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Going for the Green Greece is driving off the tee and aiming for the billion-euro golf industry with new golf courses emerging all over the country. Greg Lalas tells us where to golf. If you remember landing at the old Athens airport down by the sea, you probably recall seeing Glyfada Golf Course. A surprising expanse of the sprawling city. Greece's oldest course seems out of place. Certainly out of character. Golf doesn't seem to fit with the world's image of Greece as a holiday destination, a place to bum on the beach, sip ouzo and passively let the days seep by. That is changing, albeit slowly, as Greek golf proponents are pushing for the country to grab a larger portion of the EUR 14.5 billion European golf industry. There are new courses, projects under development, and next month the 2003 European GOLF Investment and Real Estate Conference and Exhibition will be held in Athens. "The population is growing and more people are reaching retirement age," says Peter Doukas, president of the Hellenic Golf Federation and former deputy minister of finance, who will give the welcoming remarks at the conference. "Greece could cater to that market, with great weather and the beaches and the tourism. We could be a destination." There are already a few choice spots. The Corfu Golf Club, nestled in the Ropa Valley, has long been considered one of Europe's most beautiful, dotted with natural lakes and crisscrossed with streams. Although Glyfada Golf has not changed much since Swiss architect Don Harradine designed it in 1962, it still offers a challenge and the clubhouse has seen some of Greece's elite, including late president Costas Karamanlis. The standard bearer in Greece now is the brand-new Crete Golf Club in Hersonissos. The breathtaking 18-hole, par-72 course was designed by PGA Design Consulting of Great Britain, and is one of the only desert-style courses in Europe. It features misty mountain horizons and even olive trees as hazards. The clubhouse and pro shop are fully loaded, and the Crete Golf Academy is already garnering attention. The two other full courses in Greece are Porto Carras in Halkidiki and Afandou Golf Club on Rhodes. They are all open to the public and offer varying degrees of difficulty. But for Greece to take advantage of its strong points namely, great weather, toursim opportunities, pristine beaches, there must be more than five courses. So some new developments are under way: on Crete, the UK's Loyalward Group is working on a EUR 750 million golf-resort project, promising two 18-hole courses, at Cavo Sidero. In the Peloponnesian area of Pylos, a luxurious golf-estate complex called Navarino Resorts is being developed by the ship-owning Constantakopoulos family. In Halkidiki, Porto Carras' original 18-hole course, part of the high-end Porto Carras Grand Resort, has received a facelift, and another 18 holes are due to be constructed. Most pundits agree this is still not enough. Compare Greece's numbers with its usual EU measuring stick, Portugal, which has 63 courses. The desert-covered US state of Arizona has more than 300 courses. "The bureaucracy of the Greek system is as difficult if not more difficult than any place else in Europe," says R.A. Hunt of PGA Design Consulting. By way of contrast, Hunt point to Cuba, which he says, is set to build upwards of 400 courses. "They are expecting an invasion when things open up. They're putting all their money into hospitals, schools and golf courses. Golf is a tourism driver, year-round tourism." "Greeks don't collaborate," explains Ellie Abravanel Valsamidis, a member of Glyfada Golf since 1974 and now editor and publisher of Golf & Tourism in Greece magazine. "To do a golf course, you can't do it alone. You have to put together the state, the municipality, the church (remember, the church owns most of the land in Greece), hotels, the archeological service, the forest service, and so on. It takes time." For golf tourism to work, prevailing wisdom says and research shows, there must be four courses within a 40-minute drive. Greece's courses are not easy to reach even with a private plane and a three-day weekend. "Many Greeks don't see yet the mutual benefit of having several courses near each other," says Hunt. "They need to bring in business, need infrastructure, like bars, restaurants, hotels. When we were building the Crete course in the winter, I couldn't find breakfast anywhere. In Portugal, the pubs and clubs are open in December." Greece's beautiful natural landscape of rocks and shrub doesn't help either. The same topography that makes Greek courses so aesthetically pleasing causes big problems for designers. Water and sand present the most difficulties. For example, the Crete Golf Club had to build a 60,000-cubic-meter reservoir to maintain the course, and the sand so abundant and splendid on Greek beaches is not the right type for bunkers, so the sand must be imported. Still, Greek officials are showing signs of understanding. "They're beginning to talk about it," admits Valsamidis. Some believe golf could take off after next year's Olympics. "In 2005, other projects will come into focus and golf development may finally gain some momentum," says Tom Johnson of Tom Johnson Golf Design, an American design firm with two Greece-based projects on the drawing board. "A mini-boom for golf might occur in 2006 and 2007." Next month's investment conference also should help. Already, the very fact that it's being held in Greece is a big step forward. "It's long overdue," says Doukas, who sites the Greek national team's progress as a measure of the necessity of course development. "More courses are imperative. We need better services, better facilities. Without golf, Greece is handicapped. Just lying on the beach is not enough anymore." Address Book 1.
Corfu Golf Club, Corfu. Tel.: +30 26610 94220, www.corfugolfclub.com Source: Insider Athens, October 2003. Further information For further information, contact Peter Michel Heilmann, Founder & Director, INVgolf.
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