Even when you’re not a golf fan, when you’re requested which international locations have the highest ten greatest golf resorts on the planet, you’re prone to get it proper: the USA and Scotland, which has an extended historical past as the game’s homeland, adopted by England. In the event you’re just a little extra conversant in the game, you may guess Australia and Canada (and also you’d be appropriate). The shock on this authoritative rating of the very best golf locations is at quantity 7. And it’s in Greece.
“In the event you’d stated to somebody 15 years in the past {that a} Greek golf resort could be the seventh-best on the planet in 2023, they’d have checked out you quizzically,” writes Chris Bertram, editor-in-chief of the annual Golf World Prime 100 Programs and Resorts. “However Costa Navarino is the true deal and, belief us, this place doesn’t flatter it within the slightest,” he continues.
However how did they arrive at this rating? A panel of specialists who journey, play, check, and consider tons of of potential locations votes based mostly on 4 primary standards: the golf programs themselves (how nicely maintained they’re, the amenities they’ve, the general participant expertise, and so on.) are graded out of a potential 40 factors (with additional factors awarded for resorts with a couple of golf course); lodging is graded out of a rating of 20 based mostly on the vary, high quality, and capability of accessible choices; the setting, additionally out of 20: this criterion speaks for itself, provided that greater than half of the pleasures related to {golfing} should do with nature and the great thing about the panorama.
Nonetheless, factors are deducted if a shuttle is required to get from one golf course to a different; lastly, the non-golf facilities are scored out of a potential 20 factors. This refers to further amenities and providers that will make the resort extra engaging to households and {couples}. “Golf is clearly nonetheless the important thing class in all of this, however we take lodging and non-golf facilities into consideration pretty strongly, as a result of we didn’t desire a record of ‘programs with rooms’” it’s emphasised. “We wished to incorporate rounded resorts that would enchantment to {couples} and households in addition to these for absolute golf nuts.”
Costa Navarino gathered a powerful 90 factors out of a potential 100. Within the temporary textual content accompanying the excellence, the editors of Golf World Prime 100 discuss with its 4 completely different golf programs of “distinctive high quality.” The truth is, all of them, the Dunes Course (designed by Bernhard Langer), the Bay Course (designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr), the Hills Course, and the (distinctive worldwide) Worldwide Olympic Academy Course, each designed by Jose Maria Olazabal, additionally rank of their prime 135 in Continental Europe: “All supply beautiful views, particularly the Bay and the Olympic,” whereas particular point out was made to the convenience of entry to the Bay, Olympic, and Hills programs through the Costa Navarino transportation providers.
As well as, the vary of lodging choices on supply – the family-friendly Westin, the opulent Romanos, the stylish W, and the beautiful Mandarin Oriental – is singled out for reward (“whichever you select to remain in, you’ll have chosen very correctly”), as is the vary of non-golf facilities. In conclusion, “Costa Navarino is extra a whole vacation spot than a mere resort, and it’s a thoroughly-deserved World No.7 amongst these illustrious names.”
Some observations on the Golf World Prime 100 record will assist us perceive the significance of this distinction. Costa Navarino is the highest-ranked of the 20 Mediterranean resorts included; the subsequent is Verdura in Sicily, in sixteenth place! Among the many main resorts, solely the sixth-ranked resort, Streamsong in Florida, has been in operation for fewer years (12 in comparison with 14). Nonetheless, Costa Navarino’s programs and motels have doubled since 2010. Pebble Seashore in California (fifth place, 91 factors) has been working since 1919, Turnberry in Ayrshire, Scotland (4th place, 92 factors) since 1906, Pinehurst in North Carolina (third place, 93 factors) since 1895, Gleneagles in Perth, Scotland (2nd place, 94 factors) since 1924, and the top-ranked Bandon Dunes in Portland, USA (97 factors) since 1999. These are the heavyweights we alluded to earlier, positioned in international locations the place the game has an extended historical past and stays extraordinarily well-liked, and which have hosted the world’s largest skilled championships and tournaments. The truth that Messinia has joined them in such a brief time period is yet one more testomony to Captain Vasilis Konstantakopoulos’ imaginative and prescient, which has improved Greece’s total tourism high quality.
Costa Navarino will function its first full season this 12 months, with 4 motels, 4 golf programs, and the Agora, which opened final 12 months, beginning with the Westin and the resort’s golf programs on February 18th.
Recent Comments