Villa d'Este

Overview: Circolo Golf Villa d'Este is an 18-hole woodland course in Montorfano, close to Lake Como, where Peter Gannon's 1926 design climbs and turns through mature chestnut, birch and pine. The compact par-69 routing uses narrow tree-lined corridors, natural land movement and small target areas to make placement more important than brute force. Official club and hotel material gives the course a length of 5,760 metres, approximately 6,299 yards, so the directory value is updated to about 6,300 yards. The surrounding Pre-Alps and glimpses of Lake Montorfano add context without overwhelming the architectural character of the holes.

History: Peter Gannon designed the course in 1926, establishing a layout that quickly became part of the Italian tournament story. The official Villa d'Este guide records twelve editions of the Italian Open at the course since 1932, while the Italian Golf Federation notes that the first edition there arrived in 1928. The course remained under hotel ownership until the end of the 1970s and was reacquired by the hotel in 2024. Its present identity therefore joins early championship history with a renewed connection to the Villa d'Este institution.

Did You Know? The club's course description counts more than 30,000 trees across the setting, including pines, chestnuts and birches. That density is not incidental scenery. It is the defining architectural constraint, giving Villa d'Este its shaded corridors, changing sightlines and unusually strong sense of enclosure for a course beside Lake Como.