Set amongst lush hills close to Italy’s popular Lake Como, the Golf Club Villa D’Este is a charming course designed by Peter Gannon during the 1920s. The layout here winds through chestnut, birch and pine trees with holes laid across grand, sloping terrain that moves in all direction and features plenty of undulating and attractive vistas.
On occasion the fairways here are a little too steep for quality golf, and a few holes are too cramped, but mostly Gannon did a fine job on the routing given the nature of the topography. The scorecard suggests a short, straightforward course but the par is only 69 and the holes are well defended and often play longer than the yardage suggests. Two of the par fives, the 13th and 17th would be even better as long par fours making this an even more demanding par of 67. But wait, there’s more
