Santapazienza Golf Club

Overview: Santapazienza Golf Club occupies a densely wooded private estate south of Itatiba in São Paulo state. Tom and Logan Fazio shaped an 18-hole parkland course around the Ribeirão Jacaré, using the property’s changes in elevation, mature forest and water to create a varied sequence of holes. The routing alternates between more open ground and tighter woodland corridors, with lakes and the river adding both visual definition and strategic consequence. Its long back nine climbs into the forest, giving the course a distinctly Brazilian setting without losing the Fazios’ emphasis on angles, landing areas and green approaches.

History: The course was developed on a private Fazenda Santa Pazienza estate and debuted in 2015, the first South American project credited to Tom and Logan Fazio. The site quickly became a venue for important junior golf, hosting the Faldo Series South America Championship in 2015 and again in 2016. That combination of private-estate setting, international design authorship and tournament use helped establish Santapazienza as one of Brazil’s most closely watched modern courses.

Did You Know? The Ribeirão Jacaré does more than pass through the property. It opens into two sizeable lakes within the course, while the rear nine rises into mature rainforest. That pairing of a running watercourse, lake edges and forested elevation is a useful key to understanding why the layout changes character so noticeably from one side of the estate to the other.