Links at Brunello

The Links at Brunello course is part of a master development spread across five hundred and thirty acres and the layout is built to scale inside this large property, with some long distances between holes – it’s just as well carts are mandatory when playing here or there would be golfers with some very tired legs when walking off the home green.

Set out by Tom McBroom and opened for play in 2015, the layout is carpeted in bent grass from tee to green, with large, “bull nose” bunkers – a recent McBroom design trait – arranged sparingly around the course. Forty acres of wetland have also been incorporated into the design, boosting the course’s eco-credentials.

Many of the holes are played from elevated tee positions into fairways which then require an approach to a raised green (such as at the par four 7th) but such design devices can become repetitive if used too often and around half the holes on the course are fashioned in this manner, which some golfers might find irritating.

Highlight holes include the par three 2nd, played downhill across a canyon to a shallow, offset green and the long par four 4th, where water flanks the left side of the narrow fairway as it gently bends toward the green. On the back nine, the par four 11th is by far the best hole on the inward half, rising gently to a green that tilts markedly from back to front.