Secret Valley Golf Course — Local services in Kouklia

Coming last weekend from overseas as guests both to Secret Valley and Minthis Hills, expectation was high as we drove along some of the beautiful fairways viewed from the road.

The pro-shop looked well equipped. Paying for our rounds followed by a comment about my sleeve shirt, not having a collar (for a woman) was pretty poor.

As a tourist I was relying on Wifi connections for most of my travels in Cyprus, hence thought to ask for the Wifi password to their network. The two ladies sitting at the pro-shop desk seemed like they should know. Waiting for a chance to ask, as if disturbing the two ladies busy doing paper work, a frowned lady with a British accent gave me a “no” for an answer, “for that you have to go upstairs and ask at the restaurant.” Walking upstairs quite upset about the lack of customer service skills to what seems like a no brainer request, I walked upstairs to the bar and was greeted with smiles by 2 local barristers and a lovely smiling lady in charge of the bar/seating area. They said sure, that it was the most common question they get asked, and quickly handed me a piece of paper with the password written on it, complemented by another smile.

Having such a beautiful facility, highly invested and manicured catering to groups of golf tourists mainly (at least on the day I was there), seemed to be tainted with poor customer service skills I expect from someone sitting behind the pro-shop service desk. Saved in part only by a simple smile and warm hospitality provided by the local Cypriots who happen to have this trait naturally where ever you go in Cyprus.

If you are looking for a great course with spectacular mountain views from some fairways as well as the club house. In addition, polite staff with top notch service skills to accompany it, go play at Minthis Hills...

Just returned from a golfing trip to Cyprus with the lads - all of us agreed that this is the weakest of the 4 courses in the Paphos area. It's hard to judge the course in isolation - because the other 3 in the area are so close and I would guess most golfers who go to Cyprus will look to play all 4 (if not a smaller selection).

However, the course is in the worst condition of the 4 - it is quite scruffy and unkempt. The driving range is OK, but the balls have seen better days. The buggies have no GPS and are pretty shabby looking - unbelievably there are no on course water provisions (with that heat) - the only options are vending machines (from the 90s!) dotted around the course which need coins to operate. We were also told that the half way house had a BBQ/refreshments, so we looked forward to that only to find some miserable guy on his phone walking around in a circle, with no BBQ firing and again, you could only pay for refreshments with cash.

There aren't many stand out holes, the 1st is a very gentle opening par 4, but it's after the par 3 4th that the course starts down the route of it's quirky reputation. We didn't find it as narrow as people claim, but it is tricky and there are a few too many shots where you're wondering where you're playing to.

The clubhouse has a nice terrace over looking 18, but we felt that this course might get left behind by the others in the area if there isn't a bit of investment into the on course facilities and the provisions on the course, as it stands out like a sore thumb compared to the on course facilities on the 3...

This place has a lot of potential if being taken care of properly, but slow play, poor customer service and Really poor conditions made it a quite frustrating and also sad experience. So first of all there was a lot of waiting time, every time you would arrive at a hole someone else would leave the tee which made our round take approx 5 hours or there about, also when the Marshall arrived we told him that there was a guy that skipped a hole causing queue which we said, Marshall said ok and on the next tea I saw the guy that skipped the hole with the caddymaster playing together creating more waiting time, also the caddy master gave me regular stiffed clubs both times I asked for stiff at which point I just gave up.

The course wasn’t something that was doing well either, teeboxes where pretty dry, there was a lot of divots in the fairway, but the greens were worst. They were unputtable almost, a lot of pitch marks caused an uneven roll on most greens which would make putts jump out of Line, also there was alot of sand on Greens and they were just aerated.

Lastly staff in the Proshop didnt seem to be really friendly or helpful, they obviously had a busy day but it would’ve been nice to have gotten a heads up of where first tee was located, especially for the price we paid to play.

But honestly nice design and nice course just a shame that it is being...