World Golf Cup: How Turkish Airlines brought global players together in the Turkish Riviera

The Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup took place from Dec. 3-8 in Antalya, Türkiye. | Jack Milko/Playing Through

The 2023 Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup was a smashing success, as amateur players from around the world descended upon Turkey to compete.

Turkish Airlines, the sponsor of the World Golf Cup, paid for travel to this event for Playing Through.

Golf is a global game played in every corner of the planet.

Anyone can play, regardless of race, gender, age, religion, or socioeconomic background, making it a unifying force for good in a world marred by disaster and tension.

Plus, the professional game on the men’s side is in disarray, thanks to the ongoing negotiations between the PGA Tour and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). Nevertheless, it was refreshing to see the impact golf still has at the amateur level, which was on full display last week at the Gloria Golf Club in Antalya, Türkiye.

The 2023 Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup — Amateur Series

Turkish Airlines hosted its World Golf Cup Amateur Series finals, featuring over 75 players from over 50 countries. Since Turkish Airlines flies to more destinations than any other carrier, the global reach of this event was quite impressive.

Jack Milko/Playing Through
All of the competitors who played in the 2023 Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup.

Players from Australia, Pakistan, Eastern Europe, South Africa, Mexico, and even three golfers from Miami, Atlanta, and Los Angeles spent the week in Türkiye vying for the title.

But how they got to Southern Türkiye is interesting in and of itself. The airline staged 80 events around the globe between March and November this year. From those 80 regional events, the winners earned a trip to Antalya, where Gloria Golf Club awaited them.

For those unfamiliar with the Southern coast of Türikye, this region along the Mediterranean Sea is known as the “Turkish Riviera.”

“Antalya in Türkiye is a golfer’s paradise with over 300 days of sunshine [each year], 11 golf clubs, and 324 holes of golf, all within a 15-kilometer radius,” said Cemil Kerimoglu, a Communications Specialist for Turkish Airlines, in an exclusive interview with Playing Through.

“The area attracts over 120,000 golfers every year, which makes it the third biggest golfing destination in Europe.”

Turkish Airlines flew each winner to Antalya in its Business Class cabin, voted the best in Europe. Players flew from their home countries to Istanbul, which now has one of the largest airports in the world. From there, players hopped on an hour-long flight to Antalya, where a great week of golf awaited them.

The airline also invited Playing Through to cover this event, which was an amazing experience.

“Players that join our regional events are invited by our regional directorates and consist of business people from all sectors that both love golf and travel,” Kerimoglu explained.

Jack Milko/Playing Through
The first tee on the New Course at Gloria Golf Club.

“Players that join our events have a maximum handicap index of 24.0, and we play a Stableford tournament. Awards are presented at each event to men and ladies for nearest the pin, the best gross award, and we also present trophies to our third and second [place] winners [in the low-net handicap].”

The tournament was held on The Old Course and The New Course at Gloria Golf Club. Competitors got to play two practice rounds—one on each course—on Monday and Tuesday. Then, Wednesday and Thursday brought about the competitive rounds.

The amateur players who competed in this event felt like professionals in every sense of the word. They got to fly in luxury, eat delicious meals that included delicious Turkish delicacies, experience incredible accommodations, play practice rounds, and compete on two world-renowned golf courses, which have hosted dozens of professional competitions.

Funny enough, John Daly has the course record on The Old Course with a 9-under 63. The two-time major champion accomplished this feat in 2014 en route to his victory at the Beko Classic. Daly typically spends a few weeks in Antalya each year, as it is one of his favorite vacation spots anywhere in the world.

Other guests that have competed on these two courses include Tiger Woods, Greg Norman, and former Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance.

Jack Milko/Playing Through
John Daly’s scorecard from Dec. 5, 2014, when he set the course record on Gloria Golf Club’s Old Course.

The Competition Itself

Although course records were not broken at the 2023 Turkish Airlines World Cup of Golf, many players carded solid scores.

After play was suspended on Wednesday due to thunder and lightning, the field had one opportunity to shoot their best scores on The New Course on Thursday.

Peter McKeever of Dublin, Ireland, made the most of it, carding a 3-over 75 to earn the low gross award. He birdied the par-3 17th, an island green, and then made an eagle on the par-5 18th, which has water down the left side. Talk about finishing strong.

A scratch golfer, McKeever made things look easy, as he took home a nice trophy and earned 100,000 miles with the airline thanks to his superb play.

