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    Golf Digest Logo Best in Every Country

    The best golf courses in Italy

    By Stephen Hennessey and Derek Duncan
    September 10, 2024
    /content/dam/images/golfdigest/fullset/course-photos-for-places-to-play/castiglion-del-bosco-italy-seventh-green.jpg

    The Tom Weiskopf-designed Castiglione del Bosco in Tuscany is ranked eighth in our recent Best in Italy rankings.

    Steve Carr

    Italy isn’t well known for its golf courses. Most of us recognize it only now following the 2023 Ryder Cup at Marco Simone outside of Rome, the No. 1 course in our country-by-country ranking. But Italy’s golf courses are as varied as its cuisine, changing ingredients and flavors as they move to different regions through a complex national landscape that’s slightly smaller but every bit as diverse as the state of California. 

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    The tapestry in the north near the Alps, full of rivers, vales, lakes and hardwood forests, is as different from the blue sky vineyards of Tuscany or the hilly outskirts of Rome as it is from the dry coastal beaches of Sicily. It adds up to a delectable menu of golf experiences that becomes more rewarding the deeper one travels into the local scenes.

    We urge you to click through to each individual course page for bonus photography, drone footage and expanded reviews. Plus, you can now leave your own ratings on the courses you’ve played … to make your case why your favorite should be ranked higher.

    Editor's Note: Our Best Courses in Italy ranking is part of the rollout of the Best Courses in Every Country. Check back over the next few weeks for more of our rankings of the best golf around the world.

