4 nights at the Best Quality Hotel La Darsena, breakfast, 3 green fees

Founded in 1924, the Circolo Golf Torino changed location more than once before finding the right place in 1956 inside the Mandria Regional Park, on lands that fifteen years later would be bordering on the first Royal Park I Roveri course. There have been many illustrious figures amongst its chairmen – such as automobile designer Sergio Pininfarina from 1996 to 2005 – who have helped maintain the high level and prestige of a club which has always been a salon for the Who’s Who of Turin. In addition, it boasts a top level competitive history: not only for having hosted three Italian Opens in 1999, 2013 and 2014, but also for collecting an impressive series of amateur titles with its own athletes and having trained world-class golfers such as brothers Edoardo and Francesco Molinari, titleholders of multiple events on the European Tour, world champions in 2009 and members of the Ryder Cup. Without mentioning Francesco Molinari’s triumph at the Open Championship in 2018, at Carnoustie… Chronologically speaking, the Torino Club was the second Italian club to have 36 holes after Monticello. The Blue course – the one used in the Opens – dates back to 1956 and was built to John Morrison’s design, then it underwent a series of renovations from 1998 by Canadian architect Graham Cooke. The front nine of the Yellow course, designed by Marco Croze, were the last to be opened in 1986 and complete the complex homogeneously. Featuring sharp doglegs through woodlands and water hazards, it is shorter than the Blue course but with very undulating greens that are difficult to understand at first sight. Characteristics that both courses share are the centuries-old trees that frame each hole and the frequency of natural water hazards, streams and ponds that help to challenge players. A 9-hole pitch&putt course has been recently added to the complex, making the Torino club a unique destination in terms of services offered. Technical Details Course: 2×18 holes, Par 72/72, 6054/6038 meters Architects: John Morrison, Marco Croze and Graham Cooke Topography: mostly flat, hilly fairways with age-old woods, mountains in the background. Distinctive features: The grounds are characterized by large fairways and by well- protected greens. Pro’s comments The Circolo Golf Torino features 36 holes that are each one more beautiful than the last. The Blue course, host venue for three editions of the Italian Open, is technically faultless. The length and width of the fairways are perfectly balanced with the greens, lately remodeled, and which complicate matters with greatly accentuated mounds and slopes. Hole 3 with its dogleg turning left and a green surrounded by a small stream is wonderful. Don’t try to reach the green if you don’t have a well angled approach shot. The small river surrounding the green is full of golf balls!!!! The Yellow course is different and more accessible for medium-high handicaps but also great fun and stimulating. Allow me to mention Hole 14, a par 3 of 136 meters on the banks of a large lake. Stop for a minute to take a picture. The panorama is truly first-rate.

The club is located just 30 minutes by car from Turin, at 450 meters above sea level and at the threshold of the Susa Valley on the road leading to the mountains that hosted the 2006 Olympic Games – Oulx, Bardonecchia, Sansicario and Sestrières – and 3 kilometers from Lake Avigliana, in a magnificent natural context. It is hard to believe that in the same area where John Harris configured the 18 holes built at the request of entrepreneur Giuseppe Maggiora, the Nobel Dynamite Company, the most important factory of explosives in the world from the last century, was still operating here until the 1950s. Only a few of the company’s architectural traces remain, such as the small casemates which occasionally appear semi-hidden on the margins of the course. The course alternates very challenging holes with others that are more relaxing, but precision is always fundamental for a good score. The most spectacular hole is number 2, a par 4 of 420 meters. You must climb up to the tee box, a difference in level of perhaps 30 meters, and the panorama is there to distract you. The Sacra di San Michele, the Rocciamelone and the Castle of Avigliana overlook golfer’s drives which must somehow fit through a sharply curving corridor edged by American oaks and ashes. The out of bounds is there to the right for more than half of the curve. And if that were not enough – the fairway sloping in that direction is an accessory to the crime – there is also a pond waiting to catch the most powerful slices. The green is hidden behind a forest of very tall trees. No shot is possible to the left. Course: 18 holes, Par 71, 5951 meters Architect: John Harris Topography: quite undulating with many water hazards Distinctive features: a tip: avoid long drives and opt for a short game A good score at the Golf Club Le Fronde is unthinkable unless you have played it at least once attentively: blind doglegs, greens and a course with steep slopes and severe differences in level, water hazards that are not always visible, all these combine to make a first approach complicated. Many of the out of bounds have been positioned on the right side of the holes, so it is best to avoid slicing. In compensation, the course is not long and is great fun. Due to its altitude and position at the threshold of the Susa Valley, it often proves to be cool even in summertime.

La Mandria Regional Park, or better, the immense hunting reserve that once belonged to the royal Savoy family a few kilometers from Turin, is the backdrop for the Royal Park Golf I Roveri course, a club that came into being in the early 1970s and which has become one of Italy’s most beautiful courses over time. Credit is also due to its visionary promoters who entrusted Robert Trent Jones Sr. with the upgrading project of the existing 9 holes and with creating a new course. This resulted in a championship 18-hole course inaugurated in 1974, flanked by 12 supporting holes suitable for practice. It is a club with a personality that distinguishes itself from the nearby Circolo Golf Torino with a clear American stamp which translates into sweeping spaces and many water hazards. The Italian Open was played here for four consecutive editions from 2009 to 2012. In keeping with its remarkable sense of modernity, in the 2000s the club called upon architects Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry to transform and expand those 12 holes, thus creating the Pramerica, the second 18-hole course on the property, elected “Best New Course” in Italy in 2014 by Il Mondo del Golf magazine. This innovative course allows players to choose their game strategy right from the tee, defensive or aggressive, according to their ability, with water hazards that come into play more or less decidedly on the majority of the holes. Nature is the undeniable protagonist on this complex, as it is not rare to see a herd of fawns crossing the road, and villas and farmhouses are hidden from sight during play. Only the age-old farmstead, the Cerbiatta, stands prominently, renovated in 1984 and transformed into the current clubhouse with its restraine. Technical Details Course: 2×18 holes, Par 72/72, 6218/6165 meters Architects: Robert Trent Jones/Michael Hurdzan Topography: relatively flat, water hazards and bunkers Distinctive features: The 18 front holes, Allianz Course, conceived by the well-known architect Robert Trent Jones in 1971, feature bunkers, water hazards and greens that enhance a strategic play. For many years now the course has hosted the Italian Open, thus contributing to increase the fame of the Golf Club. The additional 18 holes, Allianz Bank, designed by Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry, were developed preserving the original environmental context. The very varied courses are plunged into an enchanting natural landscape, sometimes crossed by torrents. The principal fairways are very big, the bunkers well protected and water hazards decorate the playground, without forgetting the courses quality, which is perfectly kept. Ball drops, pre-greens and greens are always at their best and the two courses are among the best golfs in Italy. Pro’s comments Two magnificent (and completely different) courses which could not go missing on your golfer’s CV: the Trent Jones is a true work of art, a parkland course with many water hazards (ponds and rivers touch on 12 holes) with Hole 17, which will stay on your minds for a long time. This is a long par 4 with a large lake in the middle of the fairway which can intimidate, but once you get past it, as reward, there is a large green with little sloping waiting for you: a small masterpiece of golf architecture. The Pramerica has a more modern feel to it, is rather long with large greens that are not too hospitable, and which propose devious slopes that are hard to read. Hole 2 is splendid and can be attacked by stronger players who can try to hit the green by passing directly above the lake on the left. Using a more wary strategy, players can score a par rather easily.