I’ve been fortunate enough to have been very busy over the last few months with trips to Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Gran Canaria, Scotland, Ireland, Jersey, The Shetlands and also Greece. All of the trips have been successful, interesting and fun. And if I had to single out the one trip that I enjoyed and which impressed me the most it would have to be Navarino Dunes in Greece.

I first shot Navarino about 18 months ago when Bernhard Langer the course designer visited the site to check on it’s progress. There were a few holes that were nearly ready and the rest was really just a building site. So I was looking forward to see how the course had developed over the last year. I flew into Athens from Heathrow and depending on the cab driver the journey to Messina can take between 3 to 4 hours. This might seem like quite a long journey but the scenery on the way is stunning. There is a new motorway being constructed at the moment and this will probably reduce the time to just over 2 hours. TEMES the owners together with AEGEAN are planning 2 to 3 flights a day from Athens to Kalamata and I think new flights direct to Kalamata from key hubs in Europe are planned. As Kalamata is only 40 minutes away it will make the journey very quick and easy.

The transformation was incredible. I knew straight away that this was going to be a great shoot. The course measures 6177m off the back tees, it has 4 par 5’s, 5 par 3’s, and 9 par 4’s all of which offer a real challenge especially if the wind blows up from the sea. There are 2 5 star hotels on the site at the moment with more to follow. A new Robert Trent Jones course which is also under construction and will be ready in 2012. I’m really looking forward to going back to Navarino, I’ve met some great people there, it truly is a remarkable new golfing destination.