Italy's most beautiful golf courses: eighteen layouts

Italy's highest 18-hole course stands at 2,050 metres, beneath the Matterhorn. The country's oldest club, according to its own members, has been playing since 1903 on land belonging to the Torlonia princes, between the Appian Way and a Roman aqueduct. The same country has a course with a green shaped like Africa, one built in an abandoned clay quarry, one in an ancient volcanic crater. Italy has no single style of golf: it has thirty.

The eighteen courses at a glance

The championship courses: where history was played

Marco Simone is the course the world knows best: in 2023 Europe beat the United States here 16.5 to 11.5 in the Ryder Cup. The club rebuilt it for the occasion with Tom Fazio II and European Golf Design: par 72, from 6,674 to 7,299 metres, with lakes and amphitheatre-style slopes for the crowds. From some points you can see the dome of St Peter's.

Olgiata, in Rome, has an even longer record: the Eisenhower Trophy in 1964, the World Cups of 1968 and 1984, the Italian Open in 1973, 2002 and 2019. It has two courses, the 18-hole West and the nine-hole East. Beneath the course, the club points out, Etruscan tunnels and caves still run.

Villa d'Este at Montorfano is the only Italian club to have hosted twelve editions of the Italian Open. Peter Gannon designed it in 1926: in 2026 it turns one hundred, at about 400 metres above sea level among chestnuts, birches and pines. It is a par 69 of 5,760 metres, proof that you do not need 7,000 metres to make history. The Villa d'Este hotel bought it back in 2024.

Royal Park I Roveri was born in 1971 from the will of the Agnelli family, who commissioned Robert Trent Jones Senior to build a course in the La Mandria hunting reserve, next to the Venaria Royal Palace. It has 36 holes, four Italian Opens (2009–2012) and, in the 17th, the hole that the Gazzetta dello Sport called the most beautiful in Italy in 2011.

The sea: Sardinia, Sicily, Maremma

Pevero has been played since 1972 on the Costa Smeralda, between Pevero Bay and Cala di Volpe. Robert Trent Jones made it a par 72 of 6,107 metres; the club asks for a maximum handicap of 54 and bans jeans and T-shirts. The Italian Open was played here in 1978.

Is Molas, at Pula, has 27 holes and a detail no other Italian course can boast: on the 14th the green is an island shaped like Africa. Since 1975 it has hosted four Italian Opens. It is playable all year round, and you can sleep a few steps away at the Is Molas Resort.

Verdura is the only one of the eighteen with 45 holes: East Links (par 73), West Shore (par 70) and an Executive course, all by Kyle Phillips, in a resort where motor vehicles are banned. According to the resort, as of 3 October 2026 the West Shore is open with work under way on the Bermuda grass and the Executive stays closed until spring 2027. The resort is the Verdura Resort.

Argentario, at Porto Ercole, hosted the Italian Open 2025, won by Adrien Saddier at -14, and since 2019 has been the only Italian course with a PGA National licence. The resort is the Argentario Golf & Wellness Resort. At Punta Ala, in 1964, golf took root on the back of a hill with the sea in the background: 18 holes in the Maremma scrub, centuries-old holm oaks included.

In Apulia, San Domenico, a design by Andy Haggar, has hosted the Grand Final of the European Challenge Tour and the Italian PGA Championship. Guests of the Masseria San Domenico have a green-fee agreement: 65 to 105 euros in 2026 instead of 95–150.

Lakes and hills: from Arzaga to Lake Maggiore

Arzaga, in the hills of the Valtenesi, has two signatures: Jack Nicklaus II for the 18-hole par 72 and Gary Player for the nine-hole course. On Player's 6th hole the green sits on a peninsula reaching out into the lake. Next door, the QC Grand Hotel Villa Arzaga occupies a 15th-century villa.

At Menaggio, on Lake Como, the club was founded on 10 January 1907 by four English gentlemen led by the banker Henry John Mylius: the second oldest in Italy. It has a library of more than 1,200 volumes, the oldest dating from 1682.

The Franciacorta Golf Club stands where an abandoned clay quarry once was: in 1984 the entrepreneur and wine producer Vittorio Moretti transformed it with 18 other members. Pete Dye and Marco Croze designed the course, opened in July 1986. The three nines are called Brut, Satèn and Rosé, like the types of Franciacorta; nearby is L'Albereta Relais & Châteaux.

Further west, the Golf des Iles Borromées offers a rare view: from the 10th tee, on clear days, you can see the skyscrapers of Milan and four lakes.

The mountains: Cervino and St. Vigil

The Golf Club del Cervino, at Valtournenche, stands at 2,050 metres and presents itself as the highest 18-hole course in Italy. It is a par 69 of about 5,300 metres designed by Donald Harradine in the early 1950s. The 2026 season runs from 30 May to 13 September.

Lower down, in South Tyrol, St. Vigil Seis spreads out at the foot of the Sciliar at 850 metres: par 69, slope 133, and a 15th hole that the club says is one of the par 3s with the greatest drop in Europe. The 2026 season runs from 9 April to 25 October.

The historic clubs: where Italian golf began

The Acquasanta club has a history you can read in its dates: on 28 November 1903 the members ratified the links of the Torlonia princes. In Venice the Alberoni club, founded in 1928, has the character of a links and hosted the Italian Open in 1955, 1960 and 1974. The Golf Club Milano was born in 1928 in Monza Park, where a royal pheasantry once stood; it has 27 holes and nine Italian Opens. At Bogliaco, on Lake Garda, the club of 1912 was turned into a wheat field in 1934 and returned to golf in 1952.

Spas, vineyards and resorts: the golf that heals

Italian golf also has a holiday calling. At Terme di Saturnia the grass on the course is treated with spring water: once a week the greenkeepers spray it on the turf, and the sulphur it contains prevents fungal diseases, according to the hotel. The spring flows at 37.5 °C. At the Terme di Saturnia resort the course has 18 holes, par 72, designed by Ronald Fream, and GEO environmental certification since 2014.

How to choose the right course for your trip

What to know before booking

Almost all of these clubs require a valid handicap; Pevero states 54, Menaggio an exact handicap of 54. Some have written dress codes (at Acquasanta no jeans and no metal spikes). Then check the season: mountain courses close, and coastal courses apply very different price lists between low and high season.

Curiosities

• The highest winning score. Dale Hayes, 293 strokes at Pevero in 1978: according to the club the worst winning score on the European circuit.
• A course without cars. At Verdura motor vehicles are banned: you get around in electric vehicles.
• The Molinari family. Edoardo and Francesco grew up as golfers at La Mandria; in 2018 Francesco won the Claret Jug.
• A wheat field. In 1934 the Bogliaco course was turned into a wheat field; during the war the Germans used it as an airstrip.
• A two-storey golf range. The driving range at St. Vigil Seis has 32 covered bays spread over two levels.