Is Molas Resort

The championship course, a par 72 of 6,383 metres, opened in 1975: Cotton, Pennink & Partners laid it out to a design by Piero Mancinelli. A year later it was already staging its first Italian Open, won by Baldovino Dassù; it has hosted four in all.

Two holes stick in the memory. The 13th is the "road hole": the fairway narrows to just over 25 metres between the Sahara bunker and a lake. On the 14th the green is almost entirely surrounded by water and shaped like the African continent.

The Yellow nine completes the 27 holes. It has been resown with heat-tolerant Bermuda grass and has been playable again since 31 December 2025. The irrigation system for the whole complex is being replaced to cut water use by at least 30%, and 18 holes are already done.

Tee times are booked online. An 18-hole weekday green fee costs from €80 to €135 depending on the season. The academy teaches with TrackMan and video analysis and runs a summer camp for juniors; the range costs €15, or €25 with equipment, and buggies, trolleys and full sets of clubs are for hire.

All 72 rooms have been fully renovated; the sea-view ones look across the Gulf of Nora, and family rooms sleep up to four.

The resort's beach club sits on Porto Agumu bay, a few minutes away: 20 beach stations and a restaurant with a 200 m² terrace, linked to the hotel by a frequent shuttle from June to September. A transfer from Cagliari airport can be booked on request.

Le Ginestre serves Mediterranean food with a sea view, while La 19 Bistrot looks out over both the course and the sea. There is also the beach club restaurant and the pool bar, La Pergola.

The unlimited golf packages, 3, 5 or 7 nights with unrestricted play on all 27 holes, run from April to October, excluding July and August. Winter is an option too: the resort speaks of days often above 15 °C in December and January, and the club publishes green fees for every month of the year.

• The course in a champion's words. The resort's hole-by-hole guide is written by Baldovino Dassù, winner of the first Open here. On the 14th he suggests flying the ball over Cape Town, where the green is widest; any shot aimed west of Nigeria needs "the precision of a watchmaker".
• The 5th is the toughest. It is stroke index one and, for Dassù, probably the most punishing hole on the course: bushes on both sides, out of bounds on the left, a lake, a deep bunker and a lone tree guarding a "canyon" with a hidden stream.
• Seventy metres of water. On the 9th the driver stays in the bag, because a lake lies 230 metres from the tee; the second shot then has to carry 70 metres of water to a two-tier green.
• Horseshoe bunkers. The par-3 10th plays over the lake to a green bitten by two horseshoe-shaped bunkers known as the "Is Molas bunkers".
• A Sardinian stone wall. The 15th is the "wall hole", the longest par 5 on the course, with out of bounds beyond a Sardinian dry-stone wall. On the 16th the tee shot has to reckon with the "Beardies" of Is Molas.