Varvarusa Golf Club

Varvarusa presents itself as essential golf, “everything strictly natural, as on the Scottish links of a few centuries ago”, in a valley ringed by woods: the words are the club’s own, and they describe well a course where the hand of man shows as little as possible.

The fairways change with the seasons: lush in spring, firmer and slightly yellowed in summer, soft in autumn and a little heavy in winter. There is no fertilising and, as the club puts it, “mother nature takes care” of irrigation.

The greens are small and hard to hit, harder still to read because of their natural imperfections: according to the club, no putt, not even a short one, can be taken as holed. Dry-stone walls, long, low and ancient, run alongside and across the course: a hazard that demands careful control of shot length, because finishing close to one costs strokes.

The course has nine holes; the website offers scorecards to download for playing both nine and 18 holes, the handicap rules and the local rules.

The 2026 price list sets a daily green fee of 25 euros for guests, including access to the practice area without tokens. Golf car hire, 20 euros, is reserved for members.

The practice area costs 10 euros for non-members, with two tokens included; one 2-euro token gives 40 balls. Anyone entering a competition pays a 10-euro entry fee.

The club is an amateur sports association affiliated to the FIG (Italian Golf Federation). To book and to ask about tee times, which the website does not give, write to [email protected] or call 335 6529485.

By car, from Rome leave the motorway at the San Vittore toll booth (30 km from the course) and from Naples at Caianello (35 km), then follow the signs for Venafro, Pozzilli and Filignano, frazione Valle; from the Adriatic side the exit is Montenero di Bisaccia, 100 km away.

Varvarusa Golf Club was founded in 1998 on the initiative of a few citizens of Filignano, emigrants returned from Scotland, Germany and Canada. They were golfers and decided to pursue their passion in their home village too: with few resources and a great deal of effort they turned a small rectangle of land into a course.

Over time, helped by people who had meanwhile discovered the game, they extended it to its present layout of nine holes. The name, the club recalls, derives from “Valley of the roses”: the site lies in the Valle district of the municipality of Filignano, in the province of Isernia, and wild roses are still plentiful.

The website also publishes the statutes, the founding deed and the disciplinary regulations, and over the years has reported on competitions and trophies, such as the Trofeo Banca Mediolanum, which reached its seventh edition in 2018.

• The name comes from roses. Varvarusa derives from “Valley of the roses”, for the wild roses of the area.
• A course built by emigrants. It was wanted by golfers from Filignano who had come back from Scotland, Germany and Canada.
• No fertiliser, no irrigation. According to the club the course depends only on the seasons, and the fairways change colour and firmness through the year.
• Ancient walls on the course. The dry-stone walls line and cross the holes.