A helicopter flyover left Graeme McDowell in awe of the stunning Thracian Cliffs course, and venue for this week’s Volvo World Match-Play Championship in Bulgaria.

McDowell joined 10 of his PGA Tour based colleagues who were flown by private jet from Jacksonville in Florida late on Sunday night (US time), and straight after the close of the Players Championship.

One of two helicopters that met 11 PGA Tour based players at Varna Airport for a flyover of the stunning Thracian Cliffs course. (Photo – Volvo Golf)

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

The eleven players were then conveyed in two helicopters north along the Black Sea shoreline to Thracian Cliffs and the historic host course for this week’s Euro 3m event featuring 24 players from 15 different countries.

Aboard McDowell’s chopper was fellow US Open champion, Geoff Ogilvy, Ian Poulter, Thorbjorn Olesen, Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and American Scott Van Pelt.

Thracian Cliffs, laid out over four kilometres and some 40 metres above the Black Sea, has been dubbed the ‘Pebble Beach of Europe’ but it’s more stunning than the venue where McDowell captured the 2010 US Open.

If anything, Thracian Cliffs is a mix of Pebble Beach, The Old Head course at Kinsale, Tralee also in Ireland and Whistling Straits and venue for the 2015 Ryder Cup, all rolled into one.

“What a stunning golf course and what a fantastic location,” said McDowell.

“We had a great flight over from the States and were looked after really well and then to have the chance to inspect the course this afternoon by helicopter is something we’ve never done before heading into a tournament.

“I’ve never seen a golf course like it and was just fabulous to inspect the course as we did, and it has everyone excited about competing this week, and for a very first time in Bulgaria.”

McDowell will be looking to go one better than last year after being knocked out in the final in Spain by Belgium’s Nicolas Colsaerts.

However it was reigning Irish Open champion, Jamie Donaldson who had the privilege of first playing the course.

“The course is breath-taking the TV pictures this week are going to be amazing,” said Donaldson.

Also in the field is Ireland’s Shane Lowry and among eight unseeded players in the field.

 Lowry will learn tomorrow (TUES) at 1.30pm local time if he will be drawn in the same group as McDowell.