La Bagnaia

Situated less than a 30-minute drive from the centre of Siena, a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site, the 18-hole layout at Royal Golf La Bagnaia is Robert Trent Jones Jnr’s first design in Tuscany, and it’s one of three Italian courses currently in the American architect’s portfolio.

The course is set out as an “inland links” within an enormous, rolling estate where fairways are positioned around the sparkling waters of five attractive lakes. Indeed, many of the feature holes on both nines are set out beside these attratctive water hazards.

On the front nine, holes 3, 4 and 7 all dogleg left around the aquatic obstacles. The 399-metre 4th is rated the most difficult hole on the outward half, played to an offset green that slopes markedly from right to left, towards the water.

After the turn, the par five 13th hole also skirts past another large body of water, with the boomerang-shaped fairway turning sharply right towards a small green sitting on the far side of the lake and this hole is rated stroke index 2 for a good reason -- it's tough to play!.