I’ll be honest — Georgia was not on my radar as a golf destination. So when an invitation arrived in mid-February from Alex Day, Director of Golf at Paragraph Golf & Spa Tabori, asking me to come and explore two brand-new Georgian golf clubs, I had to read it twice.
My answer? An immediate yes. The idea of flying to Georgia — the ancient Caucasian republic of wine, mountains, and remarkable hospitality — for a golf experience was exciting enough that not even the absence of a direct flight from Budapest could give me pause.
Sometimes the best discoveries are the ones you didn’t plan for.
Paragraph Golf & Spa Tabori
The golf course
Alex’s property is an IMG-managed resort that opened its doors in October 2024, and it immediately sets a high bar. The course itself is a 9-hole layout designed by Kevin Ramsey of Golfplan — a name well known in premium golf architecture circles.
It’s a compact but deeply satisfying experience, and the final three holes in particular are genuinely challenging. Even for experienced golfers, the closing stretch demands real attention.
The club is already scouting locations for the next nine holes, which will complete a full 18-hole experience. For now, the 9-hole layout more than earns its place on any serious golf itinerary.
“The last three holes alone are worth the flight. Challenging, scenic, and beautifully designed — they’d feel at home on any European resort course.”
The hotel
Paragraph Golf & Spa Tabori is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection, which tells you something about its ambitions. The property was developed by the Georgian Tourism Development Fund at a total investment approaching US$200 million — covering the course, hotel, and a planned cable car connection to Tbilisi’s city center.
The building itself, designed by architect Irakli Sharashidze, is genuinely striking: a curvilinear structure clad in terracotta-toned natural stone, rising on 15-meter columns above the landscape. Inside, the hotel offers 176–177 rooms, a full-service spa, sauna, steam room, indoor and outdoor pools, and two hot tubs.
The cable car, once its final municipal approvals are in place, will carry guests directly from the heart of Tbilisi up to the resort — a spectacular commute that will surely become one of the most talked-about arrival experiences in Georgian tourism.
Tbilisi Hills Golf Club
The FAM itinerary also included a visit to Tbilisi Hills Golf Club — and I’m already planning to come back and do it properly.
Due to some challenging weather on the day, we weren’t able to complete all 18 holes, which was genuinely disappointing given how much I enjoyed the holes we did play.
The course was designed by Finnish architect Lassi Pekka Tilander and has been open since 2018.
It became the 27th European Tour Destination in 2020 — a meaningful accreditation for any club, but especially impressive for a country where golf is still finding its feet.
Playing with Paul Pöhi, the Managing Director of Tbilisi Hills Golf Management, I got a real sense of the club’s ambitions and the thought that has gone into building it.
“The view of Tbilisi from the fairways is quite something. Panoramic, dramatic, completely distracting in the best possible way — I genuinely had to remind myself to focus on the game.”
The course sits within a much larger development spanning 331 hectares, built around a ‘city within a city’ philosophy.
It includes private land plots, modern apartments, and premium villas — with only 10% of the land currently developed, giving the whole complex an unusually open, green feel.
Tbilisi Hills was initially backed by Estonian investors Skinest Rail, Kaamos Group, and Go Group, and as of late 2025, is fully owned by the Skinest Group, led by Oleg Ossinovski.
A new, larger clubhouse is already in the planning stages, which, for a country where golf is still an emerging sport, speaks volumes about the confidence behind this project.
The Bigger Picture: Georgia as a Golf Tourism Destination
Spending time on the courses and with the people behind them, I found myself thinking a lot about the strategic question:
How do these clubs grow their international golf visitor numbers when local demand is still limited?
The answer, I think, lies in understanding where Georgian tourism is heading more broadly.
The country welcomed approximately 5.5 million international visitors in 2025, generating nearly $4.7 billion in tourism revenue — figures that significantly exceed pre-pandemic levels.
Crucially, growth is increasingly air-driven, with visitors arriving from Western Europe, the Gulf, and parts of Asia at notably higher rates than traditional regional neighbors.
This is exactly the demographic that golf tourism is well-placed to attract: higher-spending, longer-staying, experience-oriented travelers who want more than a single-activity holiday.
The Opportunity
Georgia is already strong in the areas that premium golf travelers most value alongside the game itself:
- Gastronomy — one of the most exciting food cultures in the region, with a natural wine movement that has captured global attention.
- Wellness — sulfur baths in the old town, world-class spa facilities at Tabori, and a genuine culture of relaxation.
- Culture and history — ancient cave cities, medieval old towns, and a depth of heritage that gives non-golfing travel companions plenty to explore.
- Active tourism — ski resorts at Gudauri and Bakuriani mean Georgia can be packaged as a four-season destination.
Bundled ‘stay-and-play’ packages that combine golf with wine tourism, cultural excursions, ski, or spa breaks are an obvious route to higher per-capita spending and longer stays.
Georgia doesn’t need to compete with Scotland on heritage or Portugal on volume — it needs to carve its own niche as a premium, experience-rich alternative.
My Verdict
In 2026, the most sought-after golf travel experiences are immersive ones — resorts and destinations where the course is just the beginning, and where the surrounding experience is as carefully considered as the greens.
Georgia understands this instinctively, even if it’s still early days.
If the Georgian state takes golf tourism as seriously as Turkey, Spain, and Portugal have done — and the investment levels at both Tabori and Tbilisi Hills suggest serious intent — then I believe Georgia has a genuine shot at becoming a regional competitor to Turkey, the UAE, and Cyprus within a relatively short timeframe.
“Georgia’s offering may still seem modest on paper. But the quality is already there, the ambition is clearly there, and the destination itself is genuinely extraordinary. Don’t wait for everyone else to figure it out.”
I left Tbilisi with an unfinished round at Tbilisi Hills on my conscience and a firm intention to return. That, in itself, is probably the most honest review I can give.
If you would like me to write a similar review for your golf club, please reach out at mikibreitner@gmail.com. I welcome the opportunity to collaborate on FAM trips as well.
