Italian golf clubs founded before 1930

Before 1930, golf in Italy was the preserve of a few: English tourists, luxury hotels, the odd prince. Some of those clubs are still there and can be played. Here are thirteen clubs with a founding date before 1930, ordered by year.

Thirteen historic clubs, year by year

The year in the table is the one each club gives as its foundation, opening or start of works; green fees are those in the price lists published by the clubs.

Two notes on reading the table. The year for Torino is that of the club, founded in 1920: the present course at La Mandria dates from 1956. The year for Alpino di Stresa is that of the official inauguration, in September 1925, after work began in 1924.

Which is the oldest? The claims compared

In Italy, the title of oldest has more than one owner. Acquasanta presents itself as the oldest club in Italy: a nine-hole “Rome Golf Club” is documented as early as 1898 and the present course dates from 1903. Menaggio, for its part, says it is the second oldest in Italy, founded on 10 January 1907 at the Hotel Victoria by four Englishmen led by the banker Henry John Mylius.

After second place, the discrepancies begin. Campo Carlo Magno claims third place, after Acquasanta (1907) and Menaggio (1911): dates that do not match those the two clubs give on their own websites. Bogliaco, according to the Grand Hotel Fasano, is “the third oldest course in Italy”, founded in 1912. Claviere says only that it is among the five oldest clubs, with FIG affiliation in 1926. The upshot is that two clubs claim third place and the dates do not add up: the seniority podium remains contested.

Stories worth knowing before you book

The lake. At Menaggio the first nine holes were built in 1907 above the town, under the supervision of John Henry Taylor, five-time winner of the Open Championship. Today the club has 18 holes, par 70, a library of more than 1,200 golf volumes (the oldest dating from 1682) and requires an exact handicap of 54. At Bogliaco the club was born in 1912 on the initiative of a hotelier; in 1934 the course was turned into a wheat field, during the war German troops used it as an airstrip and American troops played baseball on it, and golf returned in 1952. It has had 18 holes since 2004. For a place to stay, the Grand Hotel Fasano in Gardone Riviera lists Bogliaco among the three courses on the Brescia shore; it does not publish golf packages.

The mountains. Campo Carlo Magno, at 1,650 metres, was born in 1919, when Fritz Osterreicher turned land inherited from the imperial house of Austria into a golf course. The course has been in operation since 1921 and FIG affiliation dates from 1923; in 2026 it opened on 19 June. Claviere was born in 1923 with nine holes laid out from the Hotel Santi, under the patronage of Prince Umberto of Savoy, and the first nine lay on both sides of the main road. It is a seasonal course: according to its website the 2026 season has ended and the club reopens in summer 2027. On the Mottarone, the Alpino di Stresa hosted the first three editions of the Italian Open: in 1927 Percy Alliss won after a playoff and shot 67 in the replay, the course record. Anyone looking for a bed in Stresa can consider Villa e Palazzo Aminta, which according to the hotel counts the Alpino among its two nearest clubs, 5 kilometres away.

Cities and the sea. Villa d'Este, designed by Peter Gannon in 1926, has hosted twelve Italian Opens, a record, and celebrates its centenary in 2026; the Villa d'Este hotel bought the club back in 2024. The Golf Club Milano was founded on 8 May 1928 in the former royal pheasantry of Monza Park, has 27 holes and has hosted nine Italian Opens, but on Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays the course is reserved for members and their guests, who are welcome up to six times a year. In Venice, the Circolo Golf Venezia was founded in 1928; legend tells of Henry Ford, landing at the Hotel Excelsior with his clubs, and of Count Volpi di Misurata, to whom he could not say where to play. At Rapallo the course was designed in 1929 by the local tourist board; the Excelsior Palace recommends it to its guests and gives 1931 as the opening date. At Fiuggi the club claims to have been born in 1928 as a public course, the first in Italy.

The forerunners: golf that was there before and came back

Four other Italian courses have a longer history than their official date. Ugolino in Florence descends, according to the club, from the Florence Golf Club of 1889, founded by the English on land belonging to Princess Demidoff; the present course dates from 1934. At Conturbia, in 1898, there was already a nine-hole course, the Couturbier, the only one in Piedmont and one of only two in Italy: today it is Castelconturbia. At the Passo di Carezza, European nobility was already playing golf around 1905, until the wars emptied the area. The Franciacorta Golf Club recalls a first society founded in 1927 at Borgonato by Baron Edoardo Pizzini Piomarta.

How to choose

• You are interested in history: Menaggio and Acquasanta, the two contesting the title.
• You want the most accessible course: Fiuggi, Alpino and Claviere, among the lowest prices in the table.
• You are looking for a mountain course: Campo Carlo Magno and Claviere, open in summer.
• You are planning a weekend: Milano is reserved for members on Saturday and Sunday.