Area guide: Cape Kaliakra, Bulgaria
BlackSeaRama Golf & Villas Resort
Another Gary Player design with Thracian Cliffs-esque thrills as well as a better technical test
Gary Player has designed two of the three courses in Cape Kaliakra yet because Thracian Cliffs was such an inevitably dramatic project, his work at BlackSeaRama has not received anything like as widespread exposure.
Yet some believe BlackSeaRama might be the best course in the area. Certainly, it sits on a more flexible site and there are less super-quirky holes as a result, yet still enough drama and visual kicks to get the juices flowing.
“BlackSeaRama offers the very best of Gary Player’s style,“ said double major champion Angel Cabrera after playing it in 2010.
Named ‘Best new golf course in the world’ in 2009, it is located in the middle of the resorts, with Lighthouse on one side and Thracian on the other and as is a constant theme of the trip, you drink in idyllic views of the eponymous water from its idyllic clifftop setting.
Its 18 holes stretch over a mammoth 7,300 yards of the coastline and while the length may be intimidating, forward tees and wide fairways make it very playable for high handicappers. But if you want to open your shoulders and let rip from all the elevated back tees, you won’t be disappointed.
As is the case with all three of the courses here, the wind plays a significant factor given the lofty location, especially when you are on the edge of the bluffs.
Then, when the course filters inland, water hazards – notably on the quartet of holes from the 5th – maintain the aesthetic appeal as well as the challenge.
Another lake appears on the 16th to make it a real card-wrecker and it is followed by a strong 17th (complete with infinity green) and a fabulous short 18th over the cliffs.
So, while BlackSeaRama perhaps lacks the consistently jaw-dropping appeal of Thracian Cliffs, it’s greater technical merit allied to still-impressive scenic allure mean it is a challenger for the title of a Top 100 course in Continental Europe.
Cape Kaliakra travel guide continues on the next page…
Chris Bertram
Chris Bertram is a specialist in all things golf courses.
He was born and brought up in Dumfriesshire and has been a sports journalist since 1996, initially as a junior writer with National Club Golfer magazine.
Chris then spent four years writing about football and rugby union for the Press Association but returned to be Editor and then Publisher of NCG.
He has been freelance since 2010 and spends the majority of his time playing golf and writing about the world’s finest golf courses.
