GREECE Costa Navarino: One Down, Six To Go

Later this spring, probably in May, a shipping tycoon plans to open the seventh golf course in Greece. And before he's done, he may open six more.

The new course is part of Costa Navarino, a collection of four related resorts that will take shape on 2,470 non-contiguous acres along Navarino Bay and the Ionian Sea, on the southwestern Peloponnesian coast. It's no stretch to say that Costa Navarino figures to eventually become the premier golf destination in Greece.

Costa Navarino is being developed by Achilles Constantakopoulos, the managing director of Tourism Enterprise of Messinia, SA (TEMES). Constantakopoulos also owns one of the world’s largest shipping companies, Athens-based Costamare Shipping Company, SA.

Constantakopoulos has one goal: to make Costa Navarino the most popular vacation destination in the Mediterranean, if not in the entire world. To do so, he aims to build thousands of houses, at least seven hotels (and possibly as many as 11, with a total of about 3,000 rooms), six spas, meeting space, and many other attractions, including as many as seven golf courses.

The four resorts that make up Costa Navarino will be located in the villages of Romanos, Pylos, Kynigos, and Rizomylos, all of which are within a half-hour’s drive of each other. The villages are in Messinia, one of the least developed prefectures in Greece, at least in terms of holiday amenities.

The first course has been co-designed by Bernhard Langer, the German golf pro, and Ross McMurray of European Golf Design. It's the centerpiece of Navarino Dunes, which is located on 352 acres in Romanos. When it's completed, Navarino Dunes is expected to have a bunch of vacation-style houses (including time-share condos), two hotels (including a 445-room Westin), meeting space, a spa, and a golf academy.

Here’s the scoop on Costa Navarino's future development plans:

-- The second resort, Navarino Bay in Pylos, will be the most luxurious in Costa Navarino. The 370-acre spread will have villas, two hotels (including a Banyan Tree), a spa, and a golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. The course and an accompanying academy are expected to open in 2012.

-- The third and largest resort, Navarino Blue, will take shape on 740 acres in the hills of Kynigos. Blue will have two 18-holes golf courses, a sports-oriented hotel, an equestrian center, a tennis center, and a health spa.

-- The fourth resort, part of a seaside village in Rizomylos, will have five hotels, a boardwalk with shops, an outdoor theater, a water park, and one golf course, possibly a nine-hole track.

So far, I've counted five golf courses. Constantakopoulos hasn’t said where or when the other two tracks will be built.