Golf Course Architecture - Issue 60, April 2020

70 few of the holes are still shaped in the rocky subsoil, waiting for the loamy imported topsoil that will serve as a growing medium. This confirms what a quick look at the site makes obvious; this has been, is, and will continue to be a difficult build. Although the site is not as mountainous as it might seem from the very steep access road – it is more like an upland plateau with a steep escarpment at one side – it is fundamentally mostly rock. On top of this, for environmental reasons, no blasting has been permitted, so once the hole corridors are cleared of the indigenous vegetation (which is mostly olive trees, rosemary and other aromatic plants, what would be known in the south of France as ‘garrigue’) they are followed by rock hammers. This is necessarily a slow process. Construction work is in the hands of Greek contractor AP Maragakis, the same firm that built the Dunes and Bay courses. It is a little early to start opining on how the courses will play. The West, which will be the ‘championship’ course, stretching to 7,024 yards from the black tees, occupies the prime real estate, the stretch of escarpment on the western side of the site. Two spectacular par threes, the twelfth and sixteenth, will hang off the edge of these cliffs. The East course is designed to be a little more rough and natural, and will work its way into the interior of the site, with about 75 metres of elevation change in total. Grassing is expected to start on the West later this year, with a potential soft opening in late 2021, and the East to follow later. Matthias Nemes, managing director of Olazabal Design, told me that he hopes golfers will choose to walk the West, though I noted some fairly substantial transitions between holes, while the hillier East is expected to be a cart course. Frankly, I suspect the same will end up being true of the West; both the Dunes and Bay are emphatically cart courses and I doubt golfers will choose to walk this new course. But you never know. Olazabal Design lead architect Toni Ortner told GCA : “Our brief was to create two eighteen-hole golf courses and state-of-the-art practice facilities that blend seamlessly with the wonderful surrounding macchia/ garrigue Messinian nature. As with all our designs, our principal inspiration came from the landscape the golf course is set within. From the very beginning it was very clear that we were dealing with a very rocky site with wonderful native vegetation, stunning views to the Navarino Bay and the surrounding rolling hills. We “Our principal inspiration came from the landscape the golf course is set within” Photo: Olazabal Design NAVAR INO HI LLS The par three twelfth (right) and sixteenth holes on the in-construction West course at Navarino Hills hang off the edge of cliffs on the western side of the site Image: Olazabal Design