Franciacorta (Brut & Saten)

The 27-hole golf facility at Franciacorta Golf Club is one of Pete Dye’s rare European projects from the mid-1980s and he designed the layout in collaboration with Marco Croze. The Brut and Saten nines form the championship 18-hole layout, measuring 6,143 metres from the back markers and playing to a par of 73.

The Brut nine features three par fives and it’s the second of these, the 450-metre 6th, that most golfers will remember. The hole is known as “the hole in the wall” and it plays steadily uphill, over a ten-foot high stone dyke that crosses the fairway, forcing a blind approach to a long, kidney-shaped green.

The Saten nine’s most memorable hole is the par three 120-metre 2nd, which plays to a spectacular island green. It requires a mere flick of a short iron to reach the putting surface, but – like its more famous equivalent at the Sawgrass 17th – the intimidation factor is very high on a hole that can make or break a round.

Franciacorta has hosted a number of top amateur and professional events in recent years. Most notably, the Italian PGA Championship of 2008 and the Senior Italian Championships in 2009 were both held at this venue.

”The Wine Golf Course is not the longest” said Costantino Rocca, “but it has the subtlety of a fine wine and I always look forward to a game here – and a sociable drink. Brut/Saten [the names of two of the three layouts] is the usual way to play 18 of the 27 holes. With L’Albereta hotel and Marchesi’s restaurant nearby, this is how to enjoy golf and la dolce vita.”