As for the handicapped Stableford competition, Ghislain Sahali of Zagreb, Croatia, took home the title with an impressive 47 points. He earned 300,000 miles with the airline for his fantastic play and brought home a beautiful trophy.

The Stableford competition works like this: for every hole a player makes a net par, they earn two points. A net birdie earns three points. Should they make a net eagle, they would receive four points. It is all predicated on handicap, so if a player happens to be an 18-handicap, they receive a stroke on every hole.

In this scenario, if this player made par on any hole, they would receive three points because their par becomes a net birdie with the granted stroke.

Handicapped Stableford has grown in popularity recently, as its points system maintains a high level of competitive equity. It allows a middle-handicapped player to compete with a scratch golfer and vice versa.

Despite this different format, a stark departure from the formats employed on the PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf, this tournament featured plenty of elements that made these amateurs feel like professionals on the course.

Take the Trackman experience that Gloria Golf Club offers.

The club has an incredible practice facility, which features dozens of hitting bays on its driving range, all equipped with Trackman technology. So, for every shot players hit when warming up, Trackman provides data on each one of their ball flights. Total distance, carry, spin rates, club-head speed, and ball speed are just some of the metrics Trackman makes available.

But the tournament employed Trackman technology, too.

On the 10th hole at the New Course, a short par-4, players got to tee it up and see how well their drives fared. This was also where the Longest Drive Competition took place.

The long-drive winner happened to be a competitor from Cape Town, South Africa, with a tee shot of 279 meters, or 305 yards.

Turkish Airlines’ Historic Relationship with Golf

The Turkish Airlines World Cup of Golf Amateur Series dates back to 2013, but this competition has been on hiatus for the last three years thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interestingly, before the pandemic, the Amateur Series correlated with the Turkish Airlines Open, a DP World Tour event staged in the fall. The Turkish Airlines Open also began in 2013, featuring many top players on the DP World Tour.

Victor Dubuisson won the inaugural event, and Brooks Koepka took home the Turkish Airlines Open trophy in 2014. Other past champions include Justin Rose and Tyrrell Hatton, who won the last iteration of this tournament in 2019.

Before this DP World Tour event, Turkish Airlines sponsored the Turkish Airlines Challenge from 2009 to 2012, an event on the European Challenge Tour, which is equivalent to the Korn Ferry Tour in the United States.

The first few years of the Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup saw winners play alongside Tiger Woods, Henrik Stenson, Martin Kaymer and Rory McIlroy in the Pro-Am of the DPWT event that week.

Photo by Mustafa Ciftci/Getty Images
Brooks Koepka poses with the trophy after winning the 2014 Turkish Airlines Open.

That all changed with COVID-19, as the DP World Tour has not returned to Türkiye since. But that does not mean Turkish Airlines abandoned the game altogether.

Instead, they revamped the Amateur Series, which was a great success.

“We want to bring people together. Over the years, we have supported golf at amateur and professional levels, and we are proud to have supported and continue to support national amateur teams and professional tours,” Kerimoglu added.

Turkish Airlines supports and sponsors the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, CA, the Friends of Golf charity event hosted at Bel Air Country Club in Los Angeles CA, among others. But it’s their tournament hosted at home that brings the globe together.

“The Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup is a perfect platform for business networking while enjoying a game we love. It has now become the widest-reaching corporate amateur tournament in the world.”

Eight thousand players vied for an opportunity to make the finals in Antalya, an impressive number that dwarfs most corporate outings.

But what was most impressive about this weeklong event was how it brought together so many different people, all of whom loved the game of golf.

I had the opportunity to play a practice round myself, and I played with three gentlemen from Pakistan, Pakistan, and Germany.

Frankly, it was one of the most enjoyable rounds I have ever had, not because of the score I shot but because of the company I was with. We had so many laughs, over good shots and bad. We shared insights about the game with each other. But best of all, we bonded and became friends.

I also met people from Vienna, Austria, Cape Town, South Africa, Melbourne, Australia, and plenty of other places from around the world.

And yet, this explains the success of the 2023 Turkish Airlines World Golf Cup in a nutshell: golf is a uniting force for good, especially for such a diverse population that is the human race. We all look different, talk differently, and think differently. But golf knows no boundaries, no religion, and holds no political beliefs—and in a world as divided as we are today, golf can be used as a shining light for the greater good.

In a place known as the Turkish Riviera, where the sun almost always shines, golf shined the brightest.

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko for more golf coverage. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough too.