October bow for Navarino course

27 September 2011

The Bay course traverses different terrains

The second golf course of the huge planned Costa Navarino tourist development in southwestern Greece will open in October.

Designed by the firm of Robert Trent Jones II, Costa Navarino’s Bay course will be the anchor of the Navarino Bay resort, a few miles south of the Navarino Dunes property, and its golf course designed by Ross McMurray of European Golf Design in association with Bernhard Langer. The Dunes development opened two years ago. Costa Navarino is being developed by the Greek firm Temes (Tourist Enterprises of Messinia), controlled by the shipowning Constantakopoulos family.

Jones said: “The Bay Course is sculpted out of the earth and rock of Greek soil, much like the marble statues of the ancients. Those deities were noble and graceful, and the golf course now reflects the same sense of beauty. This golf experience will last the test of time, to be loved and enjoyed through all the senses by those who come to play the golf course.”

Troon Golf, which already manages the Dunes course, will play the same role at the Bay. The par 71 course, which measures 5,760 metres (6,201 yards) and includes four sets of tees, transitions between three different landscapes: seaside, canyon and grove. The grove holes feature centuries-old olive trees: the olive was first domesticated in the Messinia region.