Costa Navarino (The Hills Course)

Overview: The Hills Course at Costa Navarino plays to par 72 across 18 holes on the high ground of Navarino Hills, above the Ionian coast and the historic Bay of Navarino. José María Olazábal routed the course through rolling Messinian terrain, using existing olive trees, rock walls, native vegetation and broad changes in elevation to create a course with a distinctly inland character. The published championship length is about 6,267 metres, or approximately 6,868 yards, and the official design brief was to make the golf sit naturally within the macchia and garrigue landscape. Long views are a constant feature, but the changing ground gives the round its structure.

History: The Hills Course formed one half of the Navarino Hills development and entered play in spring 2022 with the International Olympic Academy Golf Course. Olazábal Design prepared both 18-hole layouts as a paired project, but the two courses were given different identities: the Olympic Academy course looks toward Navarino Bay, while The Hills Course is more closely tied to the upland countryside. The project added 36 holes to a destination that already had The Dunes Course and The Bay Course, making Costa Navarino one of the most concentrated golf resorts in the Mediterranean.

Did You Know? The Hills Course was built on heavy clay over rock, rather than the free-draining sandy soil normally associated with classic heathland courses. The design team therefore had to work with a very different construction canvas, while still drawing inspiration from tree-lined layouts such as Sunningdale Old and Liphook. Existing rock walls and native vegetation help the finished course retain a strong sense of the land that was there before the golf.