Robin Houry, the founder of the golf club, bought the land as an olive plantation before deciding that Cyprus needed it's first public golf course.
The project was conceived in 1990 and work began almost immediately. It soon became apparent that very little funding was available for this sort of venture as golf was pretty alien to most people in Cyprus at that time.
Despite the lack of funding work began on a shoe string basis with bulldozers and tractors. As a golf course began to emerge from the sea of olive trees, and before there was anything resembling greens, the public was invited to play some of the bare fairways for a mere £3 per day and asked to just imagine the putting bit. The best thing about imaginary putting is that people very rarely 3-putt and mostly sink their birdie putts!
As money began to come in, the course was slowly but surely improved and expanded to the stage that Vikla is at today. The course is rated by the EGA and our club is part of the Cyprus Golf Federation.
Vikla is the beautiful abandoned village that sits right on the perimeter of the golf course.
The village was gradually abandoned by it's occupants as they sold their land to the people who established the olive plantation before it was turned into a golf course. The last occupant, the "Mukhtaris" or Mayor, left in around 1980. Unfortunately, time, earthquakes and a bush fire have resulted in most of the beautiful stone built houses, with their hand made tiled roofs, doing a fair bit of collapsing. What's left of the village is well worth a look if you're into that sort of thing, although we advise you not to enter any of the houses as a sudden collapse could result in you being the subject of fascination for some archaeologist many years from now. THE VIDEO BELOW WAS MADE IN 2009.