THE MEDITERRANEAN MAGNIFICENCE OF COSTA NAVARINO

Greece, with its storied history and mythology conjures up various images of gods and demons, but golf? Costa Navarino makes a change in a time when the country needs one most.

- BENNY TEO

It was on the second green of the Bay course at Costa Navarino that I lost my heart entirely to this magical golf resort and to Greece in general. The country had never been on the radar of golfers as it had very few golf courses and none of any significance. But Costa Navarino changed all that. Opened to international acclaim in more recent times, this heavenly resort has two great courses the Bernhard Langer designed Dunes layout and the said Bay course designed by Robert Trent Jones II.

Standing on the green of the par 5 2nd at the Bay course, I gazed out across the huge expanse of beautiful, tranquil, turquoise blue water that is Navarino Bay. The Bay is almost completely encircled by land, the mainland where we were playing golf and several islands on the far side. At the point where the waters of the Bay flowed into the Ionian Sea, there were a few large rocks jutting out maybe 50 yards from the last island where some classy person had moored a proper yacht i.e. one with a large sail, not the kind of motorised giants beloved by Russian oligarchs and American technology tycoons.

It was absolutely perfect and I realised that I could very happily live, and golf, here for the rest of my days. Located in the Greek region of Messinia some 300 kilometres southwest of Athens, the resort is the vision of one Captain Vassilis C. Constantakopoulos, a native who was one of the first environmental activists in Greece. Having created one of the largest container ship companies in the world after a 21-year career as a seaman, Captain Vassilis began acquiring land in the Navarino Bay area back in 1982. His vision was for a bold and forward-looking development of high-end sustainable accommodation and facilities that would allow guests from all over the world to explore the natural beauty, history and traditions of his native Messinia, while at the same time creating jobs that would enable Messinians to stay in their homeland.