Poggio dei Medici - Central Italy - Italy

About a half hour drive northeast of Florence, Medici is a great respite from the maddening hoards of tourists. One is a good welcoming hole. A short par four downhill favor the left side off the tee. Once over the ridge it runs hard right. Decent drive should have a flip wedge to the green. The second hole is a definite birdie oppty. A dogleg left, if you can clear the fairway bunkers on the left elbow you are inside of 200 yards. However, it is one of the few holes with a water hazard, short left and the approach must funnel between trees guarding both sides. Three is another par five this one uphill, but definitely reachable. Favor the left side of the fairway off the tee. The green has a sever right to left slope and is protected on the right with a bunker. Number four is an uphill par four. Pretty benign hole, just hit your drive straight. The green is not very deep, long and narrow. Five is a downhill par four dogleg left. A decent drive should give you a wedge to the green. There’s a small water hazard greenside left shouldn’t come into play, but it did for me. Number six is it give me par 3. Table top green bunker front bunker back. Seven is really a par 4 ½. From the tee aim way left as the fairway runs hard left to right. If you are fortunate enough to stay in the fairway you will have around 200 yards to the green. However, you then must deal with a gaggle of bunkers between you and the elevated green. If you opt to play safe and hit an iron to the throat it is a relatively easy up and down. Terrible par 5, would be an extraordinarily demanding par 4. The par 3 8th while uphill is a yawner. Nine plays much easier than the number two handicap hole. Yes, the fairway bunker left can come into play as can the greenside bunker right, but it is pretty straight, not that long and not too much trouble.

The back starts off with a slight dogleg left to right. There is a fairway bunker on the inside of the elbow and a creek running down the right side. The par four 11th is a dogleg left. Aim well right of center as there is a significant dropoff on the left side. The green is protected on all quadrants by bunkers. If you hook your approach you will be glad to end up in the left bunker. The short downhill par 3 12 plays at least one club less. The par 5 13th is a slight dogleg right with a split fairway. This one will be tough to get home in two, but you would have a better chance from the elevated right side of the fairway. After a heart pumping ascent to the 14th tee box, you have a long par 4 and the number one handicap hole. There are a couple of fairway bunkers left and two short left and behind the green. The real teeth of this hole is if you hit a really good drive you will roll through the fairway and into the rough that bisects the fairway. This obstacle is hard to see from the tee. The par 4 15th is a short dogleg right. Aim 20 yards right of the fairway/ rough seem from the tee. Failure to do so will probably result with your drive ending up in the water hazard. The par 3 16th may not look downhill, but with negligible wind the first 3 guys in our group flew it. For the blind tee shot on the par 4 17th I would recommend favoring the left side of the fairway off the tee as the contour will push the ball right. Take an extra club to the uphill green. The par 5 18th gives you a good chance to end your round with a birdie and is definitely reachable in two. There is a water hazard left that will really only affect really bad 2nd shots. Off the tee favor the right side of the fairway as the slope will push the ball hard left. There are 3 keep you honest greenside bunkers on the left.

Overall, one of the better courses that I played in Italy. There is a lot of clover, which suggests to me they are starting to scrimp on maintenance. Also, slows pace down as people spend an inordinate amount of time searching for golf balls that were not too far from the fairway and should be relatively easy to find. Lastly, and I recognize this is a generalization, Italian courses do not have drinking water on the course. Bring lots of water, especially if you are walking.

Modern Meets Medieval - Poggio dei Medici with its 16th century clubhouse is set in the heart of the beautiful Mugello Region, only 30 kilometers north of Florence near Scarperia. At 600 meters above sea level, the elevation is too high for growing grapes and olives but the sweeping terrain provides an incredibly natural layout for this championship links style course. Poggio dei Medici hosted the European Tour’s Italian Women’s Open from 1999 to 2003. When it opened in 1995 it was immediately recognized by the popular Italian magazine "Il Mondo del Golf" as the best new golf course in Italy. Recently Condé Nast Traveller Magazine recognized Poggio dei Medici as one of the best golf courses in the world, ahead of the likes of the K Club in Ireland and the Greenbrier in the USA. Designed by Italian Architect Alvise Rossi Fioravanti and Baldovino Dassu, its 18 holes are set over two ridges and three valleys. We started out in the early morning playing through a light fog that had settled overnight in the valle surrounded by the Appennino Tosco Emiliano Mountains making it an ideal photo opportunity. This par 72 Poggio dei Medici Golf Club stretches over 7,000 yards (6452 meters to be exact) and when the mist cleared the views from every vantage point were stunning. Fortunately there were 5 sets of tee blocks available to suit any caliber of player. The greens here are much larger than at the Florence Golf Club Ugolino and designed like a stadium course where you can hit it long but make sure you can hit it relatively straight as the fescue-lined fairways and well protected greens will definitely swallow up a few of your golf balls as I can attest. Be sure to take a few minutes to relax and take in the old world charm of clubhouse but if you are a race fan, you may want to head just outside Scarperia to the Autodomo del Mugello a 5.25 km/3.25 mile long car racing circuit featuring 15 bends. This is where the qualifying races for the European Formula 2 and world motorcycling championships are held. For a complete story on golf in Tuscany visit http://golftravelandleisure.com/2013/11/10/golf-tuscany-italy/

A very nice golf course, and definitely one for your list if you are planning a Tuscan golf break. I personally preferred Montecatini as it's a course in keeping with the Tuscan land, as is Ugolino, whereas Poggio is an American style course built in the Tuscan land.