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Greece, Cyprus - Golf on the Island of Love
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FACTS ABOUT CYPRUS
Government: republic
Area: 9,251 km2 (since the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974, the island is split into a Greek Cypriot part in the south and a Turkish Cypriot part in the north. The Turkish Cypriot part comprises just over one third of the country’s area.)
Capital: Nicosia
Population: about 778,000
Main export products: chemicals, pharmaceuticals, garments, citrus fruits, potatoes
Currency: Cypriot pound
Time difference: + 1 hour.
Tip: If you like to dive Cyprus offers absolutely crystal clear water! Here you can swim among colorful fish, exquisite rock formations and sunken ships in a sea which is also relatively calm.
Greece, Cyprus
Near the Greek city of Paphos on the west side of Cyprus you find an absence of tourists, calm rounds of golf and long walks along the beach. Today there are nine golf courses where a handful of them are situated like a pearl necklace around the city of Paphos.
The monk Barnabas, 75 years old with a ponytail, may be the Cypriot who is happiest that the country has made a big investment in golf tourism. This theory is presented over a beer in the clubhouse at Minthis Hills Golf Club, formerly Tsada Golf Club, the first of Cyprus' three golf courses, and requires of course an explanation.
On the small island the clergy is allowed to marry and have children and do other things that the clergy in some other countries can’t even think about - and if they despite this do, they should apologize as soon as possible. Therefore, it is fortunate that Barnabas, the monk, lives on Cyprus.
Anyway, there he was cultivating fruits until one day a golf course designer named Donald Steel and an army of diggers turned up.
The monastery in the middle of nowhere was thus suddenly in the middle of an 18-hole golf course. That was in 1994 and the monk has probably been laughing ever since. Shots towards the greens of holes two and six end up from time to time in the monk's flower beds, and players on their way to the seventh tee cross his yard. Where he used to stare at growing olives, he now sees tall, short, thin, fat, ugly and beautiful golfers all day. Cyprus is investing in golf.
Today there are nine golf courses on the island, six of which offer 18 holes. Minthis Hills Golf Club, Secret Valley Golf Club and Aphrodite Hills Golf are some of the island’s first golf courses, all near the town of Paphos on the west side, approximately 1.5 hours drive from Larnaca airport where most tourists land.
We begin with Aphrodite Hills. If you’re only going to play one course on Cyprus it’s, with all due deference to the monk at Minthis Hills, this one. Spectacular, beautiful, well-kept and very American in layout with large greens and dazzling white sand bunkers. For golf travelers it is completely in the same class as any good course in Florida or Portugal.
The eighteen hole course opened as late as 2 November 2002 and is wonderfully situated on two plateaus with a ravine between them overlooking the Mediterranean Sea 300 metres below. The two opening holes are on one side of the ravine, the clubhouse side, but the third tee is on the other side.
It’s a 950 metre ride – of course, a golf cart is included in the green fee - down and up to reach the other side of the ravine, that alone a small adventure, but nothing compared to the adventure when, a few holes later, you go back over the ravine to the clubhouse side again. When you leave the sixth green a steep serpentine road awaits you that winds down to the seventh tee. From there it is important to hit the ball over the ravine, 130 metre-carry, before it's time to test how much the golf cart can manage on the serpentine road up to the green on the other side.
It is, in short, spectacular.
What about the monk at Minthis Hills? Does he play golf?
“No, no, no. I just look,” he laughs.
Although as we drive away he discovers a dead mouse in the yard. In the rearview mirror we see how he goes over to it and with his walking stick and chips the poor mouse four metres up on the grass.
Obvious talent.
Text: Ola Liljedahl
On the small island the clergy is allowed to marry and have children and do other things that the clergy in some other countries can’t even think about - and if they despite this do, they should apologize as soon as possible. Therefore, it is fortunate that Barnabas, the monk, lives on Cyprus.
Anyway, there he was cultivating fruits until one day a golf course designer named Donald Steel and an army of diggers turned up.
The monastery in the middle of nowhere was thus suddenly in the middle of an 18-hole golf course. That was in 1994 and the monk has probably been laughing ever since. Shots towards the greens of holes two and six end up from time to time in the monk's flower beds, and players on their way to the seventh tee cross his yard. Where he used to stare at growing olives, he now sees tall, short, thin, fat, ugly and beautiful golfers all day. Cyprus is investing in golf.
Today there are nine golf courses on the island, six of which offer 18 holes. Minthis Hills Golf Club, Secret Valley Golf Club and Aphrodite Hills Golf are some of the island’s first golf courses, all near the town of Paphos on the west side, approximately 1.5 hours drive from Larnaca airport where most tourists land.
We begin with Aphrodite Hills. If you’re only going to play one course on Cyprus it’s, with all due deference to the monk at Minthis Hills, this one. Spectacular, beautiful, well-kept and very American in layout with large greens and dazzling white sand bunkers. For golf travelers it is completely in the same class as any good course in Florida or Portugal.
The eighteen hole course opened as late as 2 November 2002 and is wonderfully situated on two plateaus with a ravine between them overlooking the Mediterranean Sea 300 metres below. The two opening holes are on one side of the ravine, the clubhouse side, but the third tee is on the other side.
It’s a 950 metre ride – of course, a golf cart is included in the green fee - down and up to reach the other side of the ravine, that alone a small adventure, but nothing compared to the adventure when, a few holes later, you go back over the ravine to the clubhouse side again. When you leave the sixth green a steep serpentine road awaits you that winds down to the seventh tee. From there it is important to hit the ball over the ravine, 130 metre-carry, before it's time to test how much the golf cart can manage on the serpentine road up to the green on the other side.
It is, in short, spectacular.
What about the monk at Minthis Hills? Does he play golf?
“No, no, no. I just look,” he laughs.
Although as we drive away he discovers a dead mouse in the yard. In the rearview mirror we see how he goes over to it and with his walking stick and chips the poor mouse four metres up on the grass.
Obvious talent.
Text: Ola Liljedahl
Photo: Ulf Berglund
Aphrodite Hills Golf
18 holes – 6,232 metres
Handicap requirements: Men 28, women 36.
Green fees: from EUR 113, depending on the season (including golf cart), junior rates and different packages available.
Phone: 00 357 25 316 560
Web: www.aphroditehills.com
Minthis Hills Golf Club
(formerly Tsada Golf Club)
18 holes – 5,963 metres
Handicap requirements: Men 28, women 36.
Green fees: from EUR 52, depending on the season. Junior rates and different packages available.
Phone: 00 357 26 642 774
Web: www.cyprusgolf.com
Secret Valley Golf Club
18 holes – 6,086 metres
Handicap Requirements: Men 28, women 36
Green fees: from EUR 52, depending on the season. Junior rates and different packages available.
Phone: 00 357 26 642 774
Web: www.cyprusgolf.com