David Feherty should have been a golf travel writer. Who can forget his first impressions of Augusta National when making his US Masters debut in 1992: "The course is like a Salvador Dali painting. You half expect a clock to fall out of a tree," quipped the genial Irishman, who soon quit the tour to pursue a range of golf activities, from US TV commentary to golf course architecture.

Still, judging by his own impressive layout at another National - this time The National GC, in Belek, on the self-styled Turkish Riviera, Feherty's talents have not been wasted.

"Woburn with sunshine" was the official Feherty soundbyte on this occasion, describing his 1996 labour of love which, barely months later, gained an immediate seal of approval from European Seniors contesting the first international pro tournament ever held in Turkey.

But the National has much more to offer with its gathering, sculpted fairways among the trees, giving way to signature features like the par-3 island 2nd hole, seemingly floating in one of the four lakes that come into play.

But these modern features are always incorporated tastefully, and the overall effect is of an established championship course of pure class. But, for a resort course, this is no pushover. From the back tees the single-figure men will need to thread their drives through to narrow landing areas, while even the hackers can't avoid a series of approach shots to greens sited in gloriously wooded bottlenecks.