Magazine
Golf & luxury living
Style & GearWhat to wear for golf in the mountains
For every kilometre of altitude the standard atmosphere loses 6.5 degrees, and Cervino plays at 2,050 metres. Anyone who heads up in June in a polo and shorts soon finds that mountain golf is played in layers, and that the sun does more damage than the cold.
5 min read
Luxury StaysGolf hotels in Apulia: the masserie for golfers
When the Melpignano family turned the Knights of Malta tower at Savelletri into a hotel, the Michelin Guide recounts, it was the first time \"masseria\" described an accommodation business. Today, nearby, there is an 18-hole course with sea views from every hole and a nine-hole course among the olive trees.
7 min read
Luxury StaysHow to choose a hotel for a golf holiday: 10 questions
A hotel can be open while its course is not: at Verdura, in Sicily, the nine-hole Executive stays closed until spring 2027 and the West Shore is under works. Before booking a golf resort it pays to ask ten questions, and the answers are almost always on the hotel's website.
6 min read
Wellness & SpaSpa hotels for golfers: a guide to choosing
A cryogenic chamber at −85 °C, a six-storey sauna tower, six pools of seawater, a spring at 37.5 degrees: at hotels for golfers the spa can be a very different thing from one place to the next, and it pays to choose before booking.
10 min read
Great CoursesThe 9-hole courses worth travelling for
A nine-hole course is played twice, which is why place matters more than design: at Courmayeur a river runs through it, at Carezza there are 400 metres of elevation change, at Cortina every hole is named after a peak. Ten short courses, chosen because each has a reason to go.
7 min read
Golf TravelGolf with children: the resorts with a junior academy
At Verdura the junior programme runs from ages 6 to 16, at Saturnia the green and orange tees are reserved for under-12s, and at Is Molas there is a summer camp for young players. Eight resorts where you can play golf with your children without leaving them behind.
6 min read
Golf TravelA golf weekend from Milan: the courses within an hour
In 1985 the Italian Open was played at Cernusco sul Naviglio, about ten kilometres from central Milan, and the winner finished 21 under par. For a golf weekend in Milan, the hard part is not going far but choosing where.
9 min read
Style & GearGolf travel bags and covers for flying with your clubs
One model weighs about three kilos, another almost seven: the empty travel cover counts towards the airline's weight limit, and choosing the right one means deciding how many kilos are left for the clubs.
6 min read
Great CoursesMarco Simone, the Home of the 2023 Ryder Cup
On Friday 29 September 2023, after the opening session, Europe led 4-0, something that had never happened in Ryder Cup history. The course where it unfolded, in Guidonia, is a fifteenth-century castle with a par 72 around it.
5 min read
Luxury LivingOpera at the Arena di Verona and golf on Lake Garda: three days in summer 2027
The cheapest ticket for the Arena di Verona in 2027 starts at 22 euros and buys you a stone step: for the evening at the opera you need a cushion, for the day before a tee time. Here is how to fit the two together.
6 min read
Wellness & SpaWorking out on holiday: the gyms of golf hotels
At eight in the morning, before the round, some guests take a free yoga class on a jetty on Lake Garda, while others run on a treadmill looking out over the Adriatic. These are the golf hotels where the gym is genuinely part of the stay.
7 min read
Golf TravelGolf at the Foot of Mont Blanc: the Aosta Valley
At Courmayeur the Dora flows through the course and two par 3s cross it; at Breuil-Cervinia you play at 2,050 metres beneath the Gran Becca. In the Aosta Valley golf is a summer game, or nearly, played between 1,000 and 2,000 metres.
7 min read
Great CoursesVerdura: Kyle Phillips's 45 holes in Sicily
Sir Rocco Forte wanted a golf holiday in Sicily of the kind that, by his own admission, did not exist in Europe, and at Sciacca he got 45 holes without a single petrol engine. On Sicily's south-western coast, the architect of Kingsbarns designed 45 holes across 570 acres of orange groves, olive groves and sea.
6 min read
Golf Know-howGetting ready for a week of golf: fitness, pace and habits
Four hundred metres of elevation change in a single round at Carezza, between four and a half and five hours at Asiago: seven days of golf are a small physical feat, and it pays to prepare a few weeks ahead.
5 min read
Great CoursesAre there links courses in Italy?
Sand, dunes, wind and the sea close by: the ingredients of the Scottish links are found at very few courses in Italy, and one was built with sand dredged from the sea.
7 min read
Wellness & SpaSpas for families
At six you may enter the Quellenhof's Family Spa, at sixteen its rooftop spa, and at Almar in Jesolo the spa is closed to anyone under sixteen. With children, the minimum age matters more than the square metres: here is where a golf hotel's spa truly welcomes the whole family.
6 min read
Great CoursesTorino La Mandria
According to the club, Edoardo and Francesco Molinari grew up as golfers on the fairways of La Mandria; in 2018 Francesco won the Claret Jug at Carnoustie. Circolo Golf Torino has played since 1956 in a Savoy park, with two 18-hole courses and three Italian Opens.
6 min read
Luxury LivingSailing and golf: the Italian places for both
On 16 May 2026 eight crews played the Pevero green; the next day they raced J/70s off Porto Cervo, and the final score added the two events together. It is the Vela & Golf, and it is not the only place in Italy where sea and fairway meet.
6 min read
Golf Know-howPlaying golf in the heat: practical advice
Four extra yards, about 3.7 metres: that is what a 250-yard drive gains when the temperature rises from 21 to 32 degrees, according to a TrackMan study. The ball flies, but it is the golfer who pays the bill: what the Ministry of Health says and how to plan a summer round.
5 min read
Food & WineApulia: Primitivo and the cooking of the masserie
Primitivo di Manduria must be at least 85% Primitivo, cannot exceed 18 grams of sugar per litre, and the Riserva spends two years in the cellar: yet in Savelletri, where you sleep in masserie with a golf course, that wine is not made locally.
6 min read
Luxury LivingLuxury shopping near golf resorts
More than 230 shops and discounts of up to 70%, says Serravalle Designer Outlet, in the same municipality where a nine-hole course stretches among the Gavi vineyards: four outlets and a concept store, each paired with a course or a hotel.
6 min read
Golf TravelA week of golf in Sicily, from Sciacca to Etna
At the 5th hole of Il Picciolo you tee off from boxes set into lava; 258 kilometres away, on the south-west coast, Verdura has, according to the resort, a links with not a single building along the holes. One week, two resorts, two opposite ways of playing in Sicily.
8 min read
Golf TravelGolf weekend from Rome: courses within an hour
In Rome a round of golf can last two hours: at Tiber, on the Via del Mare, the eighteen holes measure between 40 and 90 metres. Those with a whole weekend, though, can choose between a volcanic crater, a Ryder Cup course and a layout in the Tuscia.
8 min read
Great CoursesCastelconturbia, 27 holes between Novara and Lake Maggiore
The course record at Castelconturbia is 66, and it carries two signatures: José María Olazábal's and Costantino Rocca's. The layout is a 27-hole Robert Trent Jones Sr. design with Monte Rosa on the horizon.
6 min read