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    10. Golf Club Biella Le Betulle
    Private
    10. Golf Club Biella Le Betulle
    Magnano , Biella, Italy
    “Le Betulle” translates to “The Birches,” apt as this course plays deep in a forest of northern Italy hardwoods and evergreens about 90 minutes west of Milan near the border of Piedmont. The design, dating to 1958, has a fine lineage and quiet, Old World feel—it was built by British architect John Morrison, a partner in the design firm of Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison in the 1920s and 30s. The playing corridors are generous but several small burns cut across the property to make players think about shot placement, slicing across the fairway short of the 11th green and running between the 12th and 13th holes.
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    9. Royal Golf La Bagnaia
    Public
    9. Royal Golf La Bagnaia
    Murlo, Siena, Italy
    If you were to make a list of our favorite European golf resorts outside of major cities, Royal Golf La Bagnaia in Tuscany would be near the top. Located in the medieval village of Borgo Bagnaia with close access to Florence, this Robert Trent Jones Jr. course utilizes beautiful rolling topography with a number of green sites built into the side of massive mounds. The Trent Jones Jr. design also uses beautiful lakes and well-placed bunkers to emphasize strategy on nearly every hole.
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    8. The Club at Castiglion del Bosco
    Steve Carr Golf
    Private
    8. The Club at Castiglion del Bosco
    Castiglion del Bosco, Siena, Italy
    Golf in Italy ranks somewhere below wine, art and cuisine. But The Club at Castiglion del Bosco, near Montalcino in the wine heartland of Tuscany, synthesizes all of it. The 2012 Tom Weiskopf design is set on a broad, medieval 2,000-acre estate in the Tuscan foothills that includes both castle ruins and luxury suites and villas. Its holes are wide and elegant, bordered by long fescue roughs with 360-degree panoramic views and significant ridges and kettles shaped into the fairways. Highlights include a quartet of lovely par 3s, a 680-yard par 5 and the potentially drivable par-4 ninth, a Weiskopf staple. The golf course is reserved for members and resident guests of Rosewood Castiglion del Bosco resort.
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    7. Circolo del Golf Roma Acquasanta
    Courtesy of the club
    Private
    7. Circolo del Golf Roma Acquasanta
    Rome, Lazio, Italy
    Italy’s oldest course, laid out by British diplomats, is a parkland layout within Rome inspired by ancient British links courses. Gentle undulations create interesting holes flanked by trees and views of the mausoleum of Cecilia Metella and glimpses of nearby Roman aqueducts. Acquasanta has hosted three Italian Opens, but it’s short by modern standards, tipping out at 6,500 yards. It’s a fun but challenging layout with 400-plus-yard par 4s and a devilish creek that comes into play on half a dozen holes.
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    6. Verdura Resort (Links)
    Courtesy of the club
    Public
    6. Verdura Resort (Links)
    Sciacca , Sicily, Italy
    Creating diversity and different golf experiences is the key to making multi-course resorts like Bandon Dunes, Casa de Campo or Te Arai in New Zealand attractive to repeat play—the merits of the courses become objects of debate because the land and architecture of each are unique, the menu complex. American architect Kyle Phillips achieved this at Verdura, set on the southern coast of Sicily, where his Links Course (formerly called the East Course) shows a distinctly different look and playability than the Shore Course. The Links is longer but more exacting with slender fairways and smaller greens. While it lacks the ocean crescendo of the Shore Course, Phillips managed to get holes from each nine out to the beaches with a series of gorgeous greens set against the Mediterranean waters.
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    5. Golf Club Castelconturbia
    Private
    5. Golf Club Castelconturbia
    Agrate Conturbia, Novara, Italy
    Robert Trent Jones Sr. designed 27 holes on an expanded site of one of Italy’s oldest courses, Couturbier, a nine-hole layout that was the Piedmont region’s first course. After a few iterations, Trent Jones Sr. used similar but widened playing corridors and routed the new course around small lakes, natural streams and trees across some lovely, rolling topography. Castelconturbia hosted the Italian Open twice in the 1990s.
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    4. Verdura Resort (Shore)
    Courtesy of the club
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    4. Verdura Resort (Shore)
    Sciacca , Sicily, Italy
    American architect Kyle Phillips designed both courses at this resort on the south coast of Sicily in 2009, then returned a decade later to rebuild them after they were damaged by floods. The Shore Course, formerly known as the West, is slightly shorter than the Links course and actually plays more linksy than the Links course with broad, rambling fairways outlined by deep fescue roughs. The name comes from the final stretch of holes that play close to the Mediterranean Sea, including the scenic 14th, 17th and 18th that run along the length of the shore.
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    3. Olgiata Golf Club (West)
    Courtesy of the club
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    3. Olgiata Golf Club (West)
    Rome, Lazio, Italy
    Marco Simone is the new kid on the block on the Roman golf scene, but Olgiata—on the northern fringes of the city—is the crown jewel of Italian golf. The 27-hole facility is a classic inland layout originally designed in 1962 by Englishman C.K. Cotton and a former member of Golf Digest's World's 100 Greatest rankings. Recent amendments by American architect Jim Fazio (brother of Tom Fazio) lengthened the course, completed a full rebunkering and added water hazards at strategic spots on five holes. Given its new chops, it might've been surprising to some that Italy's first Ryder Cup wasn't awarded to Olgiata. Rumor has it that old Etruscan tunnels run underneath the course.
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    2. Villa d'Este
    Courtesy of the club
    Public
    2. Villa d'Este
    Montorfano , Como, Italy
    Villa d’Este has been a luxury golf retreat for Europe’s upper classes for nearly 100 years. The course was built in 1926 in a forest just south of Lake Como in Italy’s northern Lombard region, with the majority of holes routed in an east-west orientation through a thick cover of trees. At just over 6,300 yards and a par of 69, it demands precision and tactical placement of the ball, especially into the small greens. The holes are each secluded moving through the lush tree cover across rising, tilting terrain, stylistically falling somewhere between Morfontaine in France and Olympic Club in San Francisco.
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    1. Marco Simone Golf and Country Club (Championship)
    Carlos Amoedo
    1. Marco Simone Golf and Country Club (Championship)
    Guidonia , Lazio, Italy
    Marco Simone's routing offers views of the Roman countryside and some of the city's great landmarks. The original Jim Fazio design opened in the late 1990s then underwent a complete remodel between 2018 and 2021 to prepare it for the 2023 Ryder Cup. European Golf Design, working with Tom Fazio II, Jim’s son, rebuilt and re-routed the holes with match play in mind, creating a consistent theme of risk-reward holes and high-stakes drives. A majority of the par 4s and par 5s possess strands of bunkers that eat into the landing areas where the professionals typically hit their drives, causing players to decide if they have the horsepower to carry them, the nerve to try to maneuver one around them, or to lay back into a conservative position. The closing holes include a potentially drivable par 4 and the massive par-5 18th with water left of the green.
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