ITALY’S OLDEST CLUB
It was olive harvesting time and everywhere they were shaking the olive trees, catching the falling fruit on large, net blankets. In the old days, they used sticks & ladders but now there’s a handy, handheld Black & Decker agitator that rattles the branches.
These Ugolino boys were doing it the old-fashioned way!
That’s low-tech compared to a state-of-the-art droid that takes a hold of the tree trunk, does a little boogie woogie (maybe the trees quite like it), gathers all the falling fruit on its retractable, corrugated blanket, cleans it and deposits it in a box, good to go!
If you’re going to have trees on your golf course, you might as well make money out of them, right? Like many of Northern Italy's courses, Golf dell'Ugolino is peppered with olive trees.
A tight, tough dogleg to get you started. The 1st tee at Ugolino,
FOREIGN INVASION
It was the Brits that first brought golf to Florence and indeed Italy in 1889. Tuscany was hugely popular with upper-class English along with a smattering of crusty French and snootful Germans. A third of the population of Florence was said to have been foreigners for much of the 19th century and they had a penchant for buying up property and whisking away anything of value such as paintings and sculptures.
ITALY’S FIRST CLUB
From start to finish, this course throws a lot at you. The 18th at Golf dell'Ugolino
But in this instance, they gave something back in the form of Italy’s first golf club! Florence Golf Club was originally an 8-hole affair built on land belonging to the philanthropic Russian princess Elena Demidoff. That’s now buried below Florence Airport!
It may look short on the card but Ugolino is deceptively challenging, often tight with trees, nearly always undulating and requesting every shot in the book.
SEVE’S SPECTACULAR SAVE
The club had the honour of hosting the 40th Italian Open in 1983 when Bernard Langer, Severiano Ballesteros and Ken Brown were tied for the lead leaving the likes of Greg Norman, Sam Torrance, Sandy Lyle and Costantino Rocca in their trail.
Small uphill greens are a constant challenge.
Having won the Masters only two weeks before, the young Spaniard arrived at the last hole (the current 9th) two shots behind Langer and Brown. A par 5 of about 450 meters, he needed an eagle to go into a playoff. His second shot flew the green like a wayward cuckoo!
Seve’s plaque at the 9th hole.
As he made his address, he told the gallery, “Please, silence! I have to make an eagle.” In typical Seve style, he took a nine iron, one look at the hole and knocked it in. Langer won the ensuing play-off but Seve’s spectacular ‘save’ earned him a commemorative plaque at the spot where he launched that historic chip.
THE RESTAURANT
There’s really no need to say much about Italy’s clubhouse fayre or indeed ambience. Like most things, they do everything oh so well!
Ugolino was particularly charming though! The old-style decor, the food and even the waiters have an aura of Italy’s Belle Époque. Suffice to say, we had another epic lunch, many thanks to Italy’s oldest and definitely one of its finest.
Another course ticked off and time to go home.
