REGION Veneto
COUNTY Venezia
LOCALITY Alberoni
ADDRESS Strada Vecchia, 1

PHONE: +39041731333

DESCRIPTION

First in the region and among the first in Italy, the foundation dates back to 1928, from then to now was and is the only golf course in Venice. The legend has it that it was a small incident occurred during the visit of Henry Ford – President of Ford Motor Company – to originate the idea of creating a golf course on the Venice Lido. Disembarking at the Hotel Excelsior in 1928 with its bag and clubs, Mr. Ford asked his friend Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata to try himself out playing at the nearest links. Regretfully, his host had to reply that there were no golf links in Venice and set out never to embarrass himself like that again in his life, although this sport was almost unheard of in Italy at the time. Count Volpi di Misurata, then shareholder and President of CIGA, the Italian Company of Grand Hotels, immediately started to search for a suitable area where to design a course abreast with the elegant architecture and facilities already existing on the island. He identified an area of 100 hectares at Alberoni, the southern end of the Lido – near Malamocco harbour’s mouth, whose natural features – windy and characterized by a sandy soil – were up to the standards of the best British traditions. Under the lead of Scottish architect Cruikshank of Maxwell M. Hart of Glasgow, the works begun in 1928, around an old Austrian fortification built for the defense of Venice, army quarters and horse stables – that make up the skeleton of today’s Club House. The architect designed the first 9 holes, finally providing Venice with an intriguing PAR 35 course. Later with the help of 25 noble families of the Venetian era the path begins to evolve and already in the immediate postwar years the growing sport and the club prestige demanded the enlargement to 18 holes, concluded at the end of 1951 with the English architect CK Cotton, which led the way to the current 72 Par. Hard not to fall in love right away of a complex, extremely technical course like that of Venice, in an area of great natural breath with large trees that create a unique green setting. The self-draining sandy ground is able to absorb even the most intense rains in a short time allowing the practicability 12 months a year. Par 72 of almost 6200 meters from the championship tees, despite the plants that surround has many features that remind the Scottish links. The winds of Bora and Scirocco often make life difficult by increasing the difficulty of hitting the greens well protected by large natural sand bunkers. Many fairways are outlined by a variety of trees, such as maritime pines, willow trees, poplars and mulberries underlining the importance of accuracy from tee. The design includes holes well guarded by bunkers, where the drive must be accurate in order to find the landing area, as well as longer holes requiring a more powerful drive. The front nine present two difficult par 3: hole 2, with a distance of just 128 metres, where high accuracy is required to hit the green and hole 5 that, under constant influence of the marine breeze, requires a good long iron or hybrid shot. And then, the third par 3, the legendary hole 9, worthy of a link’s best tradition, with a blind shot crossing through the fort. The second 9 holes are longer and include 2 excellent par 5, namely hole 11 and 13 – leading to the final stretch, 5 consecutive par 4 meander among the trees and require greater tee or fairway accuracy to hit the small and elevated greens which are always well protected. Although the holes are relatively short with respect to modern standards, the old saying that “the round is not over until it’s over” surely applies to these spectacular final holes.