In 2014 Bulgaria is hosting, for the fifth time, series from the Mtel Golf Masters tournament. Two qualification and one team tournament will take place from their start at the end of April until the finals in September. A European amateur championship is organized by the European Golf Association, jointly with the Bulgarian association, that will take place in Pravets in June. The 2014 tournament calendar of golf courses, members of the Bulgarian Golf Association, shows that in the little time it has been practiced in Bulgaria, this sport has made considerable progress.

The first golf course in the country was built in 2000 and the Bulgarian Golf Association was set up in 2001. The number of golf courses in Bulgaria can still be counted on the fingers of one hand, yet experts say that within just a few years there will be dozens. In the brief time since this sport has been practiced in the country, golf has been integrated into the system of sports education. The National Sports Academy holds golf courses and has training grounds that have even been the subject of dissertations.

Yet golf in Bulgaria is still in its early phase, as is the tourism segment connected with it; it accounts for just over 0.1 percent of the country’s product as a tourist destination. However, in view of the fact it has been in existence only briefly, this is not a bad result at all – the tourist product percentage is almost equal to that of hunting tourism which has been promoted since the times of socialism.

Experts say it is not just the country’s natural assets that have contributed to the development of golf, but its membership of the EU as well, something that makes Bulgaria a stable and predictable destination. There is a marked potential for the development of this sport and the tourism that is connected with it, but for this potential to be realized, there are problems that have to be addressed and one of them is the shortage of sponsors. At the opening of the Mtel Golf Masters series this year, a representative of the sponsoring telecom said he wished other companies would follow their example and work towards the development of golf in Bulgaria. Environmentalists, on the other hand, have other wishes. They say some of the golf courses in the country were built in unsuitable locations, inflicting damage on the natural environment, on the flora and the fauna. But this is something that is happening in other parts of the world as well, and does not mean this sport is unwelcome in Bulgaria.

English version: Milena Daynova