PYLOS, Greece – Lost in a maze could be a scene straight out of my recurring nightmare. But not so when located amidst lush olive groves in the Messinia region on Greece’s southwest Peloponnese coast.
My wife and I were winding through the maze-like grid of paths at the sumptuous Romanos Resort, the first of four ultra-luxury hotels to open at Costa Navarino, and this was more like a dream replete with four challenging and very different golf courses at our disposal. A wrong turn brought us to the healing pools of a world-class spa or stumbling onto white-sand beaches. Should we go left or right? Every turn felt like the start of a choose-your-own adventure, and we weren’t alone in this thinking. When Greek tennis star Stefanos Tsitsipas, who reached as high as No. 3 in the world and enjoys playing at the resort’s grass tennis court, the only one in the country, was asked what he liked most about the resort, he didn’t hesitate.
“You can play hide-and-seek here and never find each other,” Tsitsipas was quoted as saying in Costa Navarino Magazine. “Just getting lost in nature … that’s what I love about this place.”
It took a few days but eventually I got lost in the beauty of it all too.
I first was introduced to Costa Navarino while attending the 2019 International Association of Golf Tour Operators annual summit in Marrakech, Morocco, where a representative of its marketing team shared with me the story of Capt. Vassilis Constantakopoulos, one of the world’s wealthiest shipping magnates, who was born in a small village near Costa Navarino and always loved this region. Twenty years before he died (in 2011), the self-made businessman bought thousands of acres, intending to develop part of it to revitalize the struggling local communities and to stop the flood of young men leaving for Athens. He was a golfer and chose to make the game one of the primary draws for people the world over to come and discover the beauty of Messinia. I remember telling my wife, Kristen, that someday I wanted to take her there, but just a few months later COVID hit and so for the next few years I stared at the marketing brochure, which I kept piled atop a folder of story ideas in my office. Initially, Kristen and I were planning to tour Rome and vacation elsewhere in Italy in October after the Ryder Cup concluded, but deep down what we really needed was to get our golf fix. So, when a PR person pitched me that Costa Navarino was only a two-hour flight from Rome, I already was sold.
The Captain’s dream of a golf tourism destination may never have gotten off the ground if not for the huge infrastructural development that took place in Greece in preparation for the 2004 Olympic Games. New toll roads connecting the Ionian Coast to Athens have turned what was a six-hour one-way drive along winding country roads into about three along a highway that slices through the mountainous landscape via tunnels and bridges, making day trips to the beach or golf course possible. During the prime season from April and September, visitors can also fly into Kalamata International Airport, which was named after the Captain in recognition of his contribution to his beloved region, and just 45 minutes from Costa Navarino but we took a car service from Athens, crossing the slender isthmus between mainland Greece and the paw-shaped southern peninsula of the Peloponnese.
This region, shaped by 4,500 years of history, is the stuff of legends. It is here that Hercules fought the Nemean lion and gods walked the earth, meddling in mortal affairs. Celestial and mythological charms aside, this region bears tangible traces of the many civilizations that once called it home. And now, in a country with just nine courses in all, Costa Navarino features four of them designed by mythical figures in the game – Bernhard Langer, Jose Maria Olazabal and Robert Trent Jones II – and discussions persist about adding a fifth layout.
After being greeted with freshly squeezed pomegranate juice, we checked into the Romanos Resort, which features more than 300 luxurious rooms and suites. Bottom floors included individual infinity pools while those above enjoyed terraces with views of the Mediterranean. Like a good hunting dog, we found our way to Navarino Dunes, which was walking distance from our room and the first course to open here in 2010. Designed by Langer in cooperation with European Golf Design, it was straightforward if not dramatic – the second hole a short par-4 with the historic Bay of Navarino, where, in 1827, a decisive battle was fought that consolidated Greece’s independence, in the distance. It was an unexpected joy to see a scenic water hole on a course called the Dunes. Parts of the course venture into olive and fruit groves, while some holes run along the Sellas River, which meanders through the site. A rival for our favorite hole on the Dunes was the drivable par-4 sixth, sitting at the highest point of the course with an 85-foot drop from tee to green and sloping terrain.
We played until we ran out of sunlight and then got our introduction to the benefits of a Mediterranean diet at Cooc, an alfresco-dining restaurant where fusion meets traditional Messinian dishes.
Greeks have relied for centuries on staples like olive oil, wild herbs, seafood and lamb or goat’s meat, along with an abundance of fresh vegetables, fruit, grains and pulses, washed down with local wine. Cooc’s sommelier recommended a dry white wine with flavors of lemon, orange zest, flowers and jasmine. Neither he nor our waiters steered us wrong until he sold us on the baklava, the popular sweet Greek pastry in this case made with chopped pistachio nuts and topped with rose ice cream, for dessert. Another waiter overheard him and interjected that the last piece just had been secured by another table. We ended up circling back the next night for the baklava and he may have undersold it, if that was possible.
The following morning, I called for a cart hoping not to get lost again in the maze. Meet out front at the olive tree by our room, the helpful driver said. Sounded simple enough except we picked the wrong tree. So many olive trees! Costa Navarino’s four courses are located less than eight miles apart, but the contrasting natural landscape and sea views makes for great variety. To get to The Hills Course, we took a shuttle bus, an uphill climb along a winding road carved out of a mountain to a separate clubhouse that serves the two Olazabal courses, which opened in 2022. Only once, on the fourth tee, can you catch a glimpse of the sea, but the visual sensation is still dramatic, with mountain tops, long valleys, and stunning rock formations.
The Hills Course is carved out of an olive orchard. Olazabal, who also teamed with European Golf Design on the Olympic Course, carved the course out of mountain terrain and olive groves.
