Destination Golf - June 2018 * | Page 25

The clubhouse is stunning, offering a country retreat feel with facilities to include a pro shop, locker rooms, swimming pool and restaurant. After your game, relax in the Italian sunshine with a chilled beer on the outside patio area; an ideal relaxing setting for your golf holiday. clubhouse. It is a modern and exclusive setting with stylish furniture and soft evening lights, which offers indoor and outdoor dining options for lunch and dinner. It’s also a trendy location for a poolside party, as there are three swimming pools so you can make a day of it. Day three brought our group to Golf della Montecchia. Part of the PlayGolf54 Group and comprising 27 holes in three nine-hole loops, Golf della Montecchia is gloriously situated amidst the Euganean Hills close to Abano Terme. Its most striking features are its elegant, classical- design clubhouse, noted for its Michelin-starred Alaimo restaurant and fronted by a terrace where golfers can reflect on their round over wine in the afternoon sun, and the adjacent, imposing castle of Conte Emo Capodilista that forms the backdrop to the closing holes of its Red and White courses. The courses are flat but water hazards in the form of lakes and sinuous streams make for a technically-demanding challenge on a number of holes. The training facilities are state of the art, including a gym, large indoor putting green and golf simulators. OTHER GOLF COURSES IN THE REGION Golf della Montecchia was honoured with the award for community value in the 2018 IAGTO Sustainability Awards, for its wide- ranging environmental and community work and partnerships with a variety of educational institutions. The historic Venice Golf Club is located at the southern tip of the Lido, a barrier island separating the Venice Lagoon from the Adriatic, and is laid out around a Napoleonic fort with fairways lined by pines, mulberry trees, willows and poplars. It can be reached by vaporetto water bus from a stop next the Doge’s Palace in the heart of Venic e, with a short onward taxi journey, or by car ferry for those with rental cars. Its venerable fairways have been graced by golfers from the great, including Henry Cotton, Arnold Palmer and Seve Ballesteros, to the bad – Hitler and Mussolini. Next on itinerary was a visit to Golf Club Cà della Nave. This golf course is the only design in the Veneto region by the Arnold Palmer Design Company, founded by the late, great golf champion turned course architect. It is also of just three bearing the Palmer name in the whole of Italy. Boasting water hazards on 12 of its 18 holes, it lies in an 18th century park alongside a 450-year-old patrician villa that now serves as the clubhouse. Completely renovated in 2016, the restaurant “Le Serre” is the lively heart of the Cà della Nave golf Among other course are two more by noted golf architects. Tom Fazio designed the Paradiso del Garda Golf Club course in the rolling hills above Lake Garda and Peter Harradine laid out the spectacular mountain course at Asiago Golf Club, set on a high plateau and with an adjacent boutique hotel and spa. Other courses built next to grand villas include those at Ca’ Amata Golf Club, where the clubhouse is flanked by a 300-year-old villa, and Villa Condulmer Golf Club, laid out around a palatial villa that is now a five-star hotel.Besides Ca’ della Nave Golf Club, several other courses are in the grounds of former parks. Among them is Frassanelle Golf Club, where the fairways wind through a 500-acre, 19th century country park. For beach lovers, Pra’ delle Torri Caorle’s par-3 5th hole skirts the sea and the 6th tee juts out onto the sandy beach. It and nearby Jessolo Golf Club are close to beach resort Lido di Jessolo, on the Venetian Riviera. Volume 4 • Issue 44 25