TEEING OFF remarking that it took no fewer than five years to spearhead them. “The Olympic Course is more polished in style and full of spectacular vistas across the Bay of Navarino, while the Hills Course offers more of a rural feel, where we take you out through the gently rolling hills.” He’s right: dotted with ancient olive trees and lined with native vegetation and scrubland, the par 72, 6,945-yard Olympic Course features mounded undulating fairways and greens with shallow bunkering. Playability is paramount with long arching par-5s (gettable if you’re in the right position), lengthy par-3s offset with those of the shorter variety, and fun par-4s, such as the stunning 384-yard-long 10th hole, the green of which is framed by mountains and the coastline, making for one of the most scenic holes in all of golf. The visual hits (and the corresponding challenges) keep on coming, including at the 187-yard par-3 12th hole, where a keyshaped green sits atop a massively vertiginous promontory, protected by a barranca-like hazard from short right to long left. The views from the elevated 15th tee are just as distracting, offering a wonderful look over Navarino Bay – a panorama that becomes more glorious the closer you get to the green. Then there is the 198-yard par-3 16th hole, where the stunning tableau distracts yet again but where the wind conditions require immediate refocus: depending on the direction, club selection can vary up or down by five or six clubs. The penultimate hole is a risk-reward, downhill par-5 that can make or break your round, with players required to either fly their second shots over a meandering rock-lined 54 NetJets
“ José The Olympic Course is more polished in style and full of spectacular vistas across the Bay of Navarino, while the Hills Course offers more of a rural feel María Olazábal, course designer HIGH LIFE Costa Navarino’s Hills Course JACOB SJÖMAN ditch that crosses the fairway short of the green or to lay up. For its part, the par-72, 6,836-yard Hills Course, is no pushover. Far from it. Playing through mature mountainside vegetation (think garrigue shrubland, autochthonous trees, ancient rock walls and sheer ravines that carve deep into the Kinigou Hills), the course features large green complexes, with tightly mown rollaway areas inset by bunkers surrounded by spongey Bermuda grass overseeded with rye that are a challenge for even single-figure handicaps. The putting surfaces are equally devilish and boast significant contouring and subtle breaks that often require a second look. Five tee locations on each hole (one less than on the Olympic Course) enable all skill levels and age groups to both enjoy the round and to challenge themselves. Case in point the 4th: the first of four par-5s, this tricky 517-yard long specimen requires precision from a semi-blind tee shot that leads to a wide but shallow green that is positioned perpendicular to the line of play and perfectly framed by long views. The experience, which is rustic, playing sometimes around ancient rocky farming boundary walls, offers a good balance and variety, from doglegs to uphill and downhill holes, long par-5s, short par-4s and challenging par-3s. The 8th is a perfect example: a demanding 432-yard par-4 with fairway that is beyond a wooded canyon – find it and you’ll have a long iron approach into a green that slopes from front left to back right. The 9th is another downhiller with a split fairway short of the green while the 557-yard 11th is a brutal, gently sloping uphill par-5 with a ravine cutting into the fairway on the left and a lone tree that protects the right – the second shot is challenged by shallow bunkers. The challenges aren’t limited to the two courses. Should your game need a post-round tune-up, there is an expansive golf academy on-site that rivals anything on Tour. Most 36-a-daytypes, however, will head back to their quarters and, having had a dip in their own pool or one at the many beach clubs, decide which of the more than 30 dining venues they will avail for dinner and postprandials. The resort writ large also includes a Mouratoglou Tennis Center, an NBA Basketball School, opportunities for myriad other sporting activities, and several public open spaces or, in ancient Greek, agora, where restaurants and bars complement boutiques, piazzas and the like. Add the tasteful addition of the waterside Mandarin Oriental and the buzzy allure of the W hotel, complete with its chillout DJ, and golfers as well as other holidaymakers won’t be short of options: after all, that’s one of Costa Navarino’s major draws. Kalamata International Airport: 27miles/43km NetJets 55
