Belek · Course guide
Carya Golf Club
A Peter Thomson heathland course laid through the pines, and, as the club puts it, the only course in Europe where all eighteen holes are lit.
The thing no other Belek course can say
Eighteen holes, after dark, in December.
Belek in winter gets dark by about half five. For a society that lands at Antalya in the afternoon, that usually writes off day one. Carya is the exception: the whole course is floodlit, not just a practice area.
From the air
ALL 18
From the tee
NIGHT
Night golf
All eighteen holes are floodlit.
Floodlit months, hours and prices are set by the club, so we confirm them before we offer a twilight tee time. If night golf is the reason you are choosing Carya, say so in your enquiry and we will confirm it before you pay a deposit.
The scorecard
Par seventy-two, and the card finally arrived.
Eighteen holes, par, stroke index and four sets of tees.
| Hole | Par | SI | Black | White | Yellow | Red |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | 14 | 391 | 370 | 348 | 305 |
| 2 | 3 | 16 | 209 | 181 | 161 | 112 |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 416 | 387 | 349 | 303 |
| 4 | 4 | 6 | 368 | 349 | 332 | 280 |
| 5 | 4 | 4 | 364 | 337 | 325 | 279 |
| 6 | 3 | 10 | 177 | 150 | 134 | 85 |
| 7 | 5 | 8 | 553 | 465 | 442 | 412 |
| 8 | 3 | 18 | 172 | 156 | 135 | 119 |
| 9 | 4 | 12 | 383 | 362 | 342 | 289 |
| Out | 34 | — | 3,033 | 2,757 | 2,568 | 2,184 |
| 10 | 5 | 3 | 496 | 475 | 462 | 394 |
| 11 | 4 | 1 | 343 | 334 | 315 | 273 |
| 12 | 5 | 13 | 498 | 475 | 463 | 386 |
| 13 | 4 | 9 | 373 | 353 | 328 | 280 |
| 14 | 3 | 17 | 157 | 142 | 127 | 109 |
| 15 | 5 | 11 | 494 | 460 | 445 | 374 |
| 16 | 4 | 15 | 395 | 385 | 333 | 260 |
| 17 | 4 | 7 | 406 | 378 | 366 | 297 |
| 18 | 4 | 5 | 410 | 390 | 343 | 305 |
| In | 38 | — | 3,572 | 3,392 | 3,182 | 2,678 |
| Total | 72 | — | 6,605 | 6,149 | 5,750 | 4,862 |
Reading the card
Black is 6,605 m and Red is 4,862 m: a spread of over 1,700 metres, which is wide even by Belek standards. Stroke index 1 is the eleventh, a short par four; the trouble here is not length. For a mixed society, Yellow at 5,750 m is the tee that keeps a four-ball inside four hours.
Peter Thomson, 2008
Heathland, on the Mediterranean, which should not really work.
Thomson won The Open five times and his firm, Thomson Perrett & Lobb, built Carya as a heathland course, the sandy, gorse-and-heather style you associate with Surrey and Berkshire, not with Antalya. It is the only one of its kind on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast. In practice that means firm ground, exposed sand and a lot of decisions off the tee.
| Designer | Peter Thomson · Thomson Perrett & Lobb |
| Opened | 10 November 2008 |
| Total area | 760,000 m² |
| Grassed area | 420,000 m² |
| Tees per hole | 4 |
| Fairways | Bermuda 419 |
| Greens | Tiff Eagle · approx. 600 m² each |
| Bunkers | 84 · white quartz sand |
| Lakes | 4 |
| Shoes | Soft spikes only |
| Handicap limit | Men 36 · Women 36 |
Before the first tee
A putting green the length of a football pitch.
Carya’s practice ground is the most thoroughly documented of any club in Belek, and the numbers are not ordinary. The largest of its four putting greens is 4,100 m² and 165 metres long. The range is double-ended with fifty-two bays. For a society that wants a warm-up morning, or a clinic before a three-day matchplay, this is the ground to do it on.
| Driving range | Double-ended · 52 bays |
| Range detail | 2 private studios · 12 covered · 20 open mat bays · grass tee |
| Academy hitting area | 300 m long × 60 m wide |
| Putting greens | 4 · largest 4,100 m² (165 m long) |
| Chipping greens | 4 · capacity 50 |
| Pitching greens | 4 |
| Target greens | 7 |
| Practice bunkers | 4 · plus 1 fairway bunker |
| Technology | TaylorMade Performance Lab · TrackMan · TPI |
| Tuition languages | English · Turkish · Russian · German |
Performance studio
INDOOR
Range at dusk
52 BAYS
The big green
That green measures 4,100 m², which is impressive enough on its own.
What a society needs to know
Thirty-six for men and thirty-six for women, the safe end of Belek.
Handicap limits are where Belek trips societies up. Kaya Palazzo asks men for 28. Sueno tightens to 28 in peak weeks. Carya asks 36 of everybody, and does not change it by season in anything we have been shown. If your party has a spread of abilities, that matters more than the course ranking does.
| Club | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Cullinan Links | 36 | 44 |
| Gloria (all three) | 36 | 40 |
| Carya | 36 | 36 |
| National | 36 | 36 |
| Sueno | 36 → 28 peak | 36 → 28 peak |
| Kaya Palazzo | 28 | 36 |
| Buggies | 70 |
| Rental sets | 120 · TaylorMade SIM Max, Stealth, M6 |
| Pro shop | 350 m² |
| Shoes | Soft spikes only |
| Address | Kadriye, Taşlıburun Mevkii, Belek |
National, the sister course
Carya and National are sold together. They do not play alike.
Regnum’s hotels offer both clubs to their guests, and that is where the similarity stops. National opened in 1994 and is the oldest course in Belek: a million square metres of pine forest, seven lakes, forty bunkers. Carya opened in 2008 with eighty-four bunkers and floodlights on every hole. A week that plays both has real variety in it.
Carya
2008
| Bunkers | 84 |
| Lakes | 4 |
| Floodlit | All 18 |
National
1994
Read the National Golf Club guide
| Bunkers | 40 |
| Lakes | 7 |
| Floodlit | Last 4 |
Read the National Golf Club guide
Get a quote
Planning a society trip around Carya?
Tell us your dates, group size, how many rounds and the highest handicap in the party. We come back with an itemised quote, and if night golf is part of what you want, we confirm it with the club before we send it.
Start an enquiry