Bo Van Pelt will create history this week becoming the first American-born professional and joining players from 14 other nations to compete in this week’s Volvo World Match-Play Championship at Thracian Cliffs in Bulgaria.

It is the first time a major golf tournament will be staged in the former Communist country and now a member of the European Union.

Van Pelt had been among a group of 11 PGA Tour based players along with caddies and managers flown by sponsors, Volvo on a private jet from Jacksonville in Florida last Sunday night and soon after the end of the Players Championship.

All 24 players competing in this week’s historic Volvo World Matchp-Play Championship in Bulgaria. (Photo – www.europeantour.com)

It was an hour-eight flight to London’s Stansted Airport before a refuelling stop and then a three hour flight to Varna, and Bulgaria’s third largest city.

The players were then transferred to two helicopters for a flyover of the stunning Gary Player designed Thracian Cliffs course laid out on a four kilometre long stretch along the  Black Sea shoreline.

And the European Tour has warned of venomous Ursini Viper snakes, and common to the rocky regions of Bulgaria, with a notice in the temporary clubhouse indicating medics have anti-venom on hand should anyone get bitten.

Bulgaria boasts just eight golf courses and with Thracian Cliffs among three, each opened within the last five years, lying within 10 minutes of each other.

“Never did I think when I started playing golf that I would be one day playing in Bulgaria,” said Van Pelt.

“But then that is one of the reasons why I wanted to come as it’s a great opportunity to visit a part of the world that I never thought I would get to see, and it’s going to be a great life experience.

“They say the course is the Pebble Beach of Europe and it does have some similarities with Pebble Beach but really there’s nothing like this in the States I know of.

“It’s an architectural feat to have laid out the course alongside the Black Sea as they have done.

“I know for a guy who grew up in Richmond, Indiana it’s been pretty cool to fly private jet across the Atlantic to London, and then on here to Bulgaria, and then to fly over the course in a chopper, and that’s something I’ve never done ahead of any tournament.”

England’s Ian Poulter, a twice winner of the event and the hero of Europe’s stunning Ryder Cup triumph last year, echoed the comments of his American rival.

“I don’t think I have ever seen any course like this and I’m wracking my brain trying to think if I’ve ever played a course like this, and I just can’t think of one,” said Poulter.

“It’s been called the ‘Pebble Beach of Europe’ but there is only a few holes at Pebble Beach where you play along the shoreline whereas here at Thracian Cliffs holes three to 10 are perched right on the cliff edge.

“I’ve never played Old Head in Ireland or Nefyn in Wales that I know are cliff top courses and to fly over the course yesterday was cool, and that’s something I’ve never ever done before a golf tournament.

“It’s an incredible piece of real estate and it’s going to look amazing on TV which is good for the European Tour.”

For a father of three, Van Pelt has undertaken a lot of overseas travel of late including visits at the end of last year to Malaysia and then to the west coast of Australia where he captured the Perth International.

“It’s a good challenge for me to become an all-round player by competing around the globe and playing shots on different grasses, different courses and different time changes,” he added.

“It just gives you an appreciation to have brilliant we have it on the PGA Tour and how easy the travel is within the States.

“One of these days this is going to be over for all of us, so when it’s all said and done in my career I can look back and say I took the opportunity to play in Bulgaria when it was offered to me.

“I’ve got three kids and when they get older I want them to experience the world and not say, ‘No, I don’t want to go do that’”.

Van Pelt faces South African Richard Sterne in one of eight first round robin matches on Thursday involving the 16 seeded players.

There will be 16 round robin matches then on Friday involving the entire field ahead of the quarter-final on Saturday afternoon then the semi-finals on Sunday morning and the final in the afternoon.