Located some 3.5 hours South West of Athens (or 45 mins West of Kalamata, where I flew in to) the Costa Navarino Golf Resort’s 4 golf courses are split into three locations. The International Olympic Academy and the Hills Course are located atop a hill offering simply stunning views across the Navarino Bay and the Ionian Sea. Below you sits the Bay course (which was a lot of fun) and some 15 minutes down the road was Navarino Dunes course, set within the grounds of the Romanos Hotel.
The weather back home before I went to Greece wasn’t great so my preparation for the week wasn’t ideal. Anyway, on arrival, I realised that it was an opportunity to put some serious work into my game. The weather was fabulous, the facilities were just incredible, the staff were friendly and very efficient, so all that was left was to perform.
I was invited to play in the pre-tournament pro-am because a couple (whom originated from my home county of Sussex) and had requested to play with me, which was nice! I joined Karen Smith (hcp 11) Steve Smith (hcp 2) both from Copthorne GC and a charming gentleman called Tebor Gojun (hcp 8).
We had a great day together at The Bay Course and Karen played incredibly well. Playing 2 from 4 stableford, we shot 102 points which I’m pretty certain is the best pro-am score I’ve ever been involved in! Unbelievably, we finished 2nd to group of old guys with ridiculous handicaps ;-( but still, a great way to start the week.
Me, Steve, Karen, Tebor and Costa Navarino Golf GM, David Ashington
Round 1 was played on the shorter Bay course (par 71) and I got off to a poor start. Bogies at the 4th, 9th and 12th left me languishing way down the field but a birdie at 13 and an eagle at 15 saved me the embarrassment of being at the bottom of the leaderboard.
Rounds 2 and 3 were to be played at the Olympic Academy Course which was a much longer golf course. Once again I got off to a poor start in round 2 by bogeying the 1st and double bogeying the 3rd. I bounced back with birdies at 4, 5 and 6 to get back to level par but I was fighting my swing. Bogies at 9 and 10 were quelled with a birdie at 11 but as you can tell, there was a lack of consistency to my game. I finished triple bogey, bogey, birdie, par for 76 (+4). It was ugly and I felt gutted.
I’d been hitting a lot of balls on the range trying to find a good feeling to play with but whilst the good was quite good, the occasional bad swing was shocking and costly.
The final round started nicely with a flushed drive and a 5 iron to 12 feet on the opening par 5, which led to a birdie. I well struck 4 iron to the second hole left me 35 feet from the hole and 3 putts later I was back to par for the day. After that I played a much calmer round of golf with 2 more birdies and 1 more bogey to shoot 71 (-1) for the day.
My +3 total for the week left me in a tie for 50th place which I have to say was incredibly disappointing. Still, it was my first tournament in a while and I felt that as the week went on, that my game got better. Work to do for sure. By the way, the event was won by my first round partner Clark Dennis on an incredible score of -17.
By the way, please check out the Costa Navarino Resort by clicking on the link…what a place…stunning!