Could golf help support Greece’s plans for economic revival?
Much water has flowed under the bridge in the six years since GCA first visited the huge Costa Navarino golf and tourism development on Greece’s southwest coast. At that time, back in the summer of 2008, the stirrings of the crisis that would wreck the global economy for several years could be felt, but events had yet to play through, and confidence was still evident.
Greece, of course, was hit harder than almost any country on earth by the crash. When the credit crunch evolved across Europe into a sovereign debt crisis, the Greek economy, hugely indebted and lacking the ability to devalue its way out of trouble because of the country’s membership of the euro, imploded. GDP fell in every quarter for more than five years; austerity bill after austerity bill slashed state spending; unemployment shot up, and is still over 25 per cent.
Now, in 2014, the country remains in a parlous state, though the country’s central bank expects growth to return this year. One thing, though, is sure: if Greece is to prosper in future, it will be privately-owned businesses like Costa Navarino that will be key.
That the development has continued during the crisis is thanks to the deep pockets and long-term mindset of its principals, the ship owning Constantakopolous family. Family patriarch Captain Vassilis Constantakopolous, was born in the Messinia area that is now home to Costa Navarino but went to sea as a young man, later establishing Costamare, now among the world’s largest container ship businesses. Discovering golf relatively late in life, he fell for the game and resolved to use golf as the anchor for a huge leisure development in his native region. Captain Vassilis lived to see his dreams come to fruition, but died in 2011 at the age of 76.
The ultimate masterplan for Costa Navarino is hugely ambitious, calling eventually for four separate resorts, each with golf courses, hotels and other facilities. Back in 2008, the Navarino Dunes resort was partly built, with nine holes of the golf course, designed by Ross McMurray of European Golf Design and signed by Bernhard Langer, complete, while the other nine, plus the resort’s two hotels, were in early construction. Now, the resort is fully operational, and seemingly thriving, while the second project, Navarino Bay, in 2008 only very roughly sketched out, now has its Robert Trent Jones II-designed golf course open for play.
The two courses are quite different. The Dunes is longer, and more obviously a resort course, given that it works its way around two large hotels. Although undulating, it is less hilly than the really rather severe terrain crossed by the Bay course. The Ionian Sea is more closely involved with the Bay than the Dunes, where the second green is close to the water, but where the hotel complexes occupy most of the prime seafront real estate.
The Bay course is currently operating from a temporary clubhouse complex near the road; the permanent clubhouse is expected to be built in the next year or so. This makes the flow of the course a little unusual; the hole designed to be the course’s opener is at the moment the thirteenth, and golfers are presented with an extremely challenging shot from the temporary first tee, over a large lake. It’s actually an excellent hole, with the water providing a classic diagonal carry, but it is a wee bit scary for the first shot of the day!
Jones and lead architect Bruce Charlton have built some remarkably contoured greens on the Bay course. Take, for example, the tiny par three sixteenth, which features a long and steep fallaway green. Front pins on this green are fantastically difficult to access, all the more so since the relatively new putting surfaces at the Bay are still wonderfully firm. A large bunker protects the front and left of the green, and trying to take it on to get close to the pin is fraught with danger. There is plenty of room to the right to bounce one in, and the contours of the green help that shot, but with nothing more than a sand iron or at most a three quarter wedge in hand, it is hard for golfers to convince themselves to aim away from the flag.
Navarino Bay’s par threes are perhaps the course’s greatest strength. The current fifth sits right next tothe Bay of Navarino, a picture postcard spot (the par four fourth hole also plays right down the water’s edge). Away from the water might seem a prudent line, but missing the green on the left is likely to result in a bunker shot with the sea the inevitable destination for any ball hit thin.
Perhaps the single most impressive part of the whole Navarino development is just how anchored it seems in its local environment. Around the Dunes resort, all the off course planting is of native species, especially mountain herbs, which creates a glorious aroma as well as aiding sustainability. Before any other construction got under way, the team built two large reservoirs in the hills to capture the abundant winter rainfall, ensuring the courses could be irrigated without impacting on scarce water supplies in summer. And the resort is partnered with a number of local businesses – for example a nearby cultural centre offering cooking courses where guests can learn the secrets of various Peloponnesian delicacies. Among the attractions at the Dunes is a nature centre enabling visitors to discover the abundant local wildlife, including the sea turtles that nest on nearby beaches.
It is, perhaps, ironic that a super-luxury resort should be playing such an important role in reviving the economic of an already rather deprived corner of crisis-hit Greece. Yet tourism is Greece’s key weapon in its quest to emerge from the horrors of recent years, and the close oversight of the Constantakopolous family means Costa Navarino, though obviously aimed at the wealthy, still feels authentically Greek and Messinian. When I first visited the region six years ago, former Troon Golf executive Paul Dellanzo told me he thought the destination could be Europe’s most impressive tourist development since the creation of Costa Smerelda in Sicily. It’s not there yet, but I wouldn’t bet against it.
This article first appeared in Issue 37 of Golf Course Architecture
GCA travelled to Costa Navarino with Aegean Airlines. Aegean offers daily flights from London Heathrow and London Gatwick and other European airports to Athens. Aegean Airlines favours air travel for golfers by offering free of charge carriage of golf bag and equipment for every golfer. www.aegeanair.com.
Westin Resort Costa Navarino: Prices start from 240 EUR (approximately £205) per night on a bed and breakfast basis for an infinity room with private pool. For more information and to book, visit www.costanavarino.com and www.westincostanavarino.com.