Golf in Italy | All Square Golf

Northern Italy is where most golf is played in the country. In the population centers from Turin all the way over to Venice there are to be found the greatest concentration of the country’s courses. Unfortunately, relatively little of Italy’s extensive and spectacular coastline has been devoted to the game, though as it happens the mountains tend to come right down to the sea and limit the opportunities for links-style play. Outside the north, Rome naturally has a number of courses, and the headquarters of the Italian Golf Federation is at Le Querce, close to the capital. Most of the international tournaments that come to Italy are played in and around Turin, Milan, Verona or Venice, though the Eisenhower Trophy was held at Rome’s Olgiata Golf Club in 1964.

For most of the past century, golf was a pastime for the elite of Italian society, and amateur tournaments were dominated by the likes of Count Sabini, Signora Isa Goldschmid and her brother Franco Bevione, who held the country’s title for more than half of the 25 years immediately following World War II. Later on, Constantino Rocca, who turned pro in 1981, had a number of victories on the European Tour , and is so far the only one of his countrymen to have competed in the Ryder Cup . In recent years, the brothers Francesco and Eduardo Molinari have made names for themselves, becoming in 2009 the first siblings to triumph in the World Cup in China; Eduardo also managed to win the US Amateur Championship.