This is what I’m talking about, man. You know, it’s like this is my favorite thing. When you go to a place where there is no stock standard for golf, you can get creative. You know what I mean? I I love that. Like the idea that there’s like an inverse circle hitting bay with nets and a pottery studio within a golf course that’s probably I mean this looks to be about the size of Butler, maybe even a little smaller. I can’t really tell cuz the you know relative size of the buildings and stuff, but like I mean look at this par three. This is like abs. This is like some Peter Haye. Like this could be a Pebble Beach Golf Hole, you know what I mean? And then you got like just all these great houses have something to look at. It’s like all this green space. I don’t know, man. Cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms, man. Yeah. This is just, you know, if you don’t if you don’t have like a rule book, golf can kind of be whatever you want it to be, you know? No time. These are These are quick. Yeah, you got to play it, man. Can you do it? Can you get it in there? Almost. That would have been sick. And by the way, the balls on you to chip on the green in front of the captain. It’s okay. He chose. If you’re in a stumble, you should definitely come here and rent clothes and play golf. I’m not sure we’re at the point now of coming here to play golf unless you’re going to Belle, but yeah. No, you should absolutely come here and say hi. You know, you don’t need to go on a golf trip to experience golf in a place. And I think that’s kind of where we’re at here. All right. What’s the T-shot here? Two 145 m hurting from the right. 145 m 160 yards. Nice ball. It’s okay. Maybe in the bunker. Okay. Good. This has been such a great day, man. Thank you for No, thank you. You know, introducing us to, you know, golf in Turkey from your lens. Yeah. Good. I’m glad you enjoyed translating. I’m glad you made it out here and I’m glad that you enjoyed today. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously, it’s been super memorable. Good girl. Thank you. That was a good round. Thank you. That was fun. And this is your putter. Thank you. It’s a nice putter. As we wrap up our time here in Turkey, I think about what it means to create something new in a place as old as this one. I think about Istanbul Golf Club, constantly moving just to stay alive. I think about how impossible Bell would have seemed just a few decades ago. I think about atir golf club just six holes inside a city of 16 million. All of these stories are examples of how anything is possible.

Golf in the coastal Turkey town of Belek is like a never ending all-you-can-play buffet. Erik Anders Lang takes on an overwhelming amount of courses on the latest episode of Adventures in Golf.

The intersection of golf and culture.

Behind every drained putt or hosel rocket into the stands is a human being with complex emotions—among them, an insatiable appetite for golf. That’s what we’re after. Golf’s humanity is what makes it so special to us. There have never been more reasons to love this game, and we’re endeavoring to explore them all.

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